, First published 2024
(c) 2024 Dominic Salles
All rights reserved. The right of Dominic Salles to be identified as the
Author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. No part of this work
may* be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronical, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Author.
Dominic Salles runs Mr Salles Teaches English, the YouTube channel
where 22% of students went up 3 grades from their mocks, 21%
achieved a grade 7, and 55% achieved grade 8 and 9. It has
133,000 subscribers, and over 5 million views a year.
He has been an English teacher for 30 years, which makes him both
pretty old and incredibly wise. Seriously, it takes 10,000 hours to
truly master something, and that normally takes about 10 years. You
thought he was joking about the wisdom part? (No, I really do know
my manure – yes, it’s just me writing this in the third person,
because that’s how these biographies go).
He still lives in Swindon, with his workaholic wife Deirdre. His jiu-
jitsu-loving ex-engineer son, Harry, has moved to Shoreditch and
lives on the site of Shakespeare’s first theatre. Destiny. For those of
you who remember Bob, he is now an ex-dog. It’s curtains for him
and The Curtain for Harry. (Until next weekend when he is moving
house).
His daughter Jess has moved to New Zealand where the surf is
higher, and the rugby is better than Wales. He spent three months in
Andorra in 2022, learning to snowboard. He is not as cool as he
thinks. In fact he has just got back from Andorra and is suffering
from concussion right now…
His sister Jacey is an actress, famous for her Spanish accent, on
your TV screens in shows like Casualty and Cold Feet. She would be
hilarious in her own YouTube channel. Tweet her to let her know.
,He drives a Toyota Prius and had solar panels fitted this year to
offset his enormous carbon footprint.
Since you are still here, you might like to know that he grew up in
Ibiza, his father gambled away two businesses and the family home,
so 10 year old Mr Salles became an illegal immigrant in Canada,
along with his mum and sister, before getting deported to the UK a
year later, being homeless for 17 months, and receiving free school
meals for the whole of his secondary school career. He went to 11
schools in total: 3 in London, 3 in Canada, and 5 in Ibiza.
He trained as a primary school teacher, packed it in because small
kids infuriated him, and did an English degree, became a highly
skilled tax inspector for four years, before taking a 50% salary cut to
follow his wife into teaching, aged 28, and then refused any sort of
promotion for 10 years so he could just learn how to teach.
He was happy in this life of poverty, became a strongman – yes, the
lorry pulling kind – then a father, and put another 10,000 hours into
being head of English, and then a further 10,000 into being a school
leader.
Because he’s had this sort of obsessive experience, his books,
teaching and advice are generally pretty different from the advice
given by other teachers. Don’t let that scare you. He doesn’t see
things that other teachers don’t because he is crazy, it is just
because he has been obsessing about it for soooo long.
It also convinces him that exams are damaging the study of English,
that they encourage teachers to have very low expectations because
what passes for a grade 7 these days is not hard and, truth be told,
not very good. Even grade 9 is not that difficult, if you study hard.
So, his current obsession is showing average students the simplest
way they can get top grades, and top students how they can quickly
master the skills for grade 9 and beyond.
And, you know, maybe realise that English can be fun and a lifelong
joy.
, OTHER GRADE 9 GUIDES BY MR
SALLES
Language
The Mr Salles Guide to 100% at AQA GCSE English Language
The Mr Salles Guide to Awesome Story Writing
The Mr Salles Quick Guide to Awesome Description
The Mr Salles Ultimate Guide to Description
The Mr Salles Quick Guide to Grammar, Punctuation and
Spelling
The Mr Salles Ultimate Guide to Persuasive Writing
The Mr Salles Guide to 100% in AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 1 Question 2
The Mr Salles Guide to 100% in AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 1 Question 3
The Mr Salles Guide to 100% in AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 1 Question 4
The Mr Salles Guide to 100% in AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 1 Question 5
The Mr Salles Guide to 100% in AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 2 Question 2
The Mr Salles Guide to 100% in AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 2 Question 3
The Mr Salles Guide to 100% in AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 2 Question 4
The Mr Salles Guide to 100% in AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 2 Question 5
20 Top Grade GCSE Story Plots: Boost Your Grade with the Secrets
of Structure
Cracking the Code: How Top Students Revise for GCSE English
Literature
The Mr Salles Guide to GCSE English Literature
(c) 2024 Dominic Salles
All rights reserved. The right of Dominic Salles to be identified as the
Author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. No part of this work
may* be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronical, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Author.
Dominic Salles runs Mr Salles Teaches English, the YouTube channel
where 22% of students went up 3 grades from their mocks, 21%
achieved a grade 7, and 55% achieved grade 8 and 9. It has
133,000 subscribers, and over 5 million views a year.
He has been an English teacher for 30 years, which makes him both
pretty old and incredibly wise. Seriously, it takes 10,000 hours to
truly master something, and that normally takes about 10 years. You
thought he was joking about the wisdom part? (No, I really do know
my manure – yes, it’s just me writing this in the third person,
because that’s how these biographies go).
He still lives in Swindon, with his workaholic wife Deirdre. His jiu-
jitsu-loving ex-engineer son, Harry, has moved to Shoreditch and
lives on the site of Shakespeare’s first theatre. Destiny. For those of
you who remember Bob, he is now an ex-dog. It’s curtains for him
and The Curtain for Harry. (Until next weekend when he is moving
house).
His daughter Jess has moved to New Zealand where the surf is
higher, and the rugby is better than Wales. He spent three months in
Andorra in 2022, learning to snowboard. He is not as cool as he
thinks. In fact he has just got back from Andorra and is suffering
from concussion right now…
His sister Jacey is an actress, famous for her Spanish accent, on
your TV screens in shows like Casualty and Cold Feet. She would be
hilarious in her own YouTube channel. Tweet her to let her know.
,He drives a Toyota Prius and had solar panels fitted this year to
offset his enormous carbon footprint.
Since you are still here, you might like to know that he grew up in
Ibiza, his father gambled away two businesses and the family home,
so 10 year old Mr Salles became an illegal immigrant in Canada,
along with his mum and sister, before getting deported to the UK a
year later, being homeless for 17 months, and receiving free school
meals for the whole of his secondary school career. He went to 11
schools in total: 3 in London, 3 in Canada, and 5 in Ibiza.
He trained as a primary school teacher, packed it in because small
kids infuriated him, and did an English degree, became a highly
skilled tax inspector for four years, before taking a 50% salary cut to
follow his wife into teaching, aged 28, and then refused any sort of
promotion for 10 years so he could just learn how to teach.
He was happy in this life of poverty, became a strongman – yes, the
lorry pulling kind – then a father, and put another 10,000 hours into
being head of English, and then a further 10,000 into being a school
leader.
Because he’s had this sort of obsessive experience, his books,
teaching and advice are generally pretty different from the advice
given by other teachers. Don’t let that scare you. He doesn’t see
things that other teachers don’t because he is crazy, it is just
because he has been obsessing about it for soooo long.
It also convinces him that exams are damaging the study of English,
that they encourage teachers to have very low expectations because
what passes for a grade 7 these days is not hard and, truth be told,
not very good. Even grade 9 is not that difficult, if you study hard.
So, his current obsession is showing average students the simplest
way they can get top grades, and top students how they can quickly
master the skills for grade 9 and beyond.
And, you know, maybe realise that English can be fun and a lifelong
joy.
, OTHER GRADE 9 GUIDES BY MR
SALLES
Language
The Mr Salles Guide to 100% at AQA GCSE English Language
The Mr Salles Guide to Awesome Story Writing
The Mr Salles Quick Guide to Awesome Description
The Mr Salles Ultimate Guide to Description
The Mr Salles Quick Guide to Grammar, Punctuation and
Spelling
The Mr Salles Ultimate Guide to Persuasive Writing
The Mr Salles Guide to 100% in AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 1 Question 2
The Mr Salles Guide to 100% in AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 1 Question 3
The Mr Salles Guide to 100% in AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 1 Question 4
The Mr Salles Guide to 100% in AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 1 Question 5
The Mr Salles Guide to 100% in AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 2 Question 2
The Mr Salles Guide to 100% in AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 2 Question 3
The Mr Salles Guide to 100% in AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 2 Question 4
The Mr Salles Guide to 100% in AQA GCSE English Language
Paper 2 Question 5
20 Top Grade GCSE Story Plots: Boost Your Grade with the Secrets
of Structure
Cracking the Code: How Top Students Revise for GCSE English
Literature
The Mr Salles Guide to GCSE English Literature
