Dr David

After studying History at University, I became an A Level History teacher at a large Further Education College in Sussex, where I eventually became Head of History. At the same time, I also obtained an MA in History and eventually a PhD. In 2016 I left Further Education and joined a University department as Lecturer in History.

Working across the sector, including in Russell Group Universities, I teach and research on a wide variety of British and non-British History. I'm the author of three books - with my fourth on the way in 2027 - and have won funding and prizes for my work.

Despite working at a University, I continued to teach A Levels as a private history tutor, and have done so now for 13 years.

I live in Sussex with my wife and two very energetic children.

With 17 years experience teaching History at both A Level and Undergraduate level, I have taught almost every History topic imaginable! From The Norman Conquest to Margaret Thatcher, from US Civil Rights to the Partition in India, my expertise range across the medieval, early modern, and more periods, and from British, European, and Global History.

I have also taught all three British exam boards: Edexcel, OCR, and AQA, and am particularly adept at making sure students learn the precise demands of their particular exam boards, teaching students differently depending on the exam board they are being assessed by. As both a teacher and head of department, I focused in particular on the skills students need to acquire in order to push into the highest levels (5 / 6 - A/A*). Some students need support due to having mixed part of the course due to teacher absence or their own; sometimes because it is challenging; other times due to the sheer scale of content demanded in History A Level. In contrast, other students are fine with the content side of things but need help with skills, whether because their own teachers haven't had time to focus on anything but content, or never bothered to teach them, or the skills themselves are too challenging to master. My own experience is that a mixture of content and skills is important, and students often need support with both to succeed.

There are no guarantees in tuition or indeed teaching, but I have never not been able to help students raise their grade by at least one level, often it's more like two. This year (2026) my best student leaps from a predicted C grade to A/B/A* in their final History exams (that had more to do with them than me - they worked incredibly hard!).

What I would say is that I have a history (get it?!) of high student outcomes. As Head of History, I managed four History lecturers across two campuses, whilst continuing to teach my own class load. In this role I implemented the new 2 year linear A level curriculum which the exam boards continue to assess students in (this will change shortly as new A Levels are launched). As Head, I improved ALPs (value added outcomes) from 8 to 2, placing the department within the top 95% of History performing departments within the UK. 75% of my students obtained Higher Grades (B - A*). As a personal tutor, most of my students achieve A/A*. I have never had a student who didn't get a B grade or higher. Many of my students go on to study at Oxbridge.