BACKGROUND

James studied at Eton College and the University of Edinburgh and has been teaching English for 15 years. His expertise lies in English Literature, Language and EFL, including IELTS preparation.

When I’m not teaching, James very much enjoys playing sport (particularly rugby, football, cricket, tennis, squash, sailing and golf), painting, watching films, reading books, and going to the theatre.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE AND APPROACH

James has taught English Literature and Language for 15 years, including 6 years at an independent secondary school in Oxford. He is CELTA qualified, with over 5000 hours’ experience teaching English as a Foreign Language and IELTS.

James has helped hundreds of students to achieve the best possible grades in their English GCSE exams, and many students at 11+, 13+, 16+ level (including interview) to receive offers from schools such as Westminster, Winchester, St Paul’s, Wycombe Abbey, Cheltenham Ladies, City of London, among others. His IELTS students have a 100% record of gaining the required score to enter their first choice university.

James’ approach to teaching is positive, encouraging and patient – his lessons are fun, enjoyable and dynamic, with a big emphasis on building confidence and resilience. In addition to tutoring, James has mentored students who have, for various reasons, needed extra help and support, and has a great deal of experience teaching students with SEN.

Testimonials

“My son Sam was having problems with his English and had not received any offers from the
schools he’d applied to at 11+ as a result of these difficulties. His confidence was extremely
low and he wasn’t making progress at school. James was fantastic. He did an amazing job
both on the academic side and on the motivational and psychological side. Things went from
a failure to a great success at 13+. Sam had spent two years thinking he wasn’t good enough
but he now has received an offer from every school he applied for and he will be going to St
Paul’s.”

“I am guardian to Emma, who James helped with her 11+ entrance exams. Emma is a bright
student from China who wanted to go to Wycombe Abbey but she was having difficulties
with her English, and was not at all prepared for the 11+ exams. James was brilliant at
preparing Emma for the English exams, verbal reasoning, and also interview. James also did
fantastically well at improving Emma’s English language skills which had been holding her
back for some time. Emma really enjoyed James’ lessons and got so much out of them. We’re
all extremely grateful for James’ help.”

“Rosie was doing well in English but was not quite achieving the grades that she was aiming
for in her Literature and Language GCSEs so we asked James to help. James showed her
exactly what was needed to improve her scores, and also showed her how to properly
structure her essays – something she’d had difficulty with – and she was able to use this
structure for all the different types of questions. James also gave Rosie a massive boost to
her confidence which made a huge difference. Rosie found James’ lessons really inspiring.
She achieved a 9 in both language and literature.”

“I needed a score of 6.0 on my IELTS to go to my first choice university which was UCL. I had
failed the exam already and I was able to take it once more before the deadline. I started an
intensive course with James and we were working on all the parts of the exam – reading,
writing, speaking and listening. He made everything so easy for me and he explained things
very clearly and gave me excellent tips! I had all the techniques that I needed. He is a brilliant
IELTS teacher. I scored 6.5 and went to the university I wanted. I’m incredibly grateful to
James for the help. He’s a great teacher!”