Conor Whelan

A trained and experienced teacher, I bring a cheerful and creative energy to tutoring. Having completed a PGCE at Bath Spa, a BA in Literature and Theatre Studies at the University of Leeds, attended an international theatre school (LISPA) and received a TEFL certificate while touring Italy, I am very well qualified. Teaching in various state schools, and independent schools such as Clifton College, as well as volunteering in a school in India and doing English Camps in Italy, has given me a wide range of experience. My other interests, such as acting, poetry and storytelling, have given me hands of experience of what I tutor people in. For example, I am the former Bard of Bath and while I worked at the Ilkley Literature Festival, I stage managed for two poet laureates.

All this allows me to adapt to what you need, picking up from where you are up to in your studies, honing your skills, deepening your knowledge and adding to your “word horde”, as they say in Old English. I can help to make complicated terms sound simple and show how what you are learning can be useful in real life, and hopefully make it enjoyable too! I like to frame tasks as ones you could do in real life, such as pitching a product on Dragons Den; I have coached people on how to present themselves when they appeared on the actual show. Where possible, I will turn activities into games, which not only makes them more enjoyable, but also more memorable. This is reinforced with an understanding of how memory works, drawing on sources such as Rosenshine's 10 Principles of Instruction. I am passionate about what I do, and hope to share that with you.