Daniel Andrew

Experience

After graduation, I worked for two years at a Spanish university (La Coruna), before beginning teacher training. After my PGCE, I then taught Spanish and French for almost eight years at King's Canterbury and the John Lyon School, Harrow.

More recently as a tutor, I have helped many students achieve top grades at Common Entrance, 13+, GCSE, A level and Pre-U. I have also prepared my tutees successfully for scholarships to schools such as Westminster and Eton.

Biography

I am a former secondary school teacher with almost eight years of teaching experience. I have taught mainly at independent schools, both day and boarding. I grew up in London, where I attended Latymer Upper School and following completion of a BA and MA in modern languages, I obtained a PGCE from the Institute of Education. During my career I have taught and examined French and Spanish GCSE (OCR and Edexel) and AS and A level Spanish (AQA, Edexel). I have taught both these subjects from year 7 and marked 11+ and 13+ entrance exams. Having attended numerous training seminars hosted by exam boards, I gained genuine first-hand experience of the exam process as a teacher examiner. I have also taught Critical Thinking and acted as a subject mentor for students applying to study Spanish and French at Oxford/Cambridge.

Personal Approach

Having spent a great deal of time in the classroom, I have come across all types of learning style and can alter my approach accordingly. I am genuinely enthused by my subject and aim to project my passion for all languages. I enjoy breaking down and demystifying the more complex aspects of language-learning and my experience of different types of syllabus has given me a great deal of confidence when teaching exam technique.

What I do when I am not tutoring

I aim to tutor and translate full-time for the next few years. My other main interest is politics, particularly European and Latin American issues, and I have recently written articles for several well-known publications. In my spare time, I like to travel and collect rare vinyl of all types of jazz-based music. When I have the energy, I also enjoy aikido.

Testimonials

''I wanted to personally thank Keystone for helping my son in French throughout his high school journey. His Keystone tutor was outstanding. Our weekly classes with Daniel not only helped steer him through the pandemic when classes moved online - and he had little opportunity to practice his French - but Daniel helped prep him for his GCSE exams where he got a solid A! Daniel gave my son the extra boost and confidence he needed, and he greatly enjoyed working with Daniel, and looked forward to the weekly sessions. I highly recommend him as a French tutor.'' (Parent of GCSE French student)

"All very good so far and we are hoping to book a couple more sessions next week - the online system is actually a very easy way to have tutoring and he has been really helpful."

"Daniel has helped my daughter turn around a situation where she was afraid of languages to one where she loves them. Heartfelt thanks - this goes way beyond the exams and will be of value to her for life". Mother of GCSE Spanish student

Our daughter is happily now working with Daniel on French and Spanish. He's terrific, has found a good way of teaching both together, and our daughter has great confidence in him, finds him bright, interesting, organised and sure-footed, and generally likes him a lot.

"We are very grateful to Daniel and you for all your many kindnesses and efforts these last few months. Daniel sets standards that other tutors should be keen (and might find hard) to follow. He has been an asset to us in so many ways -his knowledge, kindness, enormous patience and of course his professionalism to name but a few! We wish you all the very best for the future and will definitely recommend you to our friends and colleagues." (Mother of GCSE and CE Spanish/French students)

I finished all my Spanish exams! I just want to tell you how lucky and gratified I am to have you as my Spanish tutor, thank you very much for all your help, especially for my speaking! (GCSE Spanish student)

I thought that you would be delighted to hear that he has been awarded a King's scholarship. We know that this has been achieved by the support and encouragement by tutors like yourself. You were inspirational and very good at whisking him though the curriculum so that he was able to give his best. (Father of King's Scholarship student).

While teaching at the King's School Canterbury in 2008, The Good Schools Guide awarded our Spanish department the prize for Best Modern Language A Level Grades For Boys. In the last two years, I have helped several students achieve scholarships at Common Entrance to some of the UK's top Independent schools. I also work for the Cambridge IGCSE exam board as a Spanish Assessment Specialist.