Writing

I am an ideas person! 

I have facilitated creative writing classes for adults, teens and children. These feature original, whimsical prompts such as, "imagine if shampoo and fire extinguishers swapped places in the world." Participants have about ten minutes to respond, which helps to redirect perfectionism and procrastination into action. This builds confidence. We share our responses, then everyone can hear a story and marvel at one prompt's diverse outputs. So much fun! My reactions are always encouraging and constructive and this positively influences the group.

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During one-to-one tutoring, I frequently invent new prompts inspired by my tutees' interests. I can also edit and refine existing work, retaining the original voice but tightening it up a little. 

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​​Ways I adapt to home educated children include:

• Offering to scribe or type for them to get words down quickly.

• Visiting their house for sessions so they are in a familiar environment. 

• A low pressure, adaptable approach. If something isn't resonating we can happily alter it. I am confident in my experience and improvisational abilities. This is why I favour building skills over exam cramming.

• Breaks and (within reason) acknowledgement of tangents, which helps with energy management and rapport.

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You are welcome to contact me - let's see if I am the right fit for your situation and can add a bit of semi-structured fun to English!

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This is what parents have said about me (used with permission) :-)​

"My 11-year-old daughter had one-on-one creative writing sessions with Kate, and she loved the sessions. Kate has fantastic energy - she's fun, interesting and dynamic, and she built a great rapport with my daughter from the start. She is knowledgeable, supportive, and adaptable, tailoring the sessions to match my daughter's interests and writing style. My daughter thoroughly enjoyed each session, gained a lot from them, and her approach to writing really matured during that time. I highly recommend Kate to anyone looking for an engaging and skilled creative writing mentor."

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"I wanted to give the fabulous Kate Sharp a shout out and recommend her for anyone who is looking for some help with English.

My 15 year old is most certainly neurodivergent and is on the waiting list for assessment (we'll get there one day). They have some processing issues and English is something they've struggled with in particular. We were trying to tackle English language IGCSE but previous trauma around the subject was getting in the way. After a while trying to find a more traditional tutor to help us and not really getting anywhere I came across Kate.

Kate came along to meet us and I could see from the outset that J was relaxed in her presence. Kate rose to the challenge of trying to help us and between us we agreed that she wasn't teaching to the curriculum but in the short time we had would try and help J get over the trauma and start to enjoy being creative with language. She definitely achieved that, and it was a joy to hear J happily chatting with her, writing and story making.

Kate put a lot of effort into preparing for the sessions and adapting her approach to J, which included taking a big interest in J's interests!

We're waiting for exam results, but honestly the fact that J took the exam and gave it a good shot is miraculous, and I credit Kate for helping remove some of the stumbling blocks to make that possible.

So bit of a long story, but if anyone is looking for someone creative to help their kid with English, and in particular writing, I would wholeheartedly recommend having a chat with Kate. She's also a home ed Mum.

I would particularly recommend her for kids that need a gentle, relationship based approach and for those with some SEN needs."

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