Christopher

I grew up from very modest beginnings, realising quite early on how powerful education could be and how hugely transformative it could be to young people.

I was born and raised in Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, flourishing as a bright academic at school that resulted in a lifelong love of learning. These formative years shaped my values and I very soon realised that education was a magnificently transformative tool. Armed with three strong A level results, Reading University offered precisely the course that developed and grew my theoretical knowledge of film, theatre and television. Fascinated by the artistic, creative and academic demands of these three subject areas (as well as a brilliant engaging subsidiary in religious and aesthetic philosophy) teaching was always going to be my first choice; a chance to ‘pass on’ a wonderful set of skills to future generations.

I have been lucky enough to act in some television and film roles, plus a huge range of classical performances from Shakespeare through to Miller, musicals to mime, and from Marat/Sade to the Minack Theatre in Cornwall. I am very proud to say that I have been a leader of several youth theatre groups and have enabled young people to win awards in festivals and international competitions.

I have worked for the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and currently work with the postgraduate ITT team as a lecturer on the PGCE English with Media/Drama pathway. This fantastic role has allowed to come ‘full circle’ in my wonderful teaching career.

One-to-one tuition is enabling, exciting and incredibly fulfilling. I want to develop healthy learner cognition; this includes - nurturing long-term skills memory, appropriate processing patterns, dual-coding, retrieval, scaffolding, modelling and walkthrus (sic) – such as those practised so successfully by the theorists Sherrington and Cavaglioli. In essence, the way to learn/coach is individualised and once modelled with integrity, can afford the learner autonomy in the discipline of independent learning.

I am passionate about my subjects and enthuse tutees with that love. I have been called influential and infectious in my delivery. Engaging learners who may find content dreary or of little interest, can soon be re-imagined – with some creative pedagogy - into essential material, often using parallel or comparatives texts, debate, visual material, historical/social context and applying academic theory. I am restless and have never taught the same topic, repetitively, year after year! My mantra is: adapt, grow, develop and excel.

I am a Europhile, visiting Italy and Spain, especially, as often as I can. I love to study art, culture and food, trying to learn new languages and the richness that our near continent affords in this respect. I am fascinated by etymology and the roots of language, with its slightly chaotic origins, and how Latin, Scandinavian and colonial synthesis has played its part.

I write screenplays, make films with lots of enthusiastic young people in summer clubs and have enormous fun editing their work together into a finished piece. It is not quite Hollywood, but parents and children alike love the joy that these projects can bring. It all starts with a small idea and manifests into an incredibly fulfilling piece of art on a big screen. There is nothing to beat the feeling of seeing this project come to life!