Charlie Covell - Tutors - Keystone Tutors

Experience

I've been tutoring for over three years. During that time, I've taught a variety of students. One was a girl who, for personal reasons, had dropped out of school and was taking her English Literature A Level by herself. I taught her the entire course, and she achieved an 'A' in all her modules. I have some testimonials on here, but please ask if would like to see more, or hear about other students I've taught. My students all tend to do well once they develop the right work ethic - if they don't adopt that, then I can't help them as much...

Recent Keystone Work:

AS/A2 English : English A level / Cambridge Pre-U (Started: March 2011)

AS/A2 English : A level English (Started: March 2011)

Biography

I come from London, but attended school at Benenden in Cranbrook, Kent. I studied English Literature, History and Theatre Studies at A-Level, and read English at St Hilda's College, Oxford.

Personal Approach

The most important thing is to establish how and why a student is struggling, and consequently develop an approach to work that suits them better. I find the best way to do this is to involve the student fully, and get them to give me constant feedback on lessons and various approaches to tackling problems.

I'm friendly and relaxed - I find students respond better to tutorials if they don't feel as formal as a lesson at school or college.

Preferably, I like to be able to talk to parents pretty regularly about their child's progress, and am also very happy to have a dialogue with their teachers at school (but only if the student feels comfortable about this and would find it helpful).

With older students, i.e. those working for GCSEs and A-Levels, I am extremely exam-focused, and base many lessons around understanding the assessment objectives and planning essays. Lack of preparation in these areas tends to be why students need tutoring in the first place, and focusing on the exam ahead gives students much more confidence. I encourage them to go through past papers, look at examiners' comments and mark schemes, and get a sense of what they will be expected to do. Once they've been doing this for a while, most people seem to find impending exams less daunting!

I'm always available on phone or email for problems that occur outside of arranged lesson times.

What I do when I am not tutoring

I'm a professional actress, and recently appeared in an episode of 'The Inbetweeners' and 'Whitechapel II'. As a stand-up comedian, I have performed in various London venues, and got to the Finals of Funny Women at the Comedy Store in 2009. I also write, and have had short plays performed at The Arcola and Theatre 503.

Testimonials

17/10/2011: “I was very impressed with Charlie and have since recommended your organisation to a friend” (Mother of A Level English Student)

17/10/2011: “The tutoring she got from Charlie really helped. She has made her grades and will going off to Edinburgh University next month” (Mother of A Level English Student)

“Recently we were required to spend 12 weeks in London. Being in London meant missing nearly a full term at the beginning of the final two years of school in Sydney for our son Jack, who was 16 at the time.

School had yet to ignite Jack’s interest, so we were hoping that having a period of time with a tutor might help him: we were lucky.

I found Charlie’s ad on the internet and spoke with her on the phone before leaving Sydney. I was intrigued and impressed by the quiet, confident authority in her voice and arranged for her to meet with my wife who was already working in London. “She is great” was my wife’s response, and so Charlie was engaged for two hours twice a week during our time in London to cover advanced English and Modern and Ancient History.

From the start, Charlie engaged Jack’s attention, and over the time he changed his entire attitude towards schoolwork. (Not that it didn’t take more than a few days where he sat at the computer writing with Charlie pacing up and down insisting that he stay on task!)

The real value in having Charlie was for Jack to experience long, deep discussions about the work that would be impossible in the classroom. Charlie enabled Jack to experience a depth of understanding and confidence that is still blossoming. His perception and confidence grows by the day, and it started from that time in London. His English work is progressing at a very high standard

The only downside to Jack’s experience of working with Charlie is that he is now determined to return to London for his university education and I hope London without her tuition will be as exciting.

I can wholeheartedly recommend Charlie as a teacher who will encourage and inspire any senior high school or college student.''

Stephen O’Rourke, Sydney (September 4th 2008)

''Charlie Covell has tutored my daughter, Georgia, for the last year of her English Literature A Level for 7 months now.

We decided to take Georgia out of the formal system for her last year for a couple of reasons. She had found the public school boarding system to be a struggle and had been unhappy for some years and also had a strong desire to focus on her first love, the electric guitar. So we decided to have her at home in London and combine a higher diploma in guitar with home tutoring for English Literature and Film Studies A Levels.

In no small part thanks to Charlie, we have had no regrets at all about this slightly unusual decision. Georgia was rather fed up and unmotivated about her A Levels, despite being bright, yet Charlie has completely turned this around.

Charlie really knows her subject (Georgia has covered a comparison of Northern Lights and Huckleberry Finn, Wordsworth/Coleridge poems, Hamlet and 1st World War Literature) and manages to convey the content very effectively, as well as knowing exactly what the examiners appear to be looking for.

She makes the lessons fun, yet challenging, and the quality of discussion and debate during each 2 hour session is extremely impressive. She can also be firm when she needs to be.

She is extremely sensitive and empathetic with Georgia’s needs. I don’t get the impression that she can only teach in one way. She took real trouble to understand what worked best for Georgia and adapt herself, the material and the pace to that. She gives huge confidence, is encouraging and supportive. She is also cool – very important to a teenager!

However the bottom line is the result, and the first public exam Georgia has taken since starting home tutoring in Jan, resulted in a mark of 96%! Charlie of course says that Georgia did it all herself, but Charlie’s contribution has also been enormous.

I highly recommend her without reservation.''

Diana Patterson

“I never expected to laugh so much studying Wordsworth’s romantic poetry…. Charlie makes every lesson interesting, engaging and dangerously close to being fun. By far and away the best teacher I’ve ever had for anything.” Georgia Patterson (17)

''Charlie came to tutor me in Drama in preparation for an A level retake written paper. My confidence was very low and I had lost all motivation. This all changed from my first lesson with Charlie. She was so patient and understanding and knew exactly the areas I needed to improve on and how to tackle them. She constantly found ways to encourage me so that I always felt relaxed in her lessons and able to get to grips with challenging ideas through our discussions. She worked closely with the marking criteria and examiner’s feedback from my exam board so that I could really understand how to score top marks. Even outside the lessons she was always quick to respond when I needed extra help - right up until the eve of my exam. She taught me so much and gave me back my love of drama. I really enjoyed my lessons with Charlie and on top of that, she helped me raise my grade from a D to an A, which I had never thought possible before she came to tutor me.''

Sophy Conway

''In her final school exams, my daughter failed to get the grade she needed in Drama to take up her place at university. Faced with retaking one of the Drama papers in order to raise her grade, she felt demoralised and at a loss to know how to improve her work. What she needed was a teacher who could inspire a renewed sense of enjoyment of the subject as well as focused teaching of the exam requirements. And we were incredibly lucky to chance upon Charlie who provided exactly what we wanted and more. She is an exceptional teacher in every way and put so much of herself into helping my daughter achieve. I cannot praise her highly enough and her talents are borne out by the fact that in just one term of weekly one hour lessons, she raised my daughter’s retake grade from a D to an A and restored not just her chance to take up her university place, but also her self-esteem and pleasure in the study of Drama.''

Jane Conway

Passport: Keystone Tutors has a copy of Charlie Covell's passport and therefore can confirm that Charlie Covell is a UK / EU national or has the appropriate visa to be eligible to work in the UK.