Hi! I’m an English tutor with five years of experience working with IGCSE students. Creative writing is probably my favourite area because small changes to vocabulary or sentence length can completely alter a piece. My lessons are quite conversational and I ask plenty of questions rather than giving students an interpretation to copy. We also spend time editing old work, which is often more useful than simply writing another essay from scratch.

I’ve taught IGCSE English for nine years, with most of my work centred on helping students turn thoughtful ideas into well-structured essays. Literature is the part I enjoy most, especially poetry and short prose extracts where every word matters. I tend to annotate texts alongside the student, then step back and let them build the argument. Near exams, we work under timed conditions and compare responses closely with the assessment criteria.

My background is in linguistics, and I’ve spent seven years tutoring IGCSE English privately. I particularly enjoy language analysis because it gives students a reason to look closely at how individual words and sentence structures influence a reader. Grammar also comes up regularly in my sessions, but always through actual writing rather than isolated exercises. For exam preparation, I focus on selecting evidence efficiently and developing analysis beyond the obvious point.

Before moving into education, I worked in journalism and editing, where clear writing and careful use of evidence were part of the job every day. I’ve now taught IGCSE English for six years. I’m especially useful for students whose essays contain good ideas but wander away from the question. We practise planning quickly, choosing quotations and cutting unnecessary sentences. I also enjoy teaching non-fiction because there is so much to discuss about audience and purpose.

I’m a qualified English teacher with more than eight years of secondary classroom experience and several years of one-to-one IGCSE tuition. My sessions usually combine close reading, discussion and written practice. Drama is a particular interest of mine, and I encourage students to think about dialogue as something performed rather than simply printed on a page. When marking, I give focused feedback on a few recurring issues instead of covering the page in corrections.

I came to tutoring through publishing and have now worked with IGCSE English students for four years. Editing remains one of my favourite things to teach. We’ll often take an average paragraph and work through it line by line, looking at clarity, structure and whether the evidence actually supports the point being made. I’m quite relaxed in lessons, but vague words rarely escape unnoticed! Past-paper practice is introduced gradually rather than left until exam season.