Robert

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.

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.

I run the UK branch of a French NGO that aims to teach people and businesses about how to become ecologically sustainable. I'm also doing a social impact driven fellowship called On Purpose.