Rebecca

About Me

I'm an experienced English teacher with a proven track record in securing student progress at KS2-KS3 and GCSE. I have been working in education for 18 years and teaching for 16, with experience across the whole of England.

As an English and Linguistics graduate, my strengths lie in the teaching of grammar, creative writing and critical thinking. I also have thorough experience in creating and delivering creative and accessible units for literature with outstanding results.

My approach is to embed 'threshold skills' to enable students to tackle exams without feeling pressured and without 'teaching to the test'. By taking a creative and inventive approach, I embed in students the necessary skills for responding to short answers, crafting essays and independently tackling unseen and seen texts. This equips them with the skills they need not only for examinations, but also for the outside world after school, and so is more valuable and 'learning by rote' or drilling them with an unnecessary amount of stand-alone information. I use a range of techniques, including visual stimuli, verbal prompts, collaborative and reciprocal reading and kinaesthetic activities.

First and foremost, I want my students to enjoy their education - I find that once this happens, they are much better at tackling the obstacles that are exams head-on with minimal stress, thereby enjoying the process rather than fearing it.

I am particularly passionate about the achievement of students recognised as Gifted and Talented - these students are often overlooked at school, or pile the pressure onto themselves - my approach is to work with these students at a level more suited to their ability, to stretch and challenge them without pressure, to encourage them to love literature and language by digging into texts they find stimulating and exciting.