Emma

I currently teach English and English Literature at a top boys` independent school in North London. I previously worked at a boarding school in Kent.

I am 30 years old and graduated from the University of Warwick with an honours degree in English and Theatre Studies. My particular specialisms are Renaissance theatre and Romantic poetry, but after teaching pupils between the ages of 11-18 for the last few years and tutoring/marking for many different exam boards, I consider myself an expert in many fields and very comfortable with the set texts provided by different exam boards.

I believe that English teaching is very much about discussion and I do have an expectation that my student will be willing to engage and discuss and debate as much as possible. Neither English nor English Literature are subjects that can be taught by "spoon feeding", but instead require practice and detailed analysis. This is the reason why I love the subject - it is not about right/wrong answers, but about consideration of many factors.

As a tutor, I will be happy to mark work in a timely fashion (I have plenty of experience in this area!) and will prepare for sessions in a lot of detail, but I will expect my tutees to put in work outside of lessons (for example researching topics, reading a text or portion of a text or maybe writing timed essays for me to mark especially at higher levels) so that we can work together effectively.

I consider myself good-humoured and quite relaxed - I don`t think any of my pupils would describe me as scary! That said, they have all known that there was an expectation that they would work hard and in return I would work hard for them.

Availability: Evening and weekend availability - contact me for details.

Willing to travel: 20 miles

Experience: I have taught in two schools since I graduated - a boarding school in Kent and I currently teach at a top all boys` independent school in North London. At both schools, I have taught both the CIE IGCSE course and the AQA GCSE course for English and English Literature, but I am familiar with other syllabuses from tutoring and exploring other options with my department. I also teach OCR A-level (I also took OCR A level myself in 2008) and as my current school has maintained AS exams, I am familiar with this course at every level.

I work for the Cambridge exam board (OCR and CIE) and have examined the CIE IGCSE English paper (ie the Language paper), CIE Pre-U English Literature and OCR A2 English Literature on many occasions. I have also examined AQA GCSE English Language. I consider all of my examining experience to be extremely valuable as I am able to offer a particular insight into how these are marked externally.

I have taught pupils of very different levels: pupils with English as a second language and pupils where just passing their English with a C grade is a real struggle, to Oxbridge candidates and pupils who are A* standard from the opening of the course. I have an excellent track record of class teaching grades and I have always offered tutoring as part of my teaching service.

While my prices may be considered steep, it is because I am a teacher and an examiner rather than just a graduate.