Global english tutor-MA English, 17+experience, TEFL certified, GCSE expert,Life in the UK exam preparation..all ages and levels. guaranteed success.

Find out more about Harinder

• 1. When did you develop an interest in your chosen field and in private tutoring? (detailed)

  I've been tutoring English independently since 2005, working with students on board exams and entrance prep. But there was a part of my background I hadn't really used yet. My MA was in Shakespeare, poetry, drama and fiction, and for years that side of things just sat quiet. I never felt drawn to a college lectureship either; I wanted something more hands-on, and honestly, an identity outside the field where I was already known.
  
  The UK's GCSE and 11 Plus system gave me exactly that challenge, so about four years ago I made it my focus. Before joining Superprof, I wanted an internationally recognised platform, something that would give parents browsing profiles online real confidence in my background. Superprof gave me that starting point, and let me build a reputation here on merit, without any local roots to fall back on.
  
  Private tutoring has stayed my only real choice for two reasons. I wanted to protect that separate identity, and I wanted teaching to remain something I chose to do every day, not a job inside an organisation telling me how to run it.

• 2. Tell us more about the subject you teach, the topics you like to discuss with students (and possibly those you like a little less).

  I teach GCSE English Language and Literature across AQA, Edexcel, OCR and Eduqas. After four years working across all four boards, I can usually guess which one a student is on just from how their exam paper is phrased.
  
  The parts I enjoy most have a bit of psychology tucked into them. Why can't Mercutio stop joking even while he's dying? What's actually going on with the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, who's a far more interesting character than most students give her credit for on a first read. I also like unseen texts and language analysis. It's basically a puzzle, and there's a nice moment when a student realises they can work through something they've never seen before using tools they already have.
  
  What I enjoy less, honestly, is when literary terms get taught as a checklist: find three metaphors and move on, without asking why the writer chose that image in that spot. I still teach the terminology, because exam boards expect it, but I try to keep pulling the conversation back to why it actually matters.

• 3. Did you have any role models; a teacher that inspired you?

  I never had one specific role model. Every English teacher I had became one, really, because English was always the subject closest to my heart. Each new teacher brought something different as I moved up through school, and I found myself drawn to their approach every time. What struck me most was a common thread running through all of them: they taught with a warm smile and clearly enjoyed the subject themselves, which made students want to listen. That's the combination I've tried to carry into my own teaching ever since. I want students to see that same enjoyment in me, so it becomes contagious rather than something they have to force. In the end my role model wasn't really a person, it was English itself, taught by whoever happened to be standing in front of the class with heart.

• 4. What do you think are the qualities required to be a good tutor?

  Most people would say patience is the key quality, and it matters, but for me it's really about understanding how each child thinks. Some children are natural talkers who'll tell you everything going on. Others hold a lot back and struggle to put it into words, even when there's good content in their head. A good tutor learns to read that difference and build comfort and trust alongside the patience. Keeping a smile when something goes wrong matters more than people realise too, because that's what tells a student it's fine to get things wrong on the way to learning them properly. So maybe it does all trace back to patience in the end, but for me the tutor's expression and how well they read a child count for just as much.

• 5. Provide a valuable anecdote related to your subject or your days at school.

  One anecdote that stays with me involves a specially-abled student whose parents just wanted him to pass his exam. He didn't want tutoring at first. I think he didn't want to feel like he was lacking something, or have that acknowledged outside his own family. On our first day he told me halfway through that time was up and we should stop, and I'll admit it stung a little. His mother apologised afterwards and explained he just needed time, and I could tell how much she'd been fighting for him behind the scenes, so I told her I'd stick with it.
  
  Slowly he started trusting the process. I kept things simple, used everyday examples he could relate to, and watched his confidence build as exams got closer. When his mother called to say he'd got a grade six, a result nobody, including him, thought was possible, I had tears in my eyes. That's one of the moments I'm proudest of, because it reminded me what patience and trust can do even when everyone's expectations are low.

• 6. What were the difficulties or challenges you faced or still facing in your subject?

  The biggest challenge is convincing students that English isn't as subjective as it looks from outside. Students who are strong at Maths or Science especially tend to assume English has no real answer and can't be studied properly. Showing them there's an actual method, that a grade 9 answer is a set of learnable moves rather than magic, takes time, because you're unteaching an assumption before you can teach anything new.
  
  The other challenge is more practical. Exam boards keep adjusting mark schemes and anthology texts, so a model answer that worked three years ago sometimes needs rebuilding from scratch once the assessment objectives shift. It keeps things interesting, if nothing else.

• 7. Do you have a particular passion? Is it teaching in general or an element of the subject or something completely different?

  Honestly it's less about the subject and more about a certain kind of student, the one who's clearly capable but has decided, usually because of one bad mark or an offhand comment, that they're "not an English person." Quietly proving that wrong is what's kept me in this after eighteen years of teaching overall, the last four of them focused specifically on GCSE and 11 Plus. I set up Alma Matters around that same idea: small groups and a proper diagnostic assessment at the start, so we're working from where a student's gaps actually are instead of guessing.

• 8. What makes you a Superprof (besides answering these interview questions :-P)?

  Probably that I've sat on both sides of the desk more than most. An MA in Shakespeare and Linguistics, a TEFL Level 5, and I'm also a government-accredited trainer back in Punjab, which meant teaching teachers rather than students, a different kind of pressure altogether. Eighteen years in teaching overall, four of them focused on GCSE and 11 Plus across all four exam boards, and more students over the years than I can accurately count anymore.
  
  But the less official answer: I'm the tutor who notices if you've gone quiet during a session and asks what's wrong before we carry on with the essay plan. That's mattered more than any qualification on the wall, in my experience.