Philip

I retired six years ago after serving as Head of Classics at three major independent schools. In each school I built up a thriving department, attracting many students to study Classical subjects; many of them went on to study Classics at university. I offer tuition in Latin and Ancient Greek to degree level.

Tutoring Experience

After gaining my degree at Oxford I taught for 34 years in independent schools, enjoying considerable success in ensuring that those who wanted to study Classics at a higher level gained places at prestigious universities; indeed nearly all who applied to Oxbridge were successful. I also have much experience in private tuition, both face to face and via Skype. During recent years I have taught adults in a Community College; classes have studied, purely for their own interest and not with a view to taking any examination, Greek Epic, Greek Myths in Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' and the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides. Some have studied Latin from scratch, making impressive progress and proving that it is never too late to learn a new language, however difficult!

Tutoring Approach

Teaching should be both a challenging and an enjoyable experience. The study of Latin and Greek requires great rigour and determination on the part of both teacher and student, but the rewards that accompany the study of these two difficult languages are immense and learning becomes a great adventure. At the end of each lesson it is my normal practice to ensure that the content of that lesson has been mastered and to set the student learning or written work, whether it be an essay, a context question or a linguistic exercise, which, when completed, I mark and discuss with the pupil. We can then proceed with confidence to the next stage.