Online English Language Tutor Lauren

I have been an English teacher in a state secondary school for four years - through and since the coronavirus pandemic - and I have enjoyed every moment of it. There is something truly magical about those breakthrough moments with your students where you know that you have made a significant difference; they may not remember you, but they will remember that poem, that line, that skill.

Additionally, part of being a good teacher is being a good learner yourself, and I am always actively seeking knowledge - keeping up to date with alternative perspectives and pedagogical techniques. As a teacher and tutor I enjoy scaffolding learning with these new and bright ideas from across the literary sphere and teaching community.

Before my teacher training, I attended Lancaster University and completed my undergraduate degree in English Literature and Creative Writing. Whilst I studied a range of texts from different genres and eras, my specialist areas are poetry, Shakespeare, and postcolonialism - all of which are commonplace on GCSE curriculums - and where most usually write one dissertation in the final year, I elected to write two which covered topics of postcolonialism and the grotesque in translated works of fiction.

My areas of expertise are varied and detailed. I am thoroughly familiar with the AQA GCSE course, having taught the Power and Conflict cluster and studied the Love and Relationships cluster myself for my own GCSE exams.

Whilst I excel at teaching the literature texts of the above clusters, my particular teaching strength lies in teaching for the AQA English Language papers - creative writing, persuasive writing, and forming analytical arguments. I believe, and have seen within the classroom, that success in these areas comes from practice and near formulaic writing structures, and I am well equipped to lay the foundations of these skills and to teach these routines.

Furthermore, during my teacher training, one of my specialist areas was metacognition - the method of encouraging students to understand how they learn, and to ultimately become the masters of their own learning so that they can thrive in further education and beyond. These techniques are integral to my teaching and tutoring, and ultimately lead to success.