Katherine Smith - Professional Teacher in Cambridge

I am a very experienced teacher of languages and have taught students of all ages (both primary and secondary), abilities and backgrounds. I love being part of the process of enabling students to achieve their potential and have spent many years working in classrooms, one to one tutoring as well as designing the new qualifications for A level and GCSE for one of the exam boards. This has given me an excellent understanding of their requirements as well as how to prepare for success in the new qualifications.

My Education & Qualifications

• University of Leicester , 1981 – 1982
  Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE):
• University of Durham , 1976 – 1980
  French (BA Hons ): 2:2

My Tutoring & Teaching Experience

I have over thirty years of wide-ranging experience of teaching young people. I have taught in eight different schools, two universities and coached students for GCSE and A level in the evenings and weekends. What is important to me to help students to improve is the quality of the lessons and I have spent many hours preparing lessons and power points to make sure that my students will make progress as well as enjoy what they learn. It is also important to me to make sure that students have the opportunity to recycle what they have learned many times and in different scenarios as I believe this is one of key elements to language learning. I also believe that patience and a sense of humour are key qualities for a good teacher.

My Approach to Tutoring

My approach has always been to try to make learning as engaging as possible with lots of games and fun activities to practise grammar and vocabulary learning which can be quite dull! I also use IT where possible to support practising new structures and to promote a ‘little and often’ approach to language learning, something I see as being very important. It’s important to me to keep learning relevant and one of my claims to fame is getting a quote about this into the Guardian for the new GCSE qualifications: French is boring, German is dull? Not if you’re learning about tattoos, tweets or dating etiquette.

Fun Facts About Me

I love films especially foreign ones (no surprise there I guess) and musicals – I have seen every Cambridge Footlights musical since I arrived in Cambridge a few years ago. I spend some of my free time cooking and recently upgraded my skills a lot when I went on a brilliant cooking course in Gascony – my star achievements were boning a chicken and making a French apple tart which looked amazing and which I haven’t quite managed to replicate. As a teacher it’s very important to me to constantly learn new things so I remember what it feels like to be a beginner.

• French and Spanish
  "You have been the best Languages teacher I've ever had by far. You are always really supportive and kind. You managed to make learning languages fun and you have helped me change my mindset for the best. I used to be so negative and you have managed to change that. Thank you so much. Thank you for making our language lessons so fun and enjoyable. We all really feel that since you taught us we have learned so much. Thank you for being a great teacher - you've really helped me with my French and Spanish. Students at Stoke College Suffolk "
• French all levels Spanish beginner
  "Katherine is an exceptional teacher and tutor. She is incredibly knowledgeable about approaches for teaching Modern Foreign Languages to learners of all ages and goes above and beyond to support her learners in developing their language skills. She has in depth knowledge of the MFL assessments and examinations and knows how to best prepare learners for these. Dr. E Weavers Cambridge Assessment "