Literature of the Hart

Would you be interested in daytime creative writing group online? This is aimed at children who are home educated and by offering a group event I will be able to keep costs affordable. I am an former Headteacher and Head of English, a member of the National Association for the Teaching of English Secondary Committee.  I studied English at Cambridge and am now an Educational Consultant. The cost per session will depend on the number of pupils - the more participants, the lower I can make the cost for each family! I aim to make this accessible to a range of ages as I successfully use my teaching materials with students from Year 11 right down to Year 5 - obviously with differentiation and challenge as appropriate. If you are interested,  please contact me via the Contact Page to find out more  

Have you seen your first snowdrop of the year yet? I've just started to see them here in Devon in the UK where I live.  There's something exciting about getting a glimpse of these first flowers of the year. Keeping our eyes open, and getting out into nature, is the first step to actually writing about nature.  Go out for a walk!  Listen to the sounds around you!  Look up, look around, look down! Using this image of a snowdrop, try to describe what you see. Look at how the flower hands down - does it remind you of anything? Look at the sunlight beautifully catching the petals and leaves - does it make you think of anything? And how does it make you feel - happy, sad, excited, something different? Here's a short poem I wrote about snowdrops a few years ago, and you can read more of my nature writing on my poetry blog  https://lif4gd.home.blog/  : The snowdrops Appear As if to remind Us Of resilience Each new year. My  Hartland English Guides   ...

This recent series of posts has been focusing on how to improve writing by using Sherlock Holmes stories. Today's post is about a rarely used punctuation mark: the colon! Students often shy away from using it, but as an English tutor I teach this punctuation skill as it can really improve the complexity and elegance of anyone's writing style. The simplest way to use a colon is to introduce a list without having to use extra words. Example Sherlock Holmes had all of his equipment: a notebook, a pen and a magnifying glass. Have a go - or ask your child to have a go, if you are helping them - at writing some examples of your own, using a colon to introduce a short list.  I’ve helped you with the first two. 1. I looked around his room and noticed three different things : ...? 2. On his table were…? 3. ...? If you'd like to know more about using colons and semicolons, my ebook in the Hartland English Guides series, called A Dash of Punctuation : Colons and Semicolons can h...

Writing to describe is an essential skill for students. Importantly, it's tested at GCSE, and it's a skill I teach as an English tutor. Take a look at this extract from the great Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles : "We had left the fertile country behind and beneath us. We looked back on it now, the slanting rays of a low sun turning the streams to threads of gold and glowing on the red earth new turned by the plough and the broad tangle of the woodlands. The road in front of us grew bleaker and wilder over huge russet and olive slopes, sprinkled with giant boulders. Now and then we passed a moorland cottage, walled and roofed with stone, with no creeper to break its harsh outline. Suddenly we looked down into a cuplike depression, patched with stunted oaks and firs which had been twisted and bent by the fury of years of storm. Two high, narrow towers rose over the trees. The driver pointed with his whip." “Baskerville Hall,” said he. Why is it so ef...

Many parents want to help their children improve their writing.  But how do you do this? Today's post is about a fun approach I use that appeals to children to help them improve their writing by learning from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. Here's the opening to one of my favourite short stories about Sherlock Holmes, called ' The Red-Headed League ': "I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair." It's a sophisticated opening sentence, a multiple complex sentence, and students may need help with some of the vocabulary. But in my experience they enjoy the challenge of writing a similarly structured sentence: "I went to see my friend, ... , one day in ... , and found him in conversation with ... , a ...    ". Developing reading is one of the best ways to impr...

Students can improve their writing very quickly once they understand the grammar that lies behind sentence construction. Unfortunately, many have missed out on this essential teaching. My Five Sentence Types Workbook  is part of The Hartland English Guides   - the most popular page on this blog - and it distills 30 years of English teaching in a simple step-by-step way to introduce students to the grammatical rules behind compound sentences, complex sentences, and the other three main types I discuss. I use this ebook regularly in my teaching, and the effect it has on students' writing still amazes me!  It frees them to use their natural creativity not only correctly but also more imaginatively as they gain confidence in using a wider variety of sentence structures. This is the story on which the ebook is based - and in it you can see all five sentence types used... “Hello!” I was on my way home, which still lay twenty minutes’ walk away, in the early evening, when I noti...

Creative writing is a crucial core skill for students, whether it's for GCSE or 11+ or for generally improving their all-round writing skills. Unfortunately many children lack confidence in this skill but again and again I find that changing attitudes and performance can be a fairly quick process once pupils are given the right support, the right structures, the right skills and the right encouragement. My creative writing ebook But I'm no good at creative writing!  is available as an ebook on Amazon via this link , and also on Lulu to download for those who are not able to use Kindle software via this link . It is currently 20% off, for a limited time only. I also offer tuition, for creative writing and all other English and English Literature skills and interests, from Year 5 to Year 13 and beyond, including university and Oxbridge interview preparation and help supporting students in higher education. If you are interested in any of my services, you are entitled to a free 30...