Are you looking for expert, affordable English tuition?
Boost your confidence and your grades with regular, interactive English lessons that will help you develop a love for the subject and prepare you for your GCSEs.
How does small group tuition help your child?
- I teach each session in person so your child will always be taught by a practising teacher and senior examiner
- The classes are very interactive with lots of opportunities for students to answer questions and practise the skills needed
- Input from all students ensures there is a real spread of ideas
- Classes are friendly and supportive. Students use the chat to communicate directly with me but the other students do not see the answers which allows them to fully engage with the class without any anxiety over ‘getting it wrong’
- The regular written work allows students to get the practice they need to do well in the final exam
English Language GCSE
The English Language GCSE is one of the core subjects and a good pass is a requirement for almost all sixth form courses. The papers are unseen so students really need a wide variety of skills that they can quickly adapt to deal with the different questions based on texts that they have never seen before.
My GCSE Language courses are geared to help students learn and improve the skills needed to excel in the final exams with expert tuition and engaging materials at a reasonable price.
Each course lasts 6 weeks and consists of 5 x 50 minute lessons. The lessons are all on zoom and the 50 minutes works well as it allows us to cover a lot of ground without the students becoming unfocused. In the sixth week, instead of coming to the class, the students use the 50 minutes to complete a paper. This is emailed to me and I mark it with feedback. This way, the students build up confidence and develop their skills, including the all-important timing of the paper.
Year 11 AQA:
Mondays 5.00-5.50 OR 7.00-7.50
Tuesdays 6.00-6.50
Wednesday 5.00-5.50 OR 6.00-6.50
Thursday 5.00-5.50
The cost for each 6 week block is £120.
To book your sessions email: janet@theenglishtutor.co.uk
Holiday Sessions
Each class is a walk-through of a full paper, revising the different skills for each question with examples about how to improve marks. At the end of each session, full notes are sent out for independent revision. The material is different for every class to allow students the maximum exposure to different papers and to practise and improve their skills.
Friday 2nd January- English Language Paper 1 10.00-11.30 OR 12.00-1.30
Saturday 3rd January- English Language Paper 2 10.00-11.30 OR 12.00-1.30
Saturday 21st February – English Language Paper 1 10.00-11.30
Friday 10th April- English Language Paper 1 10.00-11.30
£25 per class or £40 for two classes.
To book your sessions email: janet@theenglishtutor.co.uk
Year 10
Are you interested in group tuition?
I run a series of courses throughout the year to help year 10 students prepare for their English Language and Literature GCSEs. The lessons are designed to help students improve their key skills such as writing skills, with focus on punctuation, sentence structure and vocabulary. In the lessons, we read and respond to a wide range of fantastic short stories, poems and non-fiction writing, aiming to build up the perceptive understanding needed to excel in the English GCSEs.
How does the course work?
Each course lasts 6 weeks and consists of 5 x 50 minute zoom lessons.
In the sixth week, the students complete an extended task in their own time and I mark it with feedback. This way, the students build up confidence and develop their skills independently.
September – October: English Language Paper 1 skills
November – December: English Language Paper 2 skills
January – February: Poetry
March – General Literature skills
April – May: English Language Paper 1 skills
June – July: English Language Paper 2 skills
Each block is completely stand-alone so students are exposed to new material all the time.
Mondays 6.00-6.50
Tuesdays 5.00 – 5.50
The cost for each 6 week block is £120
To book your lessons email: janet@theenglishtutor.co.uk
English Literature GCSE
The literature texts are fantastic stories of passion, betrayal, friendship and conflict yet many students struggle to revise them successfully. The revision classes I run cover themes and characters in the four main texts that are popular with schools. Lessons are lively and engaging as students learn key quotations, embed essential context and practise language analysis.
The vast majority of students will have completed all the literature texts by Christmas which means they will be ready to revise the texts at the start of January 2024.
How does the course work?
Each course lasts 10 weeks and consists of 9 x 50 minute zoom lessons and 1 written paper which I mark with feedback. They start the week beginning January 6th and complete on April 5th.
The literature classes are on the following texts:
‘A Christmas Carol’ (Tuesday 7.00-7.50)
‘Macbeth’ (Wednesday 7.00-7.50)
‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ (Thursday 6.00-6.50)
‘Romeo and Juliet’ (Saturday 10.30-11.20)
‘An Inspector Calls’ (Saturday 11.30-12.20)
Complete course of one text = £150
Complete course of two texts = £265 (10% discount)
Complete course of three texts= £338 (20% discount)
I send out a full set of notes and model answers at the end of each lesson for independent revision.
April 2025 to May 2025
Poetry Anthology – Power and Conflict- AQA Students
7 lessons in the Easter Holidays- days TBC
£100 for all seven lessons (booked in a block)
Unseen Poetry (suitable for all exam boards)
Thursday 23rd April 6.00-7.00
Sunday 17th May 11.00- 12.00
£15 per lesson (booked individually)
Eduqas Poetry Anthology
Saturday 10th May 10.00-11.00
£15 per lesson (booked individually)
To book your sessions email: janet@theenglishtutor.co.uk
One-to-one tuition
All regular 121 slots are now fully booked. I do offer ad-hoc sessions so please do send me a message if this is of interest.
Her knowledge of both English GCSEs is incredible and she is also an expert in connecting with her students. Her total commitment to imparting knowledge has not only enabled my son to improve significantly but to also feel inspired and enthusiastic about this subject. He always looked forward to her tutoring sessions and has asked me to rate her as highly as I possible can! There’s also no need to worry about the lessons being on zoom – she will manage the process all the way, always sending reminders and follow up notes after each lesson. My advice – don’t hesitate to get in touch with her, believe me, you will feel so lucky to have found her.
Both my son and daughter had revision classes with Janet as both had lacked confidence with English Language but even after their first few sessions I noticed a real positive impact on their understanding of how to answer the exam questions and were so much more confident. My daughter has just finished her lessons and has confidently sat both GCSE papers. The online lessons with Janet were relaxed and my daughter felt comfortable joining in. She really enjoyed the sessions and said they were fun too. Janet also kindly offered a ‘day before’ session which was so helpful and offered last minute tips for each paper and I know they really made a difference. My daughter said she actually enjoyed the exam which just shows how much she benefitted from Janet’s lessons. I would highly recommend Janet to friends and family. My daughter was sad they had come to an end but she will use the skills learnt to continue into her A level subjects.
Janet is an amazing tutor! Every lesson was detailed and engaging, and in each she provided extremely helpful and readily accessible notes, that helped me achieve high grades in not only my mocks but real GCSE’S too. She was so patient and clear with her teaching, and provided great feedback both during class and when marking personal homework. I could not recommend a better English tutor !!
My son has been tutored by Janet for the last year and has just sat his GCSEs. He didn’t believe in himself prior to Janet’s sessions but as time as passed he has recognised that he can enjoy English and has happily and enthusiastically joined several sessions with Janet each week. Janet works really hard with the students, is clear in her teaching and provides thorough notes after each session which has been very beneficial. I have recommended Janet to several other people over the last few months. She really has been an asset. If you’re looking for an English tutor then don’t hesitate in contacting Janet.
Our daughter really struggled in English at GCSE level but several one to one lessons with Janet allowed her to reach her full potential in both English language and English literature. Last year out daughter achieved an ‘A’ grade in A Level English Literature/Language which enabled her to fulfill her dreams of going to University. This was down to the passion Janet helped to engender in English Literature. If you have a son or daughter who is good, bad or indifferent in English you simply cannot go wrong with additional support courtesy of Janet. Highly recommended!
I would highly recommend Janet as a tutor. She completely engaged and inspired my eldest son and made him want to achieve a great result. Her literature lessons gave him an in-depth knowledge of the set texts with specific sessions drilling into themes and characters. Janet’s language sessions helped enormously with his creative writing and there was a real attention detail on SPAG that he had forgotten from primary school. Any practice papers that he completed were quickly marked with valuable feedback to enhance his knowledge and skills. My middle son has now just started with Janet and is engaged and finding the sessions helpful. I am confident he will achieve well with her as his tutor.
Janet is an outstanding tutor. The lessons were highly engaging due to Janet’s enthusiasm and knowledge. We would recommend both 121 and small group sessions. Our son exceeded the Eng Lit GCSE grade he was predicted due to these sessions but just as importantly he found confidence in a subject that he definitely struggled with before. Thank you again.
About Janet Oliver
Janet is a fully qualified and experienced English teacher who trained at the University of Cambridge and currently teaches English at an Ofsted rated ‘outstanding’ comprehensive school in London.
Over the last thirty years, she has worked in state, private and international schools, forging good relationships with students and instilling in them a love for English language and literature.
She is also an experienced senior examiner in both GCSE English literature and language, having marked tens of thousands of scripts over the course of her career.
Her revision guide series for English Literature GCSE was launched in 2017 and is currently in use at schools across the UK. It is available directly to students at www.lightbulbrevision.com
