Tutor profile - Grace

Grace attended The Haberdashers' Aske's School, before going on to read Italian and English Literature at Edinburgh University, where she graduated with an Upper Second. After teaching English in Greece, Grace took her Postgraduate Certificate of Education (Secondary English and Drama) at Cambridge University. Grace's long career in education began at a selective maintained school (Watford Grammar). Since then, she has worked at Headmasters' Conference Schools in the United Kingdom (Wrekin College), Australia (The Scots College, Sydney) Spain (King's College, Madrid) and Brazil (St. Paul's School, Sao Paulo).

Grace was also Acting Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher at St. Paul's School and was also headteacher of The English School, Nicosia, another HMC school, where Grace wrote all the UCAS references for the school's Upper Sixth Formers and had a particular focus on preparing students for Oxbridge, Ivy League or British medical school entrance. Other schools where Grace was head were The British International School of Casablanca, Shattuck-St.Mary's Forest City International School and The American International School of Rotterdam. Grace is familiar with both British and American methods of university application.

Grace is a very 'well-read' English teacher, with a wide and deep knowledge of classic texts all the way back to Chaucer. Whilst her interests are broad, she has a particular enthusiasm for the drama of the sixteenth and seventeenth century, notably Shakespeare and Marlowe. She takes great pleasure in helping students to see the plays of the period as pieces to be performed in lively theatres. Having enjoyed some excellent teaching herself, Grace does not want to overwhelm students with excessive and often unnecessary detail about the context of the past. Rather, she seeks, through persistent, patient questioning, to build on what a student already knows about the texts, filling in with key, memorable details. In this way, a student finds her or his confidence grows and thus, a major hurdle to examination success is overcome.

Grace's experience as a Politics teacher derives from her life-long interest and participation in the field. A long-time member of a political party, she has also campaigned and participated in hustings. As with her views on literature being valuable for making a life worth living, Graham believes that a lively interest and as much participation as possible in the political process are part of being an active, informed citizen and enjoying what is best about living in a liberal democracy.