Sean

I have been teaching since 1992 - schools, universities, as a private tutor. I particularly enjoy tutoring, as it allows much greater engagement and flexibility than teaching in an institution. Indeed, a significant number of my social media friends are old students - some of them now older than I was when we first met!

I am also an examiner in History and in Latin for the OCR Board. This gives me an insight into how students need to approach their examinations.

Otherwise, I am married, with one daughter, and we all live together in a house where Nelson is said once to have slept with Emma Hamilton.

Tutoring Experience

My first degree was from the University of York, and I have a PhD from Middlesex University. I have 25 years of teaching experience, in schools and universities, in Britain and abroad.

My main subjects are Latin, Greek, and Classical Civilisation - to GCSE, A-Level and university level. I also teach History and Economics.

I am also an examiner in History and in Latin for the OCR Board. This gives me an insight into how students need to approach their examinations.

I have full enhanced DBS clearance (CRB check). This is registered with the British Government for continuous updates. I also have a recognised qualification in safeguarding. I always show a copy of the certificates at a first meeting.

Tutoring Approach

My general approach is to teach via examination practice. Students judge themselves and are judged by how they perform in the examination. My job is to improve that performance. This means an emphasis on past examination papers.

I am able to teach courses from scratch. Most schools no longer teach Greek or Latin at all. In this case, I deliver the whole course, and I arrange examination entries, either with a student’s school or directly with the examination boards. More commonly, students come to me because they have, for whatever reason, not derived full benefit from the teaching at their main institution. In this case, my job is to supplement that teaching and to improve the chance of a good final grade.

Where Greek and Latin are concerned, my approach is to emphasise reading skills in the relevant language. I believe that a student progresses best by reading aloud to a teacher and translating. The teaching of grammar and vocabulary then focus on the specific difficulties that arise. If you want to learn French, your best approach is to go and live in France for a few months. If you want to learn the ancient languages, this option is out. Instead, you read and read and read. You read from past examination papers, from the books of adapted extracts, from the unadapted set texts. Where these last are concerned, there may be too little time for other than matching up the texts to the English translations given by your teacher – that is what most students do. But, when the time is available, I do urge and help students to read set texts in the original language. This generally leads to a better mark in the examination. It also makes the unseen translations very easy.

With the disruption to normal teaching caused by the Coronavirus shutdown, I am available to help students to keep up with their school work. This must, of course, be on-line. Because of my long experience of teaching students on-line – students come to me from all over the country, and indeed the world – I am already used to the main platforms, such as Skype, Hangouts, Zoom, etc. With some initial guidance from the teacher for those not already used to it, on-line teaching works well for most subjects. In my experience, it can work better for the ancient languages than face-to-face contact.

Try this for yourself. The first lesson is always free, with no obligation to continue.

Do also bear in mind that, while you will be given assessed grades in 2020 for GCSE and A-Level, you may not agree with these. In that case, you should be able to sit your examinations in September 2020. I can help prepare you for these. After all, very few of us will chance a summer holiday this year!