Helen

I am a 38 year old fully qualified secondary English teacher. I graduated from the University of Manchester in 2009 with a BA(Hons) English Literature (2:1) and completed my PGDipED teacher training course at the University of Birmingham in 2012. In 2014, I completed a Masters degree in Teaching Studies, also at the University of Birmingham.

I am currently teaching both English Language and English Literature full time at a high school in Birmingham and I have worked as a GCSE examiner for AQA, Edexel and OCR.

I live in Sutton Coldfield and have two young children aged 4 and 10 months old.

Tutoring Experience

I have a wide range of experience working with children and young people including:

Summer 2010: I worked as an English Teacher at a summer camp in Spain, teaching English to a class of 12-13 year olds.
Jan 2011 - July 2011: I worked for a teaching agency as a Cover Supervisor, covering lessons for absent teachers in a number of schools around Birmingham.
July 2011: I worked as an Activity Instructor for Super Camps at King Edwards School, Edgbaston where I was responsible for a group of seven 6-7 year olds, supervising and co-ordinating their arts and crafts and sporting activities.
Sept 2011-June 2012: I completed my Post Graduate Diploma in Education at the University of Birmingham which involved lectures and seminars at the University and two full time teaching placements.
Sept 2012 - present date: I am currently working full time as an English teacher at a secondary school in Birmingham and so have the perfect insight into the English curriculum to provide accurate and advanced subject knowledge and exam tips for my tutees.

I have marked both GCSE English Literature and GCSE Language exam papers for AQA, OCR and Edexcel and as a result of this can provide tutees with a detailed insight into exam board requirements including tried and tested strategies for exam success.

Tutoring Approach

I have been working as a one-to-one tutor through FirstTutors since 2011, offering tutees friendly and personalised English Language/English Literature support including targeted exam preparation techniques and advice.

I always ensure I am able to dedicate the time to offer truly personalised support to each of my tutees so that they are guaranteed to receive the full benefit of my focus and expertise. As a result of this, I have built up a range of positive recommendations and have had individual tutees stay with me for many years including one student who I tutored from year 8-year 11 and another all the way through her GCSEs and A-levels.

My friendly and supportive demeanor has helped me build a positive rapport with my tutees and my qualifications and experience enable me to provide them with advanced subject knowledge and a detailed insight into exam requirements to facilitate rapid and sustained progress.

The safety and well-being of my students is of upmost importance to me and so since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic I have been offering classes only via Zoom and Skype and have reduced the price of online lessons in comparison to face to face to reflect the fact I will no longer need to take into account travel time an costs. Through online lessons I am still able to develop a great rapport with students, read and mark their work which has been submitted to me and offer personalised advice.

Now that restrictions have relaxed I will be going back to face to face lessons if students and parents would prefer this.