Mrs L Maddalena

I am an EAL and MFL teacher with a strong passion for the Germanic languages and cultures and with more than fifteen years of language teaching experience. I have worked as a secondary school teacher in several schools across Essex and Suffolk, providing MFL and ESOL lessons to a variety of different students. In my spare time, I enjoy teaching languages privately in my area but also remotely. Through this, I aim to deliver high standards of language teaching, while establishing relationships of respect, trust and understanding with my clients. I hold a variety of different qualifications in the linguistic field, amongst which is an honours degree in German and English from the University of Palermo, and three different teaching qualifications including a CELTA, from the Berlin School of English, a PGCE in secondary language teaching and the Lehramt, the Austrian Teaching Training Course in English, which I completed as part of my PGCE programme. I have also undertaken Spanish A and AS level exams so I am very familiar with essay writing, listening, reading and translation exercises which can be effectively used in teaching English. All my experiences have made me a confident and efficient person in the classroom environment, able to manage the learning and progress of large groups of students or individuals of a variety of different ages and abilities.

My professional experience also includes working as a tutor, where I have enjoyed establishing relationships of trust and care with students. Furthermore, I have taken part in departmental meetings and parents' evenings as required. I have provided parents and pupils with feedback about pupils’ progress and attainments, along with writing pupils’ reports and communicating with parents over the telephone when necessary. All of these experiences would be useful when dealing with different students.

Laura is an ESOL and MFL teacher with extensive experience in teaching Germanic and Latin-based languages. In the last 15 years she has taught MFL, mainly Germanic, in Essex and Suffolk comprehensive schools and colleges to GCSE and A level standards. Laura holds a variety of different qualifications in the linguistic field, amongst which is an honours degree in German and English from the University of Palermo, and three different teaching qualifications including a CELTA from the Berlin School of English, a PGCE in secondary language teaching, and the Lehramt, the Austrian Teaching Training Course in English, which she completed as part of the PGCE programme. Combining different theories when planning and delivering the four skills is very advantageous. In 2013 she completed Spanish AS and A2 level exams so she is very familiar with essay writing, listening, reading and translation exercises which can be effectively used in teaching English. Working as a Reader and invigilator for the Colchester Sixth Form College exams as well as an AQA moderator for the AQA German GCSE exams has helped her to build a thorough grasp of the assessment and examination process. Alongside her linguistic studies, she has also studied Maths to the equivalent of GCSE during her studies in Italy. Her ESOL teaching took place at the Colchester Institute between the years 2014 and 2019. Here she taught International students, Entry levels and Stepping Up classes of levels 1 – 2, which she conducted for a full academic year, alongside other ESOL cover lessons. She has also taught ESOL privately and through charitable organisations. She has a positive and enthusiastic attitude toward teaching ESOL, and she is keen to share her passion for the English language with students of other languages. As a non-native but fluent English speaker, she can empathise with the difficulty’s students may face and explain the nuances of the language. This is due to the fact that she has also learnt the language herself and so she can anticipate the problems that students might encounter. As a professional language teacher, Laura is able to draw on a range of experiences and training to obtain optimal standards for her future ESOL and MFL classes.