Positive Steps English Tuition

✨Vocab Alert!✨

It's another one of our favourites and a bit of two for one - what the word is and how to use it in your Literature essays!

🎯In Macbeth, Shakespeare has the witches use equivocation when speaking, to make them seem unreliable and untrustworthy.

Temperatures are falling, leaves are starting to turn, it can only mean one thing.....the new school year has started!

Massive welcome back to all our students, and wishing you all the best for the year ahead! If you're GCSE year, now is the time to start banking resources, checking you have study guides and making sure you have ideas about a revision strategy for mock exams.

It's our first post of 2025 and we're back in with a ✨Vocab Alert!✨

A brilliant word to add to description of someone and score some vocabulary marks on your creative writing! If someone is gregarious, they enjoy the company of other people.

🎯Her gregarious personality brightened up the evening

November is here and we hope all our students and their families had an enjoyable and restful half-term. Now that our KS4 students are in the midst of revision, a great way to revise your key text is to see a production of it - this gives you a greater insight into the characters and allow you to see the emotions/motives behind the way they behave.

We'd recommend Shakespeare in the Squares' production of Macbeth, which is touring select churches of London from the 7th to the 30th of November. A good night out with lots of atmosphere! See the link below for more details....

What's On - Shakespeare in the Squares Our 2024 production of All's Well That Ends Well with a fairy tale twist and gypsy swing music

Worries about exams? Need support with English?

GCSE English tuition from an experienced English teacher and examiner - either face to face or online. Ideal for students who need an extra boost of confidence or need help with key skills such as creative writing, essays or understanding set texts such as Macbeth, A Christmas Carol or An Inspector Calls!

It might be the first week back, but delighted to say it's busier than ever here! We also received some lovely feedback from the parent of one of our Year 11's from last year - so nice to hear that we've made a positive impact and helped with his future success 🥰

(And yes, you may have noticed we've fully embraced the new season!)

A massive congratulations to our Year 11 students (and their classmates) for completing their final English exams yesterday! Best of luck for the last few exams and hope you enjoying a restful and relaxing summer! 👏👏

Last minute worries about exams? Need support with English?

GCSE English tuition from an experienced English teacher and examiner - either face to face or online. Ideal for students who need an extra boost of confidence or need help with key skills such as creative writing, essays or understanding set texts such as Macbeth, A Christmas Carol or An Inspector Calls!

It's not always about Shakespeare here! Jekyll and Hyde is one of the 19th century texts on the Literature paper on the 13th and (although it can be tricky) one of the best ways to approach it is by tackling the themes.

For example, Stevenson's idea of duality (humans having a good and a bad side within them) influences how he created the characters. For example, Hyde is physically small and repulsive because he is all the 'bad' parts of Jekyll's personality.

✨Vocab Alert!✨

Something a little more technical this time but very useful for Literature essays! An Epitome is a standard or typical example of something - see the below note for Mr Birling from An Inspector Calls.

🎯Mr Birling is the epitome of capitalism due to his selfish actions towards Eva Smith and working class people in the play.

We're on the countdown with just under a month to go before the English GCSE's! Revision can feel quite overwhelming sometimes but there are lots of different ways to revise such as :

- Making mindmaps
- Using flashcards
- Online quizzes to test knowledge recall

However, if none of those are working it doesn't hurt to watch a short revision video and take down some notes. We'd recommend starting off with a context video for your chosen text, like the Mr Bruff one below. To help remember, watch it once then jot down 3 key points on a nearby flashcard or Post-it Note!

'A Christmas Carol': Context Buy my revision guides in paperback on Amazon*:Mr Bruff’s Guide to ‘A Christmas Carol’ https://amzn.to/37wH2hpMr Bruff’s Guide to GCSE English Language http...