• 11+ English and Maths: ISEB and public school exams, including pre-tests.
• 13+ English, Latin and Ancient Greek: ISEB and public school entrance exams
• GCSE/IGCSE Latin and Ancient Greek (All exam boards)
• 16+ Latin: public school entrance exams
• A-level Latin (All exam boards)
I am an Oxford-educated tutor and a qualified teacher, with five years of experience teaching in independent schools, as well as several years experience of private tutoring. After completing my Classics degree, I took a teaching post at Brentwood School, where I taught Latin, Ancient Greek and Classical Civilisation throughout the 11-18 age range, as well as teaching English as a Foreign Language. I was heavily involved in the school’s Gifted and Talented programme, ensuring that the school’s most able students were catered for both inside and outside the classroom; we devised a comprehensive and very successful system of challenges and rewards based on each child’s interests. I was part of the Oxbridge entry team, conducting mock interviews and providing advice and support to applicants, and I ran Junior Art Club, Junior Classics Club and yoga sessions for Year 8 girls. I also completed my GTP, an on-the-job teaching qualification, granting me Qualified Teacher Status. Having spent three years at Brentwood, I moved to Forest School, where, again, I taught Latin, Greek and Classical Civilisation to pupils aged between 11 and 18, with numerous GCSE and A-level classes. Here I was involved in an initiative to raise the aspirations of very bright but underprivileged girls from the London Borough of Newham, who would be invited to the school for inspiring academic sessions and taken on trips on Saturdays. I ran the Linguistics component of this initiative. I also took part in Oxbridge entry activities, conducted several targeted exam revision sessions and ran Junior Drama Club. I have also hosted learning sessions for children at the British Museum, and have taught Ancient Greek at the JACT Summer School at Bryanston on three occasions, one year co-directing the Greek tragedy Bacchae in the original language.
Over the course of my tutoring career, I have taken on a wide range of roles. Many have been focussed on upcoming entrance exams: I have, for example, prepared students for entry to St. Paul’s (Boys and Girls), Eton, Winchester, Rugby and City of London School for Girls to name just a few. I have also helped prepare students for GCSE and A-level exams in Latin, English and History. Other roles have been broader. I took over the education of a 7/8 year old girl whose parents had taken her out of school to travel for two six week periods in consecutive years, liaising with her teachers back in London, and ensuring she would be up to speed with her class on her return. I lived in Moscow for three months teaching English as a Foreign Language to students aged between 8 and 14, as well as preparing some of them in all subjects required for entry into top UK schools. I also lived in Paris for one year, teaching English as a Foreign Language in a small school of English to pupils aged between 3 and 15.
In terms of pre-tests, I recommend building up a thorough knowledge of the 11+ Maths and English syllabus and focussing as much as possible on comprehension, grammar and cloze procedure and mental arithmetic and word problems. I use a variety of activities to target the time pressured nature of the tests and problem solving.