Alexis: Bolton tutor

Certified Tutor

I have had a huge interest in Classics from an early age and have experienced many different aspects of this subject from a museum and university to a school environment. As Classics is a rich subject, incorporating many topics: Classical Civilisations, Latin, Ancient History and Ancient Greek, I am a great believer that this subject plays an important part in a school's curriculum, enabling pupils to develop a firm understanding of who we are today.

Whilst at Rochester Grammar School, a highly selective girls' school, I was in charge of GCSE Latin, teaching year 9 and two year 10 classes (a total of 72 pupils), which were part of an accelerated curriculum. I was responsible for the sixth form classics classes for two years and became an OCR examiner and assessor for A2 Ancient History and Classics papers eight years ago, and have been invited to be an assessor again for this forthcoming summer examination period. I was the sole teacher of the sixth form Classics classes and they learnt a range of topics from Greek comedy to classical Athenian culture. The culture of Athens and comic drama in the ancient world are in fact the topics that I am responsible for marking and assessing for OCR. I have also taught year 12 IB and year 13 IB Latin and the A2 Latin prose and grammar modules. I had sole responsibility for helping the year 12 IB pupils with their research dossiers, where the pupils were covering diverse topics from the Mithraic cult to propaganda instigated by Julius Caesar in his lead up to becoming dictator for life (dictator perpetuo).


In my second year at Rochester Grammar School, I taught RS and History to six year 7 classes which has broadened the range of subjects I can offer to teach. I now teach History and RS to Oxbridge level.

Whilst at Queen Mary's, a day and boarding girls' school in Yorkshire, I was Head of the Classics department. I taught Latin and Classics from years 7-11 at Queen Mary's and had the opportunity to teach A level Latin and Classics out of school hours to former Queen Mary's girls. Queen Mary's also gave me the opportunity to teach in the Junior school too and, therefore, I gained valuable experience in dealing with younger years, as well as older girls which means I can offer Latin tuition to children of primary school age.


At Chatham Grammar School for Girls, another selective girls' school, I shared the responsibility of GCSE OCR Latin and A Level Classics classes whilst teaching KS3 and KS4 History and RE. I was in charge of the A level Classics teaching for year 13 for three years and my recent cohort of 10 year 13s gained 100% A*-B grades. I also introduced GCSE AQA Classics as an after-school course and had a group of 12 pupils who recently sat the exam and gained 100% A*-B grades. In my last few months at Chatham, I was also in charge of teaching the new 9-1 GCSE Latin OCR course. At Chatham, I also created links with the Kent University Classical and Archaeological Department. This involved taking sixth form students for a day trip to experience a 'Classics Day' and lecturers also visited the school to provide talks to years 11-13 about studying Classics in further education.

I have also worked as Head of Latin in a small prep school in Tunbridge Wells teaching the Latin and Classical Greek Common Entrance ISEB course and Scholarship Latin to small groups. Most recently I have taught GCSE English literature and language and IB English.