Teaching

I teach the following languages:

German and Russian: at all levels, including GCSE, A Level, and IB Language B Higher Level

Arabic, French and Spanish: beginners and up to CEFR A2, including GCSE and IB Language B Standard Level

I am currently a part-time visiting Arabic teacher at Cheltenham Ladies College, where I have taught on and off since 2007.

My teaching experience: by age and level

• Professional linguists: I’ve mentored early career translators, and regularly lead training seminars on professional skills and managing a freelance business. I’ve been an examiner for the CIOL Diploma in Translation, and have led exam preparation training courses.
• Adult general learners: I’ve taught beginner and intermediate German, Arabic and Russian to both experienced linguists and adults with very little experience or confidence. Highlights include teaching spoken Arabic to a dyslexic adult learner and Egyptian Arabic to a troop of bellydancers.
• Universities: I’ve taught literary translation at summer schools and short courses at the universities of Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford, Warwick, and City University, London. I regularly lead workshops on careers with languages including publishing and literary translation. I taught pre-sessional Academic English at the University of Gloucestershire.
• A Level (KS5): I’ve taught German and Russian A Level groups at four schools in Gloucestershire, constructing and delivering my own scheme of learning for Russian. I’ve also taught Arabic and Russian A Level (exam coaching) to EAL students with good spoken language but limited writing skills.
• GCSE (KS4): I’ve taught German, Arabic and Russian to GCSE and iGCSE, including running the speaking exams. I’ve given GCSE exam coaching to EAL students, and was a Pearson Edexcel Assessor for the GCSE Russisan writing paper.
• Key Stage 3: I’m teaching French, Spanish and German across years 7-9 as part of my PGCE placements at Pates Grammar School and Chosen Hill School. I’ve previously taught beginners’ Arabic and Russian from year 7, and run lunchtime Arabic clubs and a Language Explorer Club. I regularly lead creative translation workshops in secondary schools, promoting the creative use of languages, introducing the Anthea Bell Prize and Stephen Spender Prize, and encouraging uptake of languages at GCSE.
• Primary: I’ve run codebreaking, translation and creative writing workshops at over 20 primary schools in Gloucestershire and surrounding counties, and regularly give Read the World workshops and assemblies as part of my work with World Kid Lit and Stephen Spender Trust.
• Early years: I co-founded Babel Babies, and ran multilingual musical baby and toddler groups exploring world languages through song and play.

The chronological version: nearly three decades of teaching

My teaching carerer began in 1999, when I volunteered as an English teacher at a Further Education College in Moscow, aged 19. While I was woefully underprepared, I loved it and that same year I completed the Trinity CertTESOL in Spain. I taught English throughout my degree at Oxford and until I finished my Masters at Bath in 2003, working in Italy (mostly secondary, summer schools), Germany (adult education), and Russia (undergraduate students at Oryel University, and all ages at a Kitezh, volunteering with Ecologia Youth Trust). Leaving Bath qualified as an interpreter and translator, I soon realised that interpreting wasn’t for me, but was determined to work as a translator first, before returning to teaching – one day.

Before I had even completed my Masters I had a job waiting for me as a linguist at the UK government, and from September 2004 I retrained as an Arabic linguist, completing an intensive language course that took me to degree-level in 18 months. It was a rewarding but extremely stressful role, and I missed the teaching! I started running an after-school Arabic course at Cheltenham Ladies College in 2007, and by 2009 I decided that the time had come to set up my own business, and combine part-time tutoring with freelance translation. A part-time role teaching A Level Russian at Prince Henry’s in Evesham enabled me to do precisely that.

From 2009 to 2013, I was a peripatetic language teacher at various schools (Cheltenham Ladies College, The Cotswold School, Prince Henry’s High School, Bredon Hill Academy and Tewkesbury School) teaching both Russian and Arabic at GCSE, iGCSE and A Level. Students of mine went on to study Arabic or Russian at Edinburgh, Exeter, Oxford and Durham universities. I also taught pre-sessional English at University of Gloucestershire, and together with Cate Hamilton, I co-founded Babel Babies, a company promoting early-years multilingual education through music.

From 2013, I shifted my focus to literary translation, taking on book-length translation projects I could work on flexibly around family life. Alongside translation, I kept on teaching in various ways. I’ve worked with the Stephen Spender Trust from 2018, and later Queens Translation Exchange (and the Anthea Bell Prize for Young Translators) to develop and deliver Creative Translation in the Classroom workshops, bringing codebreaking, translation and creative writing into primary and secondary schools.

At a postgraduate level, I led professional development training and mentoring for early-career linguists, led the Arabic stream at the literary translation summer schools at Warwick University and City University, London, and I’ve taught workshops on various aspects of literary translation and running a business to undergraduates and postgraduates at the universities of Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Oxford.

I’ve been teaching languages in one form or another since 1999, but have never gained qualified teacher status (QTS). This year I’m finally filling that gap in my professional training. In the school year 2025-2026, I’m completing the school-centred initial teacher training (SCITT) through GITEP/Odyssey Teaching School Hub in Gloucestershire, with my PGCE qualification awarded by University of Bristol.