Tutor profile - Karen

As well as holding positions such as Deputy Head Pastoral, Head of Boarding and Designated Safeguarding Lead, Karen has spent 30 years teaching Spanish to all levels of ability here in the U.K, predominantly, teaching in the independent sector, in world-class schools, such as The King’s School, Canterbury and Headington School, Oxford. On qualifying as a teacher with an Honours degree and Higher Diploma in Education from University College Dublin, Karen spent a few years teaching in Madrid, where Spanish and all things hispanic became her huge passion. Karen absolutely loves teaching students at the very start of their Spanish career and seeing them flourish as their confidence in manipulating the target language goes from strength to strength! She also takes huge pride in assisting students achieve the highest grades at GCSE, A-Level and IB, not to mention accessing their preferred choice of university. Karen particularly enjoys teaching the I.B. programme of study as she very much favours the academic breadth and stretch that it provides the students. Karen has worked as a GCSE examiner and she strongly feels that it has really informed her teaching, so much so, that in her last GCSE cohort of 21 students, 20 scored a grade 9 and one scored a grade 8. Karen describes her teaching style as energetic, engaging and encouraging as she really wants all her students, to reach their full potential in all language skills, while developing a positive recognition of and interest in hispanic culture.