Raphael

A native speaker from France, I gained a master’s degree in Business at a prestigious university in Paris after completing a one-year Erasmus exchange programme at the University of Birmingham. After graduating, I spent a year travelling around South America and then started my career as a project manager in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Living abroad and subsequently being exposed to other cultures and languages had a significant impact on my choice of career and that’s the reason why I decided to move to London in 2005 to qualify as a secondary language teacher and share my passion for languages and travel with young people.

In my free time, I enjoy outdoor activities including hiking, cycling and going camping with my family. I am also an FA qualified football coach and run football training sessions for both children and adults on a weekly basis. I am passionate about French literature and international cinema, and I take part in chess tournaments whenever possible.

Tutoring Experience

I am currently the Head of Modern Foreign Languages at a prep school based in Hampstead. I also work as an examiner and deliver workshops at various teacher training events. Since I became a teacher, I have delivered over 500 hours of 1-1 French lessons for learners ranging from 5-year-olds to corporate executives. I particularly enjoy supporting students reach their full potential and excel in examinations such as the 11+ and 13+ school entrance papers, GCSEs, Pre-U, A Levels and IB.

Below a non-exhaustive list of the senior schools for which my students achieved Academic Scholarships over the past few years:
Aldenham School
City of London School
Eton College (2 King's Scholarships)
Haberdashers' School
Harrow School
Highgate School
Merchant Taylors' School
Mill Hill School
North London Collegiate School
St Albans School
St Columba's College
St Paul's School
St John's School
Westminster School (2 Queen's Scholarships)

Tutoring Approach

I see myself as more of a mentor than a teacher, helping my students set reasonable goals while encouraging them to become lifelong language learners. I therefore endeavour to introduce culture into most of my lessons, whether through educational videos or magazines, French songs, or news stories from various French-speaking countries.

I find that experiencing culture is a key aspect of learning a foreign language as this can boost language receptive skills (listening and reading), which will, in turn, reinforce language productive skills (speaking and writing), all of which being needed to communicate well in the language.

I am extremely passionate about my subject and committed to understanding and engaging with each student's learning needs. I therefore tailor my teaching to ensure that all my students are able to stretch their comfort zone and move confidently towards their academic goal.

As an experienced teacher, I understand young people can feel nervous and find learning grammar and speaking another language a little daunting. However, I believe any child can learn to enjoy these given the right approach. For this reason, I have developed my own teaching method that I like to call ‘Less is more’ and which is based on a list of 100 high-frequency French words. It has proven to be a great tool for my students to understand how to write accurate and advanced paragraphs in the foreign language, and achieve better grades as a consequence.

During these unprecedented times of school closures and virtual learning from home, I believe young people need to build their independence and self-direction more than ever. This is why I strive to empower my students to be in charge of their own learning and become independent learners. For instance, I encourage them to create their own lists of key vocabulary on websites such as Quizlet or Memrise.