• GCSE English
• A Level English Literature
• IB English
• School Entrance Interviews
• Undergraduate & Graduate English
• Oxbridge Preparation

I have more than 20 years of experience teaching English to IB, A Level and Oxbridge entrance. I have supported hundreds of young people and their families as they have navigated the world of university applications, as well as advising mobile families on school transitions. I am highly experienced in the international school world, having worked in seven countries and led schools as head in three of them.

I am a lifelong educator, having been an A Level & IB English teacher, Head of Department, and Head of School. I am highly experienced in university admissions counseling for both undergraduate and graduate entry. My undergraduate degree was in English & European Literature (Essex University), followed by a PGCE in English (Keele), a Masters in Educational Administration (Michigan State University) and a doctorate in education from the University of Southern California. I bring a wide range of teaching and family guidance experience gained working in UK independent and international schools around the world.

I believe that every learner carries within them the capacity to achieve, and my task as an educator is to help reveal that capacity through challenge, encouragement, and critical inquiry. I hold a profound belief in the transformative power of joyful learning, the kind that helps young people not only to master content but to find meaning, purpose, and confidence in their own intellectual voices. Confidence, in my experience, grows from engagement: from the pleasure of wrestling with ideas, crafting language carefully, and discovering that thought can be both disciplined and liberating. Having taught IB English for many years, I have come to see literature and language as training grounds for empathy, precision, and imagination. Across the IB continuum and beyond, my work has centred on cultivating students’ capacity to think critically, read generously, and write with authenticity. Whether preparing for university essays, oral assessments, or scholarship interviews, I guide students to articulate who they are (and who they might yet become) with grace and conviction. Over more than three decades of designing curricula and mentoring learners between 11+ and university entrance, I have witnessed how active, dialogic learning transforms students. The act of questioning, debating, and writing together creates not just academic success but intellectual courage. My students often speak of our sessions as both demanding and deeply enjoyable: a testament to the idea that rigour and joy are not opposites but partners in genuine learning. I aspire always to build learning communities that are rigorous yet humane, where intellectual curiosity is matched by emotional attentiveness. Whether through essay workshops, close reading discussions, or creative explorations, I want students to experience the thrill of being alive to ideas. Ultimately, my vocation lies in accompanying young people, through their studies, university choices, and early ambitions, as they learn not only how to succeed, but how to flourish.

I am an educational consultant and work with schools around the world on a range of topics. In addition, I write extensively on educational issues for a range of publications.