Sarah

A former qualified solicitor, my more recent work has been in languages and education. The basis for this was my original French and German Honours degree from Oxford University and later the Diploma in German from the Institute of Linguists (now Chartered Institute of Linguists) and the City and Guilds Certificate in Further and Adult Education. I taught German part-time (Key stages 3 and 4) in a private school from 1998-2007 enabling GCSE pupils across the ability spectrum to achieve good results.
I have been giving individual tuition in German since 1998 and in French since 2009 including GCSE and A level tuition. Although I still give face to face tuition when circumstances permit, I have been tutoring online since 2020, mostly using the Zoom platform for which I have a subscription, and building up a good rapport with my students.
As regards tuition for exam qualifications, I have particular expertise in teaching the AQA GCSE and A level qualifications for German and French. However my background over recent years in working for exam boards as an examiner shows that I also have the facility to grasp the requirements of very different exam specifications. For example starting in 2011, I marked seven series of AQA’s AS level General Studies Society and Culture paper, gaining high ratings for the standard of my marking and the same applies to my marking for Cambridge International Examinations for which I have marked four series of their AS level Global Perspectives and Research Team Project unit, which involved marking video presentations and papers from students around the world.
As regards other aspect of my work with languages, I have been doing part-time commercial translating and proofreading work from German to English for a translation agency in Germany since 2015. Additionally I gained a Cert TESOL in 2017 and took part in the 2-week CAVE programme administered by Languages Training & Development through the EU's Erasmus + Programme in Hungary in September 2017. This involved classroom teaching and giving one:one lessons to ESOL(EFL) speakers. I have done some online freelance work as a teacher with Train The Teacher (Hong Kong) . I was also engaged in the summer of 2021 in recording and proofreading work for a course for English learners in China. The ESOL training and work has enriched my teaching of German and French by giving me fresh insights into the teaching of spoken language, grammar and reading comprehension.

Tutoring Experience

Whether online or in person, I aim to tailor lessons to students' requirements: for example devising a nine month course in 2014 for a gap year student who wanted to take AS level German, enabling her to achieve her desired A grade. This tailored approach has been particularly the case in the Oxbridge coaching I have done. In 2016 I successfully coached a student, whom I had previously helped with A level French, for the Oxford University admission test (MLAT) and interview to study French there. In 2018 I gave two lessons to a student to help prepare her for an interview for German as part of a Joint Honours degree at Cambridge University and she gained a place at her first choice college. In 2019 I gave five months of lessons resulting in an A* grade to a student who needed an A or A* for German A level to take up an offer of a place at Oxford University. From 2020-2022 I taught one student the entire AQA A level German course online as her school did not offer the subject. She got an A* with full marks in Paper 2 (written work on a book and film). I then coached her for Oxford University admission which resulted in her obtaining a place at her first choice college to study German and Beginner Italian.

At GSCE level, I gave over a year's worth of tuition support to two students taking German in different schools who achieved Grades 9 and 8 in 2021 from quite low bases, one of them having been predicted only a Grade 4. Similarly a student who struggled initially to whom I had given two years of tuition in French achieved Grade 9 in GCSE in 2022 with full marks in the speaking component. The three GCSE students I have helped for French and German over this last year have also made significant progress from not very promising starts. I am also happy to teach adults needing to improve their language skills and an adult learner achieved a Grade 9 for French GSCE in 2021 as a result of my focussed help for her.
I have had a good number of other students who have stayed with me for long periods because they could see they were making good progress and wanted to attain the next level. For example I gave a year's worth of lessons to a student taking GCSE French, raising his performance from around grade 4-5 level to the top grade of 9 when he passed the exam in 2019. This encouraged him to go on to take AS French for which I also gave tuition and he achieved an A in this. In 2019 I gave a course of 24 lessons to a lady wanting to learn German for family reasons. This took her from post-beginner level to the level where she was able to join an intermediate level adult class at Sheffield University. Over the last two years she has been back to me regularly for extra tuition in conjunction with her attendance at Goethe Institute courses for higher intermediate level learners. I have been teaching German for nearly three years to a man who started from scratch when he knew he had a job move to Germany coming up, and who has carried on with lessons whilst in Germany to improve the level of German he has gained. Since April 2023 I have been giving frequent conversation-focussed lessons in French to a man for whom learning French is a long-term project because he has bought a second house in France

Tutoring Approach

As I have already indicated in the section marked Experience, I consider it very important to tailor my teaching to the individual’s needs and I have demonstrated this in the courses referred to above that I have devised myself for individual students.

Whether I am tutoring adults or school age students, I believe it is important to ascertain what the student's goals are and assess what kind of help that particular student needs to make progress and achieve targets. I consider there are times when it may be worthwhile to digress from the lesson plans I have made, to go over something that the student is finding difficult. I hope to communicate my enthusiasm for the subject and be engaging and imaginative. I aim to be encouraging and diplomatic in giving any feedback to students and appreciate that people learn at different speeds. If I am asked something by a student to which I do not immediately know the answer, I believe it is important not to bluff, but to be helpful by showing the student the route towards the answer or if necessary, being prepared to find out the answer. With adult learners who are not focussing on exams, I consider it essential to take their hobbies and sphere of work into account in the preparation of lesson material in order to engage their interest fully.