Philippa

English and Reasoning for a student aged 10-12 (two and a half year residential)

I worked with a family in Turkey, tutoring their daughter from the age of 10 until she was 12. I helped her successfully get into NLCS Dubai where she is very happy and we still do occasional online lessons to help her catch up where she is missing work in school. Her main difficulties were in catching up to an English curriculum, as she had a lot of holes in her knowledge from the Turkish curriculum. We spent a lot of time reading and doing vocabulary quizzes, as well as learning the English words for maths terminology. She was not familiar at all with the reasoning subjects and so we used to do a lot of short practices in verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning.

11+ Preparation

I worked with a boy who was dealing with severe anxiety taking the 11+. I took a relaxed, calm, fun approach with him and he was able to successfully sit his exams. He struggled with getting questions wrong so we spent a lot of time trying to build resilience and confidence. He ended up getting into all of the schools that he applied for.

13+ Preparation

I worked with a girl who is a keen writer but had not been taught how to use inferential skills when analysing texts, which is a crucial step when readying for GCSE. Additionally, when we started working together, her grammar and spelling needed a lot of work, and her sentences would run on for a whole paragraph. I wanted to make sure we kept up her love of creative writing while teaching her some structural rules needed to make her work flow properly. We used to plan stories together and then, each time she wrote a paragraph, we would edit it together, focusing on clarity and grammar. Gradually, she started inputting this structure into her first drafts, and her grammar and spelling are getting closer to catching up with her imagination.

English GCSE (home schooling)

I worked with a girl who was entirely home schooled, and she was late to start her English GCSE (language and literature). We were very focused in the time we had and I made sure she had a great understanding of what the mark scheme required of her, as well as being thoroughly comfortable with the texts she was studying. She ended up getting grades 9 in both subjects.

English GCSE

I worked with a boy online who really struggled with English and felt very unconfident. We focused on understanding the plot of the texts he was studying, reading sections together and then annotating and making notes for analysis. Gradually, he developed the confidence to write paragraphs. I took a step-by-step approach as he was anxious about attempting GCSE questions and needed to build up his sense of assurance.

English Literature A Level

I worked with a girl on Othello, which was part of her AQA syllabus. She was a meticulous learner but struggled with the meaning of Shakespeare’s language. We broke down the text into small chunks and worked line-by-line to decipher what the extracts she was writing about actually meant. Reading the text aloud helped, and I encouraged her to watch a production of the play, which was a useful learning tool. We spent time on the wider themes and plot, but also zeroed in on language devices, so that she could write a broad but detailed essay when it came to the exam.

EPQ support

I helped a student working on a Politics EPQ question, exploring data. This is not my area of expertise but she needed support on structuring the essay and notes on her writing style. We took a collaborative approach, messaging throughout the week about her essay and setting up fairly spontaneous zooms to talk through sections. She was able to craft the essay with my feedback to express her points very clearly and it was a very strong piece.