Tony

I am a passionate English teacher from Nottingham, though originally I am from Newcastle upon Tyne. I love English literature, Newcastle United and cricket. Most of all I love teaching and education. I have been a teacher for twenty years. I’m happily married, with adorable twin 6 year old girls and we live in the West Bridgford area.
English language, English literature and the teaching these subjects are my passion. I am interested in the pedagogy of teaching and I endeavour to use the latest teaching ideas and methods to enable me to improve my practice and the overall learning experience of my students. In essence, it's all about the teaching of my students and being the best teacher I can possibly be. Teaching English allows me to assist students and help them reach their true potential. All I want is success for every student I teach. The best day of the year is exam results day and seeing my students happy when they receive their results and see what they have achieved.
Although I cannot guarantee success, I'll do all it takes to help my students achieve the success of which they crave and need for their future careers.

Tutoring Experience

I am a Lead Practitioner in English in a very successful school in Nottinghamshire. Previous to that I was an English teacher and literacy co-ordinator in a successful English department in a secondary school in Derbyshire.
During my 23 years I have taught a huge number GCSE and A-level English (AQA Syllabus A) classes. My groups always score highly in their results and I consider myself an expert in assisting students to achieve at least their target grade in their exams in English language and English literature. In addition I have taught numerous KS3 classes and they have been extremely successful too.
In addition to this, I have been an assistant examiner for OCR for the GCSE English Literature drama paper from 2006 to 2012 and marked on 10 exam series in that time. I will be an AQA examiner for the summer 2022 exam series.
I have also tutored students in Nottingham since June 2009.
Over the years I have built up a huge amount of texts and English study guides and I now own a huge library which are available for any of my future tutees to borrow.
Some of the texts I have taught within the last five years include:
- 'Macbeth', 'Much Ado About Nothing', 'The Taming of the Shrew', 'Othello' and 'Romeo and Juliet' by William Shakespeare
- 'Of Mice and Men' by John Steinbeck
- 'A View From the Bridge' and 'Death of a Salesman' by Arthur Miller
- 'The Withered Arm and other Wessex Tales' and the poetry of Thomas Hardy.
- 'Journey's End' by RC Sherriff
- 'Collected Poems' by Wilfred Owen
- 'An Inspector Calls' by JR Priestley
- 'Lord of the Flies' by William Golding
- 'Private Peaceful' by Michael Morpurgo
- 'Animal Farm' - George Orwell
- AQA poetry anthologies (Love and Relationships and Power and Conflict)
Obviously I have a wealth of knowledge and experience in studying, marking and teaching many other authors, poets and playwrights.
Finally, having planned and organised theatre trips, I have been the lead teacher on several occasions including visits to The Old Vic and The Globe in London, the Lyceum and Crucible in Sheffield and the Theatre Royal and the Playhouse in Nottingham.

Tutoring Approach

I like to make my teaching interactive and fun. My sessions will take the form of an interactive lesson something similar to that of which I teach on a daily basis at school. Each session will be tailored around the specific English curriculum of your child's school. I will also provide you with a suggested learning programme to enable you to see the long term goals of my tutoring sessions. As I stated above, I am extremely interested in the pedagogy of teaching and I endeavour to use the latest teaching ideas and methods to enable me to improve my practice and the overall learning experience of my students.
I am willing to teach individuals, pairs or small groups.