Elliott

Despite my joint Swiss and Spanish nationality I was born and grew up in the ex-French protectorate of Morocco, therefore I went through the French education system and was subsequently brought up as a traditional french native speaker. I have since lived in France for over 10 years. I have just moved to Southampton to pursue the next stage of my carrier in Teaching. It is a path that I am eager to follow because it combines my skills of communicating with young people as well as a passion for capturing the interests of students and helping them to reach their full potential. Teaching is a vocation that I have found to be very rewarding, and I am eagerly looking forward to putting my academic training into practice.

Availability: I will be available from the 10th of September to the end of the school year.

Willing to travel: 10 miles

Experience: I have worked in the UK before as part of my Undergraduate Degree in 2015 for a year as a Language assistant for French in Oaks Park High School (Newbury Park). I was responsible for holding conversation and debate groups with students from year groups 7 to 13, as well as helping them with their French language and grammar skills. I built good relationships with these students, who respected me as their teacher whilst also feeling comfortable enough to ask questions and ask for extra help where needed. This experience not only consolidated and improved my teaching skills, but also taught me that I have no problem integrating into the workplace of a different country. Of course in able to do this I had to successfully pass a DBS check safe guarding is something I am very aware of and that I wholeheartedly support and understand.

Inspired by this great experience I decided to do my Masters 1 in Teaching at the University of Reims Champagne Ardenne + ESPE Reims (teacher training centre) which I completed this year. During this Masters we studied the key principles of teaching such as Teaching Theory, Linguistics, Translation, Computing and Research work. I have successfully passed this year, particularly enjoying and excelling in the understanding of teaching theories, document analysis, and oral presentation. I believe that my oral communication is one of my strongest assets as I am able to clearly communicate my ideas and theories at the same level in English as in French, and of course adapt my style of language suitably to the audience.

As part of this year I have also completed one month of work experience of Teaching and observation, which was divided into two, two week placements. The first two weeks were spent at the Lycée Marc Chagall, Reims this is the most prestigious school in Reims and therefore this experience exposed me to the style of teaching that is expected in the highest achieving schools. In contrast, the second two weeks were spent in the Collège Joliot Curie, a school in one of the most troubled areas of the region. This second experience showed me what is needed to catch and maintain the attention of students who may not often enjoy being at school, and adapt my teaching style to suit a wide range of needs. These are all skills applicable to every area of teaching and will be transferable in many different situations. Academically speaking, my tutors were very impressed with my work during these placements, for which I achieved one of my highest grades of the year.