Zahra

I am a professional, multi-skilled and highly qualified teacher who hopes to build on the experience I have gained through working in both the independent and state grammar sector, as well as experience as an educational researcher, by gaining employment as a secondary school teacher in an academically thriving environment. I am qualified to teach English Language and English Literature across the 11-18 year old range and am keen to support the personal and academic development of children in secondary education. Additionally, I have developed expertise in literacy development and EAL support.

Tutoring Experience

In my post at Greenacre School for Girls, I encouraged progress and high attainment through engaging and challenging teaching which involved: incorporation of multimodal digital resources, cross-curricular debate and active wider reading. Additionally, I demonstrated outstanding relations with girls of various cultural backgrounds and language profiles due to my expertise in EAL teaching and my bilingual skills. In my post at Wallington High School for Girls I also created opportunities for A Level students to become literacy mentors to students in KS3. This involved: holding training sessions, creating resources for peer mentors to teach to younger students, developing a tracking system for progress and liaising with colleagues to enhance higher education and career development opportunities.

In addition to teaching both AQA English Literature and English Language (both old and new specifications), OCR GCSE, CIE iGCSE and WJEC A Level English Language and Literature, I have also helped to teach aspects of the AQA Extended Project. This has enabled me to demonstrate my flexibility in working on a one to one basis with students and foster their individual passions and strengths. Development of my strengths as an English Tutor were evident in my post at Kip McGrath Tuition Centre where I taught groups of up to four students from across the KS3 - KS5 range in preparation for examinations, or to target specific areas of weakness. Across all three establishments, I significantly raised grade profiles for GCSE and A Level students studying both English Language and English Literature. Notably, my year 11 students at Wallington achieved 100% grades A* - B in their GCSE English Language and English Literature examinations and my Year 10 students gained 100% A* - B in their English Language and English Literature controlled assessments. Additionally, fifteen out of twenty girls in my year 11 set at Greenacre School secured grades A*-A in English Literature, contributing to a record for the best GCSE English results at the school since 2012.

In my role as English teacher at Bridgewater School, I played a highly active role in contributing to the department’s innovations in assessment through constructive teamwork. I created resources across all three key stages, incorporating regular assessment opportunities for more efficient tracking of progress. Of particular note was my development of the English Language A Level provision at the school for which I arranged training for staff members, extra-curricular opportunities for students and creation of a rich resource bank. I significantly raised attainment for several GCSE students and three A Level English Language students who were consequently able to take up their university offers. Additionally, I assisted in UCAS applications, including Oxbridge entry. As an active member of the National Association for the Teachers of English (NATE), I was fortunate enough to contribute to the English department’s widening professional development through regularly attending courses and conferences. Within this post, I also tutored EAL students, mainly from China, to develop their English speaking, reading and writing skills. This involved creating resources and liaising with IELTS specialists. For subject enrichment, I organised school excursions for theatre productions at local theatres to enhance the study of texts at KS3 and KS4.

Tutoring Approach

I offer a truly personalised tuition programme which involves tracking progress through weekly assessments. These assessments are based on national curriculum and external examination criteria. I provide a wealth of secure teaching resources which have been sourced from years of experience in the teaching profession as well as exclusive resources from the University of Cambridge where I gained a distinction in English Education. Additionally, I provide assessment progress using IELTS criteria for those who are following an English as an Additional Language programme.