Danika Paterson

I was a tutor before I was a teacher and now I am back to tutoring before teaching again. Since my own schooling years I leaned towards the humanities, enjoying writing convincing and entertaining pieces, and really being able to understand all different kinds of texts.

I come from a very small town in Merseyside (although, four years at University in Exeter and a year teaching in South Korea with many Americans has destroyed my accent) and have dedicated a large chunk of my life to English language and literature. Although I personally love Shakespeare, I have been a state school and a private academy teacher, so I understand he is not everybody’s cup of tea.

However, because of this, some of the highlights of my career working with young people have been:
- My Year 9 class gasping collectively at the end of Macbeth
- Treating Dave’s ‘Black’ as a piece of poetry and analysing it with my Year 8 class when teaching Noughts and Crosses the play
- Getting students to care about and understand non-fiction pieces by playing ‘Spot the Fake News’

As a tutor I bring in the same dialogic approach and conversation and projectfocused learning as I do in the classroom. I believe that this active engagement as well as being presented with a variety of activities to do related to the topic is the best way to keep up engagement and enthusiasm whilst ensuring learning.

Within my classes you can expect a variety of activities involving reading, writing, speaking, and listening. I have prepared students for GCSE and A-level exams as well as TOEFL exams, so will be able to use examples of these and my knowledge of these tests to help you prepare for them. I like to use mixed media in my classes, and conduct them over zoom, but involve videos and PowerPoints and activities to make sure we’re having a good time as well as learning. At the students request I would be more than happy to provide and give feedback on homework as well.