Francesca

I am a graduate from Durham University with a degree in Spanish and Italian, and am also able to teach French and Religious Studies and up to GCSE level, as well as English as a foreign language. I am a qualified teacher working in a grammar school, am friendly and experienced in tutoring and dedicated to student language learning. I strongly believe in the great importance for both children and adults alike to speak a second, third or even fourth language. I have strong communication skills and am completely trilingual in English, Spanish and Italian. I am confident teaching both one-on-one and in small groups, and have experience in both.
My approach to tutoring is to tailor the teaching to the pupil. Every person learns in a slightly different way, and so I offer my first lesson for free so as to gauge and discuss the way in which I am going to teach the pupil. Particularly with languages, people have different strengths, and so some need more support with the oral skills and others with their writing etc. Once this is established, my approach is to make the lessons as enjoyable as possible, whilst also covering the content needed so that learning isn`t seen as a weekly chore! My focus for language would be to speak a lot in the language, giving instructions and explanation in both english and the target language, as this is the best way to really learn it - to be immersed and always hear the language spoken properly, rather than just written down! My approach to teaching Religious Studies is similar, as discussion of ideas is a key skill to have and a fantastic way for the pupil to really begin to understand what is being taught rather than just learning and regurgitating facts and information without any meaning.

Availability: Due to commitments, I am only available for evenings. My current availability is Monday 5pm - 6pm, Friday after 5pm, and Wednesday 5pm until 6pm. I can be available on Saturdays and Sundays during the day.

Willing to travel: 10 miles

Experience: I spent the third year of my degree teaching languages abroad. I began by working as a teaching assistant in an English International Primary School in Spain, working to assist the class teacher by taking my own groups of children, particularly those who were learning Spanish for the first time as the school had children of multiple nationalities in attendance. I would take these groups and teach the basic knowledge they needed in order to participate better in class and begin to profit from their school lessons. I then moved to Italy, where I taught English as a second language in local schools. As well as that work, I was a private English tutor for children whose ages ranged from 7 to 14. Many of my private lessons were one-on-one, but I also taught one group of 6 children every week. One of my pupils had severe dyslexia and so I had to adapt my teaching to suit his learning, but relished the challenge and learnt a lot about dealing with his learning difficulties. Teachers and parents of all pupils I taught expressed seeing a real improvement and change in the abilities of the children.

I am now a secondary MFL teacher in a grammar school having completed my PGCE.

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