A-Level English Literature and Language Tutor and Examiner

A-Level English Literature and Language Tutor and Examiner I'm an A-Level English Literature examiner and tutor. 📚 👩‍🏫 I have a B.A. (Hons.) degree in English Language and Literature for which I won a 2:1.

I am a PGCE-qualified English language and literature teacher with sixteen years of teaching experience. I am also an examiner for three exam boards. I teach iGCSE/GCSE English Language and Literature, A-Level Language, Literature and Lang./Lit. Please see my 'photos' for reviews (taken from the 'First Tutors' website). The first session with your son or daughter is an assessment session. Tutoring

takes place online. I can either be your child's primary English teacher, or serve as an adjunct to the English teaching they are currently receiving in school or college. I have very high standards for myself and my students, whatever their current capability and achievement level might be. I take preparation for public examinations very seriously-particularly with regards to GCSE English Language which is a core qualification. I am accustomed to supporting those students who are retaking this exam for the second or third time. I care a lot about my students, and do my utmost to ensure sessions are not intimidating and are fun.

31/08/2026

The number of times, both as an A-level English Literature examiner and as an NEA authenticator, that I have read essays that are absolutely beautifully written and meticulously researched -

-where clearly hours have been dedicated and the essay has been a real labour of love for the student - 📃

- but I have not been able to award it the marks that I ideally would like to because the essay is simply not answering the question enough. 😭

With regards to the NEA, remember that it is your own question that you need to be answering. And sometimes, precisely because it is your own question, while you are writing your NEA it can feel as though you are answering it - 🖊

- but from an outsider’s perspective, some of your ideas may not actually be sharply enough focused on the significant terms within that question. 👁

If your argument is not consistently addressing the precise question you have set yourself, you are potentially limiting the marks that can be awarded.

Because this is such an important part of doing well in A-level English Literature assessment, this is what I’m focusing on today. It is all about exam technique, or, in this case, internal assessment technique. 📝

I’m an A-level English Literature examiner and tutor. 📚

30/08/2026

Beginning Year 13 with a grade E in A-level English Literature isn’t ideal. There’s no point pretending that it is.

However, it is much more common than you might think; people simply tend not to talk about it. 🥀

There is no reason to feel ashamed. An E is a low pass grade, but it is still a pass.

Obviously, however, most students hope to achieve a higher grade by the end of Year 13. 🙏

My advice is not to allow that E simply to depress and demoralise you or make you feel badly about yourself. 🫂

Try simultaneously to be proactive. Put on your best stoical face and speak to your English teacher as soon as you return in September. Ask for a private meeting or stay behind at the end of a lesson. 🗣

In the vast majority of cases, your teacher will be happy to talk you through what happened, where marks were lost in your mock and what you can do differently moving forwards. ⬆️

Definitely best to have this conversation at the beginning of the academic year, while there is still plenty of time to address the problems. 📅

Your teacher will also see that you are eager and motivated to improve. They may then keep an eye out for you throughout the year which can only be a good thing. 👩‍🏫

My website LitWeaving, also contains lots of guidance that may help you improve your A-level English Literature essay marks. 📖

I’m an A-level English Literature examiner and tutor. 📚

30/08/2026

Following on from yesterday’s reel, in which I stressed the importance of ensuring that your A-level English Literature NEA essay has a sense of cohesion—so that it does not end up sounding like an enormous list - 📜

—in today’s reel, I talk you through an example of how to use cohesive devices effectively. ✅️

These devices can not only add cohesion to your essay but also build a sense of momentum within your argument, potentially making it truly enjoyable to read. 📝

Please have a look at my other reels, which offer further advice on how to ensure that full marks are available to you when you submit the first draft of your NEA. 📃

Good luck!

I’m an A-level English Literature examiner and tutor. 📚

29/08/2026

First of all, congratulations to this young man, who has won a place to read English Literature at Oxford University. 🎓

The university has sent him some pre-reading, including poetry by renowned Victorian poetess Christina Rossetti. ☦️

Rossetti is perhaps best known for ‘Goblin Market’ and ‘Remember’, the latter of which is widely read at funerals (if you know of the feminist reading of the poem you will not be wanting it read at your funeral!) 🥀

Her poetry can appear to be dominated by bleak, hopeless and dark works, such as ‘From the Antique’, ‘Sœur Louise de la Miséricorde’, ‘In the Round Tower at Jhansi’ and ‘Shut Out’. ⬛️

However, her body of work also includes playful, light-hearted and even jubilant poems. 🫢

Christina Rossetti is widely studied on A-level English Literature specifications like OCR, AQA and Edexcel. 📝

I’m an A-level English Literature examiner and tutor. 📚

29/08/2026

A-level English Literature students who are capable of writing a beautifully crafted, engaging and convincing argument that is enjoyable to read, and which genuinely has a sense of argument, will be rewarded for the quality of the essay itself under Assessment Objective 1. ✅️

Over the next few days, I’m going to be releasing a few more tips just like this one for those of you who have your first NEA draft due next week. 📃

I’m an A-level English Literature examiner and tutor. 📚

28/08/2026

I’m an A-level English Literature examiner and tutor, and I’m also active on social media. 📚

Here are all the ways in which I might be able to help you during this academic year, even though my tuition groups are already almost fully booked. 📖

Wishing everyone a restful remainder of the summer holiday. ☀️

28/08/2026

Many new Year 13 students will have the first draft of their A-level English Literature NEA due upon their return to school. 😬

Over the next few days, I’m going to be releasing some reels to help students ensure that their first drafts are in tip-top condition and can genuinely be considered for full marks. ✅️

The temptation to organise an A-level English Literature essay entirely around characters and relationships can be overly seductive, as this provides a relatively easy way to form an argument. 🗣

However, if you read examiners’ reports, it becomes clear that, for true sophistication, you should try—if you can—to lift your argument beyond the plane of character and relationship alone. ⬆️

Make sure that you consider the writer’s attitudes and the context in which they are writing. Think about what a particular character or relationship might suggest or represent about a wider group of people; for example, a particular social class. 👥

It is perfectly acceptable for parts of your essay to prioritise discussion of characters and relationships. However, if this comprises the entirety of your argument, it is probably best avoided if you want to make the highest marks available to you. ✍️

I’m an A-level English Literature examiner and tutor. 📚

27/08/2026

Some A-level English Literature students study Wuthering Heights. Some do A Thousand Splendid Suns. And if you’re doing Edexcel, you might have the pleasure of studying both, eventually comparing them in your Paper 2 Prose exam. 📝

On the face of it, they seem like wildly different novels, and the idea of comparing them might initially appear almost laughable. 😬

One is a nineteenth-century Gothic novel of wild passion set largely on the Yorkshire moors; the other is a twenty-first-century Realist novel following the lives of women in Afghanistan across decades of political upheaval. 🇦🇫

But spend some time thinking about them and there are actually plentiful onnections between the two. And, in my experience, that tends to be true of almost any pairing of set texts, however improbably different they might seem on first consideration. 📖

Edexcel students study these two novels together under the theme of Women, which immediately gives us one important way into the comparison. 👩

I’m an A-level English Literature examiner and tutor. 📚

27/08/2026

Some of you have mock/UCAS exams coming up in September, while others may be sitting assessments later in the term, or perhaps a mixture of the two. So I’m doing some reels focusing on specific A-level English Literature texts and past exam questions. 📃

This reel focuses on planning for the summer 2025 OCR Hamlet Part B question, which caused a bit of a furore at the time. 😭

The question invites students to consider how unsettling the ending of the play is. ⚔️

For this task, students are assessed equally on AO1 and AO5 only. That means a significant proportion of a successful essay needs to involve debate: considering different possible interpretations of 'statement' part (the proposition) in the question. 🗣

In this reel, I look at some of the different directions you could take the argument and how you might turn those interpretations into a cogent argument in an essay plan example. 🖊

I’m an A-level English Literature examiner and have also examined for OCR. 📚

25/08/2026

Why are there so many different exam boards available for GCSEs and A-levels including A-Level English Literature? 📖

Disregarding the historical reasons for why we have multiple exam boards in the first place, in this reel I attempt to explain what benefits having a choice of exam board can confer upon individual schools and colleges teaching A-level English Literature. 📃

I also look at some of the main differences between the five major A-level English Literature specifications available to schools in England: AQA Specification A, AQA Specification B, Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas. 🖊

Despite all leading to the same A-level qualification, there can be significant differences in course structure, assessment and text choices, meaning that choosing one specification rather than another can substantially change what an A-level English Literature course actually looks like. 📝

I'm an A-level English Literature examiner and tutor. 📚

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