English is right at the heart of your child's cultural and cognitive development. It establishes interests that go way beyond the constraints of any given syllabus, and allows them to explore the nature of human experience through others' eyes. The skills that are involved lay the foundations for success in all areas of academia - as well as in life. Through the study of literature, your child will learn to think critically about how language is being used, to write coherently and persuasively, to think in a way that is nuanced and sophisticated, to be comfortable with ambiguity and nuance, and to find confidence in asserting themselves in writing as well as in speech.

 

Teaching English well is hard. Understanding whether your child is being taught well is even harder.

It's no secret that, despite English being one of the most important subjects your child will study, for a non-specialist it is almost impossible to know whether your child is getting the support they need, or whether they're on track to do as well as they are able.

 

Often, failures only become apparent when it is too late - those points at which your child's progress is no longer being assessed by the person responsible for delivering their progress. Weaker teachers are incentivised to be generous in their feedback, because it allows them to avoid scrutiny. Externally examined assessments have a nasty way of sneaking up on parents - the child's teacher can't fudge them, and often they reflect a pronounced disparity between the feedback previously given and the results actually achieved. By the time the results come your child's teacher is no longer responsible for teaching them, but the results themselves will impact on your child for the rest of their life.

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Having taught across six different schools, and as a governor of one, I am an expert in the teaching of English Literature. Having run two of the most successful English Departments in both the country and world, I have an unrivalled breadth of expertise; I have taught thousands of hours of lessons, both online and in-person. I have supported dozens of families and I love what I do - I also take a lot of satisfaction in being able to work pro-bono, to support students from less privileged backgrounds. I understand that different children have different priorities and motivations, and have a proven track record of enabling them to get where they want to go.