Matthew

I'm a tutor and a filmmaker. I have taught for eight years, and love the opportunity it gives me to keep learning, and to meet so many diverse and interesting students and families.

I always wanted to teach, ever since I was at school. I think it came from a sense that the literature we read was so brilliant, and so relevant, and yet didn't come across that way in the occasional dreariness of the classroom. I carry this memory with me, into each of my tutoring sessions, and therefore make sure that when I teach, my sessions are dynamic, fun, and non-stuffy. That goes for 7+ right up to University.

I started tutoring after University, and have been doing so ever since – I love it. It's part performance (you've got to hold your student's attention!), part masterclass (they've gotta know you're really good), and part mentorship.

I am very open in my classes, embrace my students saying they find things 'boring' (because I know I can turn that around), embrace them speaking their mind and making mistakes, and embrace the competitive element of the exams. In the end, you need to be better than the candidate next to you, you need to win more marks, you need to impress the examiner. I can help you to do that – I have my own formula, tips, and tricks, which can't fail. I got full marks in my English Literature A Level using it, and have honed it ever since, through Oxford University and my own creative work.

My style is playful but rigorous: my students’ knowledge, confidence, and capacity grow hour by hour.

Whatever challenges they may face, students want to impress and they want to achieve. Being a good tutor is being someone to look up to.

I use my own interests, from film to theatre, to make my lessons engaging. My students enjoy asking me about my own work, and what I'm reading or writing at that particular moment!

I love Shakespeare, too, and could teach it all day. I have even created a full TV-show idea about Shakespeare and self-help.

When I'm not teaching, I like reading about politics, history, and I love fiction too. I like drinking coffee, doing yoga, and watching a lot of European cinema.

I finished my third short film this year: a psychological drama about a cursed painting that upends a young woman's life, forcing her to confront the sins of her national and familial past. It is set in modern day Paris, but its roots lie in the Occupation during WW2. It has recently been selected for festivals in Ireland and Poland.

The skills required of a great tutor are the same as those required of a successful writer-director: you have to be a kind of trustworthy orbit!