Edward - Finsbury Park tutor





Edward's profile picture

Information About Edward:


Personal Description:

Hi! My name's Ed. I read Classics at Cambridge before going on to train at the Bristol Old Vic. I'm now working as a professional actor in London.

I tutor in English, and all areas of Latin and Ancient Greek. If it's of interest, I particularly specialized in my finals papers on Homer, Virgil, Horace, and the evolution of tragedy.

Though I read Classics, a large chunk of my finals actually ended up being part of the English course - specifically tracing the origins of tragedy through to the present day. As an actor, too, I'm continually having to familiarize myself with new areas of literature, be it poetry, drama, or prose, with the advantage, I hope, of an extremely practical approach.



Teaching Experience:

Overall, I've found it best to keep a balance between tutoring English and Classics. I like to be teaching a range of things.

When moving to Bristol I was lucky enough to be offered a part-time teaching post with the Classics department at Clifton College. Over the two years I primarily taught A level language work in Greek and Latin, as well as coaching their prospective candidates for Oxford and Cambridge.

I've also done a lot of free-lancing in all sorts of areas for both English and Classics, tutoring Oxbridge applicants as well as students at both school and university level.

The work I've done with my tutees has varied widely. In Latin and Greek, I've assisted some specifically in translating set texts both at school and university level (I'm now very familiar with the OCR Latin syllabus); I've introduced others, who wished to explore beyond their prescribed syllabus, to new areas of literature; and with others I've worked on more wide-ranging ways to deepen literary analysis or approach translation.

I should probably add that my language work with school students has almost exclusively involved tackling the inadequacies of the confounded Cambridge Latin Course! This seems to be taught in virtually every school but seemingly never elects to teach grammar, which I find utterly bizarre. If you're a victim of this clueless course I'm more than happy to help!

In terms of English tuition, I've been fortunate enough to have a similarly broad range of tutees, at GCSE, A level, and university standard, though a high proportion have been Oxbridge candidates.

Some references from previous tutees below:

Naomi, A Level Latin and Greek (2013)

Ed,

Sorry it's so early but I just thought I'd let you know I got my Cambridge grades! Thank you so much for everything once again!

Neirin, Latin GCSE (2013)

Hello Ed. We are so delighted with Neirin's results, absolutely fabulous. And who would have thought - an A star in Latin! Thank you for all your effort and encouragement. He couldn't have done it without you. Enjoy the rest of the summer and good luck with the writing.

Katie, Oxbridge Ancient Greek (2013)

Ed's work with Katie has been completely outstanding. I think we were asking for something quite demanding, a combination of literature and language, with inspiration to boot, and he delivered it superbly. Katie was super-enthused by his approach. I think they both thoroughly enjoyed the classes (indeed from the sound of it I would have enjoyed them myself!) Ed has a combination of intellect, passion and (as far as I can judge) a real feel for the texts!

Zac, Scholarship Latin (2014)

Ed has been tutoring our 11 year old for Latin scholarship papers. In 5 sessions he has taken him to a new level and has totally inspired him! We can't recommend him highly enough!...

ADELAIS, APPLIED TO READ ENGLISH AT OXFORD

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Adelais
Date: 21 December 2010 15:11
Subject:
To: Ed <>


Hi Ed,

I got in! Unconditional offer from St John's, Oxford! Thank you for all your help; it was invaluable! And please thank Joan again for me.

Happy Xmas and all the best,

Adelais

EMILY, LATIN GCSE AND AS

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Louise
Date: 23 August 2011 12:15
Subject: Latin
To: Edward <>


To Ed,

Thank you so much for all your help and support over this past year it has been amazing and such a help to me. In my AS Latin I did get an A in the end which I am very pleased with but now I obviously have to work a little bit harder for my A2, once again thank you so much for your help and I hope you have an amazing time in London.

Thank you so much,

Emily


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Louise
Date: 24 August 2010 20:08
Subject: RE: GCSE Results
To: Edward <>


Hey Ed,

Only Emily here to tell you that apparently all the force-fed grammar worked because I got an A* in Latin J
Thank you very much for your help, it really was useful to me.
I go back to school on September 8th, so perhaps we can set up a regular session shortly after that please?

Byee

Em

JOANNA, ENGLISH IGCSE (via Facebook)

18 August

Hey Ed!

You probably don't remember me, but you tutored me for English IGCSE a year ago! We did Journey's End

Anyway I just found out my result, and i got A* for both English Language and Literature, and whats more is I got 100% for both of them! So that was really amazing! I was so surprised!

Thank you so much for teaching me!

Joanna

SOPHIE, LATIN A2

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sophie
Date: 23 August 2010 21:48
Subject: Re: A Levels
To: Edward <>


Hiya Ed,

Thanks for the email ... got an A* in Philosophy and A's in Latin and English.

Thank you very much for all your help, couldn't have got the A without your tutoring.

Hope all goes well for you at theatre school and you're enjoying the summer.

Best wishes,

Sophie.


You're also welcome to get in touch with the Head of Classics at Clifton College, Mr Huntington, who employed me at the school between 2009 and 2011.



Tutoring Approach:

I think it's impossible to pin down a sure-fire method of effective tutoring for any given person. People are different, and different methods work with different people.

That said, I am a firm believer that you cannot simply speak at someone. Learning has to be an active process, and I think there has to be involvement from both sides for things to sink in. In this light, I do try to make things enjoyable, and also to limit shortcuts; I'm of the view that it's far better to invest the time in getting firmly to grips with a subject, be it an instance of grammar or literary concept. In the long run that is a shortcut in itself.



Map showing Edward's location

Qualifications:

  • BA (hons) Classics at St. John's College, Cambridge
  • 4 As at A level in History, English, Latin and Maths
  • 10 GCSEs: 8 A*s, 2 As

Further Information:

Availability:  Weekends / Weekdays (all times)
Types of Tutoring:   Travels to you / From their home
References Supplied?   Yes
Current DBS/CRB Check?   Yes