Lower Secondary
German

Herzlich willkommen! Welcome to German! I am really looking forward to supporting you in your German learning, and I wish you well with your studies at Wolsey Hall Oxford.

I love languages and they (particularly German) have always played an important role in my life. I am German on my mother’s side and have relatives in Berlin and Leipzig with whom I have close contact. I also have good friends in Hessen where I spent my year as a Language Assistant and, later on, from leading Exchanges there as part of my job as a Languages Teacher.

I speak French and Portuguese too and am very grateful that I learned Portuguese at the age of seven when we lived in Brazil as a family for 5 years. I took it up again when studying for my A levels and subsequently chose to do a degree in German with Portuguese at Newcastle University.

Since completing my PGCE in German with French I have taught in two comprehensive schools. Being a Languages teacher is very rewarding and I have learned a lot from it. I am used to dealing with the huge varieties in students’ ways of learning and I have seen how the assessment and marking of students’ work have developed and become much more “student friendly” in recent years. Students need to know how they have done, but also more crucially, how to improve and to be encouraged by praise and positive feedback.

Currently I am taking a break from full time teaching and working for Wolsey Hall Oxford is part of a new and exciting chapter in my life. I am working part time as a private Tutor which I find is an interesting alternative to teaching full classes. It is fantastic to be able to give students one to one attention and seeing progress happening instantly. Not working full time is also giving me the opportunity to have more of a work/ life balance. I enjoy being physically active: running, walking and doing exercise routines. I love knitting, reading and watching thrillers, travelling to Germany and to the Caribbean and baking cakes. I am also considering learning a new language, Italian.

So I hope you’ll join me in finding language learning a hugely enjoyable, rewarding and useful experience. Who knows one day, it might not only give you the chance to travel and meet all sorts of new people, but it might even provide you with a fulfilling career!

I look forward to helping you enjoy the French or German languages as much as I do! My life-long love of Modern Languages began at school and then took me on to study French and German at Oxford University where I obtained an MA. The third year of my degree course saw me living and working in Köln where I taught as an English language assistant in a grammar school, business English to adults at the Cathedral language school and even at a farm machinery factory! I also spent three summers working for a travel company in Paris and the Vendée region of France.

After leaving university, I pursued a career in marketing but, over time, found that I wasn’t getting as much opportunity to use my languages as I would have liked. I began to turn my thoughts to teaching and found that I really enjoyed working with students as a private Tutor, helping them to boost their confidence and enjoyment of languages. My students and I have great fun together as they overcome any language inhibitions they have. It has been fantastic to see many of them achieve higher grades than they initially expected. Several students have gone on to study languages at university, and it has been great to see their love of languages lead them in the same direction as myself!

Once both of my young daughters were at school, I began to study for a PGCE in Modern Languages with the Open University. As a distance learning course, this gave me a great insight into the benefits (and challenges!) of home study. I know what it’s like to be studying alone at home and you can be sure that I will be ready to give you just the support you might need! I have taught both German and French to students in Primary and Secondary schools around Oxfordshire but now focus my work on tutoring. I enjoy the opportunity this gives me to work closely with many different students and love being able to tailor how I teach to suit their different needs and learning styles.

When I’m not tutoring, I love to travel with my husband and children. It’s wonderful introducing my children to other European cultures, and listening to them trying out a little of the local language! When I’m at home, I love nothing more than a great book, terrific food or a good film. Being based in the beautiful Cotswolds, I never have to go far to enjoy a great country walk and spectacular views.

I am delighted to be a languages Tutor for Wolsey Hall Oxford and very much look forward to working with you.

I am a German native and I moved to the UK in 2008, after graduating from university in Germany with a degree in Educational Sciences, Religious Education and English as a Foreign Language. I had intended to teach these subjects in Germany, but instead I took a PGCE in Modern Foreign Languages to enable me to teach German, French and Spanish in the UK. I also have experience of teaching Latin up to GCSE Level.

Following my PGCE I completed an MA in Education, and in 2019 I was awarded the German Teacher of the Year award of which I’m very proud. I was invited to the German Embassy in London to receive the prize in a prestigious ceremony. In my free time I enjoy photography and travelling both to explore new languages and cultures and to photograph beautiful landscapes and scenery.

I also enjoy cooking and baking my bread, rather than relying on processed supermarket goods. A healthy lifestyle is important to me and I’m very interested in diet and nutrition. I’m also keen on sport and I enjoy martial arts and running. In 2019 I ran two half marathons, an amazing, but exhausting experience.

I am the proud mother of three young children, twin boys and a girl. They are 6 and 8 years old, and I love spending time with them. I’m raising them bilingually to familiarise them with their German heritage. We return to Germany regularly to spend time with their German relatives and so they can experience life in Germany for themselves. I look forward to sharing my passion for language with you.

As a child, I loved learning foreign languages – so it was a natural progression for me to study Modern Languages at A level and then go on to do a degree in German at the University of Salford.

After qualifying as a teacher, I spent several years teaching EFL in Frankfurt. All in all, I spent a total of seven years living and working in Germany after which time I was virtually bilingual in German and English. I was then offered a post as a lecturer for German and EFL at a College of Further Education in Plymouth, Devon. I taught German at all levels from beginner’s through GCSE to A level. I also taught EFL to students from all over the world. In 1996 I had my first taste of studying for a qualification via distance learning when I chose to do an RSA Diploma in TEFL with International House in London.

In 1997 my husband and I moved to Dubai where we both taught EFL at the Higher Colleges of Technology. Whilst in the UAE I had my second taste of distance learning when I decided to do a Master’s in TESOL through the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. After 17 years in Dubai, we returned to the UK, where I first worked as a homeschooling Tutor and more recently as a private German Tutor. In 2019 I taught my first online German lesson via Skype and have never looked back.

I now live in the beautiful Devonshire countryside with my husband and three dogs. In my free time, I enjoy travelling, dog training and reading crime novels in German.

I look forward to sharing my passion for the German language with you.