Emily

Hi, I'm Emily and I have recently graduated with a 1st in English and Film and Television Studies from the University of Exeter. I've always been fascinated by the different ways in which stories can be told and affect the way we view the world, therefore English as a subject is deeply important to me. I've particularly enjoyed diving into the origins of literature and genre during my degree, which has allowed me to analyse texts in far more detail and share this skill with my students.

I absolutely love tutoring and find it highly rewarding to witness students grow in confidence and ability. I pride myself on creating an engaging and relaxed environment, meaning my students feel comfortable to ask for help and be honest about what areas they find challenging. I strongly believe everyone has the ability to succeed in English and it is a lack of confidence that holds many back, therefore one of my priorities is always to help cultivate a positive mindset in my students and show them their true potential.

Tutoring Experience

I have been tutoring in different capacities for the past four years. I started out working in a tutoring centre for children aged 4-14, helping them with English and Maths. I then worked at an 11+ tuition company as a tutor, which involved teaching classes of up to 15 children. Over the three years of my degree, I have privately tutored over 40 students in English Literature/Language, Film Studies and RE.

Tutoring Approach

I always tailor the tutoring to the specific student because we all learn differently. In our first lesson, I have a detailed discussion with the student to find out what areas of English/RE they are struggling with - skills, exam technique, specific texts/religions etc. - and figure out how we can work through these weaknesses together.

Many of my sessions follow the structure of looking at an exemplar answer, then planning and writing a response to a practise question together. Showing students exemplar answers is one of my favourite tools as it gives them an idea of what they need to do to meet the requirement of the mark scheme. I break down the paragraphs sentence by sentence, highlighting which assessment objectives have been met and explaining why.

When it comes to writing a response, I give students the options of writing everything themselves or having me write the first paragraph (explaining my thought process aloud as I go) to give them a guide for writing the second and third. I always maintain a dialogue while the student is writing: I give help whenever required and give running feedback on their successes and points for improvement.

More content based lessons for English could involve annotating poetry together, talking through my lists of key quotes for characters/themes or zooming in on important moments from the texts that could be referred to in the exam.

More content based sessions for RE are usually based around a powerpoint I create ahead of time to teach the student a new topic, followed by a quiz at the end to check understanding.

I am happy to mark students' work outside of lesson time and send my revision resources for them to use too.