Tutor profile - Maggie

After graduating from secondary school in Germany, Maggie attended classes at the University of Stuttgart where she studied English, French and Politics. She graduated with the first state exam (equivalent of a bachelor’s degree of honours, 2:1) in English and Politics. She also finished her undergraduate studies in French.

Due to her curiosity for different cultures she also studied at St. Francis Xavier University in Canada. During her studies, she participated in a seminar which was in cooperation with St. Xavier`s College in Mumbai, India. The seminar included an excursion to the college in Mumbai and contained field work with Indian students in and around Mumbai.

As Maggie studied politics at university, she was involved in local politics in her hometown, amongst others being the first female chairwoman of the youth party. Furthermore, she was given the incredibly amazing opportunity to work for an MP in the German Parliament which she did whilst still finishing her degree.

As a French and German tutor Maggie often hears her students say that learning languages is very hard and that knowing English will help you to get around in the world.
However, even a little knowledge of another language can make a difference in attitude when one meets people from other countries. Speaking another language helps to break down barriers and helps to build confidence.

Maggie’s approach to tutoring French and German is very systematic. For her it is crucial to ensure that the foundations of the language are well established, i.e. taking a rigorous approach to grammar, sentence construction and vocabulary building. She likes using authentic materials like newspaper articles, songs, movies, accident reports and interviews, which make her students curious and acquiring a language becomes fun rather than just a difficult task.

Whenever Maggie taught in the past, she has always been able to build a strong personal relationship with her tutees and helped them to build their confidence. Her tutees feel secure to ask questions and to achieve their set goals. She is able to challenge her tutees at the right level and hence they are able to push themselves and achieve great results. Due to her long tutoring experience, she has learned that knowing the right learning strategies, tailored to every single student's skills, can really make a difference and increase the pupil’s chances to achieve his or her goals. A sense of achievement is crucial for pupils and consequently they often just need to understand what is expected of them and where their shortcomings lie.

Furthermore, Maggie loves researching child and young adult psychology, focusing on literature on how best to help different children learn. She finds this a fascinating subject and loves the challenge of understanding the needs of all different children and young adults that she teaches. Recently, she attended an online workshop at Harvard Graduate School of Education with the title "The Opportunity of Bilingualism: Serving Today’s Young English Language Learners".

In total, Maggie taught over 200 students on a one-to-one basis. All of her students achieved their set goals. She has a very good knowledge of various different teaching strategies and has gained teaching experience with all age levels, from beginner to high achiever. She has taught in schools, at university and in language centres in different countries around the world, i.e. in Canada, England, Germany and Switzerland.

Maggie has tutored at a variety of levels and subjects including:
-(I)GCSE German and French (all exam boards)
-A-Level German (all exam boards)
-German and French at Prep School Level
-German and French in Reception
-All key stages for German
-IB German
-German at Degree Level
-French at Degree Level
-A-Level French (Edexcel and AQA)
-SAT German
-13+ French
-Westminster Challenge (French)

Maggie has lots of classroom experience teaching German and French as she has worked in a variety of different schools. She has taught in the state as well as the independent sector.