Tutor profile - Sara

Sara has nearly thirty years’ experience working as an English teacher in both state and independent secondary schools. She has extensive experience at preparing students for GCSE English Language and Literature exams as well as English Literature, Language and Language & Literature A Levels. As Head of KS3 English at a major independent school she has been responsible for creating and marking entrance papers as well as designing a contemporary and dynamic KS3 curriculum.

Sara has a degree in English Language & Literature from Oxford University and an MA in Creative Writing and Education from Goldsmiths University London. She gained her PGCE from Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent, having worked in the world of publishing children’s books for fifteen years before then. She has maintained an interest in the power of literature and creative writing as invaluable stepping stones to strong academic achievement.

As a skilled classroom teacher, she has experience teaching a range of neurodiverse students and is particularly interested in helping pupils who struggle to feel comfortable in a conventional classroom setting reach their full potential. Sara has also taught Drama and has often found drama games and text transformation a useful way to engage students who struggle with text on the page.

Sara has also taught KS3 History, has prepared pupils for the 11+ and works for ISEB, setting and designing exam papers. As an academic tutor of secondary age pupils for many years, Sara understands the importance of forging respectful, reliable relationships with students, particularly at stressful times, such as the sitting of public exams and making choices for future academic steps.

AQA, OCR, Edexcel both Language and Literature GCSEs.
Fiction taught: Of Mice and Men, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice. OCR and Edexcel Anthologies.
Shakespeare: Macbeth; Romeo and Juliet
Poetry: Wide range. Poetry of World War One, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Blake, Keats. Contemporary collections from OCR, AQA and Edexcel
Unseen poetry preparation

Non-Fiction: unseen preparation. Spoken word study

Transactional writing: speeches, letters, blogs, leaflets, articles, reviews, reports etc
Creative writing: imaginative writing modules

English Language: all modules - Paper 1: non-fiction anthology Section 1 and unseens, transactional writing. Paper 2: Prose and Poetry Anthology Section 2 and imaginative writing.

English Literature: Paper 1: Poetry and Prose: Of Mice and Men, Anthology Section 3 and unseen preparation. Paper 2: Macbeth and An Inspector Calls

English Literature
AQA (2003) - Keats collection and Othello
Edexcel - Othello, King Lear, Hamlet. Streetcar Named Desire, Oleanna. Keats, John Donne, Metaphysical poets, Poems of the Decade, unseen poetry
Coursework texts: The Great Gatsby, Atonement, Mrs Dalloway, Rapture (Carol Ann Duffy)

English Language and Literature
Edexcel: Spoken word study. Voices in Speech and Writing Anthology and unseen non-fiction analysis. Streetcar Named Desire. Othello and The Great Gatsby. A variety of coursework texts: Atonement, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, 1000 Splendid Suns, Why be happy when you could be normal, Toast etc. Creative writing (fiction and non-fiction) for coursework and skills for the analytical commentary.