Robert

Experience

- 13+ French

- 13+ Spanish

- GCSE French

- GCSE Spanish

- A Level French

- A Level Spanish

I have been fortunate enough to know from a very young age what I wanted to do in life. As I got older, I discovered more and more that a job that enabled me to work with young people that had drive and enthusiasm was, for me, the most vibrant and rewarding use of my time and energy. I believe that I am an excellent teacher, moreover, I have a real love for what I do and my enthusiasm for both my subject and my job are recognized by my colleagues, my pupils and my students’ parents. I love education as much as I love learning languages, and I’m currently learning my fifth language! Whilst I began my career in marketing, I soon gave into the inevitable and trained as a teacher.

Headteachers with whom I have worked have often commended me as being an asset to their staff. Among the reasons for this are that I work well to deadlines whilst under pressure, but more importantly, that I have honed the ability to nurture students through the various stages of language acquisition (teaching them exactly what is required to get A* grades in oral and written answers as well as in listening and reading exams). Consequently, throughout my teaching career, my classes have consistently achieved higher grades than what they were targeted. And as a result of this recurrent success, the schools where I have worked have asked me to mentor teachers, lead the creation of resources for French and Spanish and head up one-to-one sessions for pupils who are falling behind.

Biography

I am originally from West Wales. I went to Monkton Combe School, Bath, before going to Cardiff University where I studied French and Welsh. My first time in front of the classroom was during my gap year, in Rwanda, where I taught English. I then worked in Eswatini where I led a non-formal education project that aimed to get kids back into school. On returning to the UK I did the Teach First graduate scheme, gained a TEFL qualification and began working as a French and Spanish teacher. I spent the next eight years teaching in both state and private schools. After finishing Teach First I taught at Cranleigh School where I taught French and Spanish. Following my time there I worked at Reading Blue Coats School where I taught French and Spanish and advised the modern languages department there on how to teach the Edexcel iGCSE course. Finally, until July 2022 I worked for four years at West London Free School where I taught French and Spanish and trained a number of incoming members of staff. In all three of these schools, I always made time to pioneer extra-curricular interventions that targeted pupils who were underperforming in both French and Spanish at GCSE.

Personal Approach

When I was twenty-two I bought a one-way ticket to Spain with the sole intention of learning Spanish. I had never had a Spanish lesson and I was a total beginner. After no more than three months I was entirely fluent. Learning Spanish ab initio has enabled me to empathise with pupils who are learning a language that, to them, seems impossible to master. I believe that this is what makes me adept at teaching languages to pupils who are struggling with the subject and who thus need some unthreatening assistance. This approach has enabled me to help hundreds of students gain a complete mastery over complex grammar, to bring order to chaotic approaches to learning vocabulary and to deliver masterclasses in exam techniques to both pupils and other MFL teachers that I have mentored.

What I do when I am not tutoring

Whenever there's a holiday on the horizon I will fly my bike out to mainland Europe or Asia and cycle back to London. Closer to home, however, I have got involved in my local community by running a homework club for children who fell behind over lockdown. And in July 2022 I graduated with distinction in an MA in International Development and Education at UCL.

Testimonials

I have learnt more French grammar after three tutorials with Rob than I did during the years of French lessons I sat through prior to this.

French tutee

Rob really gave our daughter a taste for languages after he worked with her to learn beginner's French

Year 7 parent

Rob has been really helpful helping our son with Year 11 French. He used to find French daunting but Rob has helped him bring order to his revision and has made every minute of the tutorials count

Year 11 parent

The feedback from our son is that Rob has successfully explained the passé composé in less than an hour. Until now, this was something that countless teachers, through countless lessons, had failed to achieve.

Year 10 parent

Rob was able to take a big-picture approach to tutoring our son. He knew exactly what we were asking for and was flexible with timings when we needed to change things last minute. He also responded to emails and texts almost immediately.

Year 7 parent