Michael

Michael specialises in English preparation for independent-school entrance examinations at 11+, 13+ and 16+. He is a fully qualified English teacher with 17 years’ experience in education: seven years at outstanding secondary schools in London and ten years working as a professional private tutor. As a whole-school literacy coordinator, he led literacy teaching across subjects, developing significant expertise in helping pupils interpret questions, organise ideas and communicate effectively. Michael’s knowledge of independent schools’ current assessments allows him to tailor each child’s preparation for the school’s requirements. His students have gained places at Harrow, Eton, Sevenoaks, Radley and Colchester Royal Grammar School, as well as winning scholarships to Brighton College and Forest School. His experience includes preparing pupils for the Eton scholarship English paper. Based in Brighton, Michael also has extensive experience with Brighton College’s application process and a 100% success rate with pupils he has prepared for its 11+, 13+ and 16+ entrance assessments.

One of Michael’s strengths is the way he makes unfamiliar entrance examinations clear and manageable for children and parents. He builds structured programmes around each pupil’s strengths and areas for development, teaching them to recognise different question types, interpret their wording and understand what a successful answer needs to demonstrate. Using clear learning targets, Michael models the thinking behind these effective responses, gradually reducing the scaffolding as pupils become more independent. Resources and targeted independent tasks are shared after each lesson so that pupils continue to apply and consolidate their learning at home, with clear guidance for parents on how to support this work.

An Owl Tutors parent whose son secured offers from Harrow and Radley described how Michael helped him move beyond gaps in comprehension and vocabulary to recognise subtleties in texts and organise his writing more effectively. The pupil said Michael had given him “the key which unlocked the necessary door”.

The same balance of explicit guidance and growing independence shapes Michael’s teaching of creative writing. Drawing on his master’s in creative writing from Goldsmiths, University of London, he helps pupils turn original ideas into engaging, carefully structured writing while developing confidence in their own voice. The parent of an 11+ pupil preparing for Brighton College described his creative-writing course as “well organised and goal focused”, reporting significant improvement in a short time.

Alongside entrance preparation, Michael teaches GCSE and IGCSE English, A-level English Literature and IB English, with teaching experience across all the major exam boards. This breadth also informs his preparation of 16+ entrance candidates, who need to demonstrate increasingly mature reading and writing skills. He helps these students develop perceptive interpretations, explore ambiguity and evaluate a writer’s choices, shaping their ideas into persuasive, original arguments. At A-level, he develops these skills further, helping students sustain critical evaluations and engage confidently with sophisticated interpretations of their texts. His students regularly achieve A* grades, and many have secured places at their first-choice universities. Successes also include a student progressing from a predicted D to an achieved B following ten months of tuition.

Michael’s teaching is further informed by seven years of examining experience, including GCSE English and A-level English Literature with AQA, and the IB internal assessment. Michael’s strategy as a tutor is to makes the language of mark schemes concrete and usable: terms such as “sophisticated”, “perceptive”, “detailed” and “confident” can be difficult for students to translate into their own writing. Through modelled examples and explicit teaching, he shows students what these qualities look like and how to craft responses that demonstrate them. His students have achieved full marks in coursework and 159/160 across the two GCSE English Literature papers. Another progressed from a grade 5 in her GCSE English Literature mocks to a final grade 9 after beginning tuition shortly before Easter.

Underpinning this rigorous preparation is a calm, encouraging relationship with each pupil. Parents and students describe Michael as patient and invested in their progress. Alongside subject knowledge, he develops organisation, time management and practical exam strategies, helping pupils approach demanding work confidently and trust their own ideas.

Outside teaching, Michael enjoys sea-swimming, running on the Downs and writing short stories.