Literature
Make the story matter.Before we worry about an essay, let's understand the people, relationships and ideas inside the story. Once you've genuinely got something to say about a character, writing about them becomes much easier.
Online English Tuition
English is more than something to write paragraphs about.
I love English. I love disappearing into a book, seeing the world through somebody else's eyes and discovering what a writer can do with a few carefully chosen words. My job is to help pupils find something worth saying — and then give them the confidence and skills to say it well.
KS2 → KS3 → GCSE
English that grows with the pupil
Language & Literature
Skills, texts and exam preparation
Reading & Writing
Understand it. Then express it.
100% one-to-one
Every lesson with Dan
I want the words to come alive.
It's difficult to fall in love with a novel when you've been allocated it at school and your first thought has to be, “How many paragraphs do I need to write about this?”
I want books to feel like stories again and characters to feel like people. I want poetry to become something we can take apart and investigate, finding the clever choices and hidden meanings a writer has left for us to discover.
You don't have to love every book or poem. You can disagree with me, dislike a character or see something differently. Your ideas matter. The interesting bit is working out why you think what you think — and learning how to support it.
Three sides of English
Read it. Discover it. Create it.
English isn't one skill. Sometimes we're stepping into somebody else's world; sometimes we're looking closely at how a writer built it; and sometimes you get to create the world yourself.
Poetry
Find what's hiding underneath.Poetry can be wonderfully clever. We'll investigate why a writer chose that particular word, why a line changes direction, what patterns we can spot and what might be hiding beneath the obvious meaning.
Creative Writing
You're the author now.You decide what happens. You control what the reader sees, knows and feels. We'll use language deliberately to turn something that exists in your imagination into something another person can see too.
First, have something to say.
Then let's learn how to make the language do exactly what you want it to do.
Writing with confidence
SPaG matters. But it isn't the starting point.
Spelling, punctuation and grammar absolutely matter. But I don't want a pupil's first thought while they're creating to be, “I need to put a semicolon in because my teacher told me to.”
Find the idea
What do you actually want to say, show or make your reader feel? Let's start there rather than with a checklist.
Take control
Choose your words, structure and details because they do something useful — not simply because you've been told to include them.
Make it stronger
Then we polish it. Accuracy and technique should help your ideas land clearly, not get in the way of having them.
And yes, we still have to pass the exam.
Enjoying English and preparing properly for an exam aren't opposites. Once you've actually got something to say about a character, poem or extract, we can work on turning those ideas into the kind of clear, well-supported response the examiner is looking for.
We'll practise choosing useful quotations, zooming in on language, explaining what it suggests and then pushing the idea further — without turning every answer into a paragraph learned by heart.
Your weekly English space
Bring me what's happening this week.
English changes constantly at school. That's exactly why a regular one-to-one lesson can be so useful.
Studying a book that isn't making sense?
Bring it. We can slow down, work out what's actually happening and find something in the characters or ideas that gives you a way into the text.
Got an essay or assessment coming up?
Bring that too. We can work on planning, finding evidence and turning your own ideas into a response that answers the question properly.
Writing creatively this week?
Great. Let's forget the formula for a moment, use your imagination and create something worth reading — then we'll make the writing as strong as we can.
Let's find something worth saying.
Whether English currently feels exciting, confusing or simply like another subject you have to get through, bring me what you're working on and we'll take it from there.
Get in touch with Dan