I hold a PGCE from London University, Institute of Education, starting my teaching career as an ESOL, E2L, and MFL teacher in secondary schools in central London. I later specialised in literacy, and teaching students with dyslexia. More recently, I have taught English as a second language to adult students, both individually and in small groups at Berlitz. For the last two years, I have been teaching English to full classes of students, aged 11-18 at the European School, in Brussels.
I’ve noticed that almost all English teachers say they will adapt the course and the lessons to suit each learner. This was my first impulse too, but there’s no getting away from the fact that learning a language requires hard work and effort. However the teacher dresses it up, sometimes you just have to work at activities that hurt your brain, in order to progress. We aren’t doing our job as teachers if we don’t impose tried and tested structure and techniques to allow learning to take place.
Lessons are in the target language from the beginning, but don’t worry, I will patiently help you to understand by hand gesture, fragments of French, Spanish, or any other linguistic medium that comes to mind.
I am a native English speaker from England and I speak with a “BBC” accent. I have more than 25 years experience teaching English and drama in a wide variety of educational contexts. Though I teach in the target language, I am a fluent French speaker (C1), with a basic knowledge of Spanish.
My first career was in theatre and television, working variously as an actor, writer, producer, and location sound mixer. I bring this experience to my private teaching work, making me particularly suited to teaching, coaching, and supporting professionals working in the creative sector.