01
English Literature
Poetry, drama and the nineteenth-century novel. We annotate in the session, build a paragraph together, then you write the rest alone so the next draft is genuinely yours.
GCSE · A-Level · coursework
Private tuition · Tamsin Oduya
Close reading,clear writing
I teach English, History and Latin to a small roll of students each term — the kind of tuition where we read the text properly, then build the argument sentence by sentence.
The approach
Teaching the thinking, not the mark scheme
A student who can say exactly what a text is doing will always outwrite a student who has memorised a list of techniques. So we start with the page in front of us, and the grade follows the understanding.
One roll, kept small
I take a limited number of students so that every essay comes back annotated in full, and so I can hold the whole arc of a two-year course in my head rather than teaching from a folder.
Written work, every week
Reading is discussed live; writing is done on paper. Each student leaves a session with one specific piece of writing to make, and we open the next session with it.
What I teach
Six lanes of work
Each lane maps to the specifications I teach regularly. If your exam board or set text is not listed, say so in your enquiry — I will tell you honestly whether it is mine to teach.
02
English Language
Unseen comparison, transactional writing and descriptive work under time. Most of the gain here comes from planning faster, not writing more, so we drill the first four minutes.
Key Stage 3 · GCSE
03
History
Source work, interpretations and the long essay. We keep a running timeline and a working glossary, because most lost marks are chronology problems wearing an argument's clothes.
GCSE · A-Level · NEA support
04
Latin & Classical Civilisation
Grammar taught as a system rather than a stack of tables, with unseen translation every week. Set texts are read aloud first, then construed, then written about.
Beginners · GCSE · A-Level
05
Academic writing
For students whose ideas outrun their sentences. Paragraph architecture, quotation handling, citation and the discipline of cutting — useful across every humanities subject.
Years 9–13 · undergraduate
06
University entrance
Personal statements, written submissions and interview practice for humanities courses. We work from your actual reading, not a template, and rehearse being disagreed with.
Year 12 · Year 13 · gap year
Ways to work together
Three formats, one standard of marking
Most students start with a weekly tutorial and add an intensive in the term before the exam. Seminars are for students who learn faster with an audience.
Format 01
Weekly tutorial
A standing hour, same day each week, for one student. The spine of the work and the format I recommend first.
- 60 or 90 minutes, one-to-one
- One written task set every session
- Full annotation returned before the next meeting
- Termly written note to parents on request
Booked by the term
Format 02
Exam-term intensive
A short, dated course in the run-up to papers: timed writing, mark-scheme literacy and recovery of the topics you have quietly avoided.
- Four or six sessions, fixed dates
- Two papers written under exam conditions
- Topic audit at the first meeting
- Revision plan you can actually keep
Spring and early summer
Format 03
Online seminar
Four students reading the same text together, with written work submitted in advance and discussed in the hour.
- Groups of four, by level
- Reading circulated a week ahead
- Shared annotation on screen
- Individual comments returned privately
Evenings, online only
Inside the hour
How a session actually runs
The shape is deliberately repetitive. Students stop spending energy on what is about to happen and spend it on the text instead.
First 10
Last week's writing, out loud
We read the piece you wrote, with my annotations in front of us. You tell me which sentence you were least sure of — that is usually where the lesson is.
Next 25
New material, read closely
A passage, a source or a set of lines. We work line by line rather than summarising, and I write down the vocabulary you reach for but cannot find.
Next 15
Building one paragraph together
We draft the opening of the argument jointly, aloud, before you write anything down. The aim is that you can hear a good paragraph coming before you make it.
Last 10
The task, written down precisely
One task, with a word count and a deadline that falls before our next meeting. Vague homework is how tuition quietly stops working, so I never set it.
Timetable and terms
When I teach, and how places work
Everything below is practical rather than promotional — it is the information most families ask for in their first message.
- Teaching days
- Monday to Thursday, late afternoon and early evening. Saturday mornings are kept for exam-term intensives only.
- Term shape
- Three terms a year, each running alongside the school calendar. Weekly tutorials are booked for a whole term so the slot stays yours.
- In person or online
- In-person tutorials happen at my study; online sessions run on a shared screen with the text open between us. Both use the same materials.
- First meeting
- A short introductory session with the student, and a parent for younger students. We look at one piece of recent work and agree whether to go ahead.
- Changes and cancellations
- Move a session with a day's notice and we reschedule within the same term where the timetable allows. Illness is never charged twice.
- Fees
- Set by format and level, confirmed in writing before the first session, and invoiced per term. No registration fee and no agency commission.
If the slot you need is already taken, ask to be put on the waiting note for that subject. Places move more often than families expect, usually between terms.
Questions
Asked before the first session
Can we try one session before committing to a term?
Yes, and I would rather you did. The introductory session is shorter, costs less than a full tutorial, and exists so that both of us can decline politely if it is not a good fit. Nobody is signed up to a term on the strength of an email.
How are fees worked out?
By format and level: a 60-minute Key Stage 3 tutorial sits at the bottom of the range, A-Level and university entrance work at the top, and seminar places cost less per student than one-to-one time. You get the exact figure in writing before the first session, and it does not change mid-term.
Do you help with homework, or only exam preparation?
I will read school work and talk about it, but I do not run sessions as a homework clinic — it tends to produce better single pieces and no lasting improvement. We work on the underlying skill the homework keeps exposing, and the homework gets easier as a side effect.
Will I hear how my child is getting on?
On request I write a short note at the end of each term: what we covered, what has genuinely improved, and the one thing I would focus on next. If something concerns me earlier than that, I write sooner rather than waiting for the term to end.
Can two siblings share a session?
Only where they are working at the same level on the same subject, which is rarer than it sounds. Otherwise one of them spends half the hour waiting. A better arrangement is usually two shorter back-to-back tutorials, which I can timetable together.
What is needed for online sessions?
A laptop or tablet with a keyboard, headphones, a quiet room and paper. We share one screen with the text on it and annotate together. Phones work for conversation but not for writing, so they are not a substitute.
Enquiries
Ask about a place
Write as much or as little as you like. Four details let me answer usefully rather than with a brochure reply.
- 01The student's year group and exam board, if you know it.
- 02The subject, and the set texts or topics causing trouble.
- 03Which afternoons or evenings are genuinely free.
- 04Whether you want weekly work, an exam-term intensive, or advice.
Every enquiry gets a written reply, including the ones I cannot take. If I am full in your subject I will say so plainly and tell you when a slot is likely to open.