Alexandra Murray

I am a French specialist and native speaker, and I am able to teach French from KS3 up to and including KS5 as well as Spanish and German at KS3.

My family and I had been in Australia from November 2018 but we returned to the UK due to family reasons in May 2024. I am a UK PGCE trained MFL teacher with over 20 years of experience, having worked in the UK and France, but my plan on arriving in Australia was to challenge myself yet further, experience another culture and develop as a teacher. In short, being open to adjusting my teaching skills and improving my practice
In all of my curriculum roles, I have liaised with colleagues and senior staff to ensure that school policies were implemented, and lessons taught according to the agreed pedagogical theories and strategies. I have always thrived to work collaboratively with my colleagues to develop and update schemes of work, assessment, and associated documentation. Our main objective as an MFL team is to ensure we provide effective feedback, assess all skills regularly, monitor students’ achievements and intervene accordingly to make sure students achieve or surpass their predicted grade. 
As an MFL teacher, I regard literacy and numeracy as fundamental as they are the foundation to accessing the curriculum, engaging in learning, leading to being successful academically at school and later on in the world of work.  Focusing on literacy and numeracy leads to developing complex skills such as understanding grammatical concepts, being able to apply language patterns, interpreting meaning, and creating sentences in order to communicate in the speaking and written form. 
I recognise the importance of designing a high-quality learning experience which is challenging, yet accessible as well as an ambitious, inclusive and outward looking curriculum and I am also acutely aware that learning takes place out of the classroom too and every interaction and engagement is a learning opportunity for a student.
In my classes, I have always sought to create an environment where students feel safe to make mistakes, learn from them and make progress and I do this by making sure I deliver content in small chunks. Following Rosenshine Principles of Instructions, through a step by step approach including a daily review with a “Do now task”, explicit learning intentions, building learning whilst incorporating an “I do”, “we do” and then “you do” approach has proven successful for students to learn and make progress.

In my lessons, I also stretch and challenge my students, always ensuring the lesson content is within the Zone of Proximal Development, this is with a view to encourage my students to develop a  growth mindset, thus promoting effective behaviours for learning and responding to feedback.

I strive to provide a knowledge rich curriculum, thoroughly planned using UbD model, planning my Units of work backwards, which is to say planning the assessments first and then planning only lessons that will contribute to student success on that assessment. 
Using UbD prevents two major flaws that traditional planning has; and these are poor student engagement and a lack of durable transferrable learning. 
In addition, planning with a UbD model enables me to have carefully organized the Big Idea and the essential questions that I want my students to answer for the unit. 
Delivering content in small chunks as well as using scaffolds at every step is paramount to naturally support student learning. In the first instance, my planning was underpinned by Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction but I have since then combined other philosophies to enhance motivation and student engagement in my classroom, creating a classroom environment where students of all abilities can thrive and enjoy learning languages. I found that incorporating Rosenshine’s principles of instructions, especially whilst focusing on reviewing and retrieving prior knowledge combined with Dr Conti’s E.P.I methodology enabled me to create successful lessons where my students make progress every lesson.  
Dr Conti’s E.P.I framework and methodology aims to enhance language fluency and increase student motivation. Reducing cognitive load as advocated by John Sweller in Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theories and John Hattie’s in High Impact Teaching Strategies can be achieved by presenting new vocabulary in chunks using sentence builders and practised following the M.A.R.S and E.A.R.S learning cycle. The eight phases of the learning cycle go from model listening to being able to deliver a structured production, and eventually leading to autonomy and routinisation.  
The key element to ensuring progress without cognitive overload is to maintain a 95% comprehensible input throughout the different phases. Together with a faithful implementation of High Impact Teaching strategies, M.A.R.S and E.A.R.S learning cycle creates a safe but challenging structured learning environment

Focusing on students’ individual learning needs provide students with the guidance they require to take ownership of their own learning. I strive for my learners to make informed decisions in the classroom, solve problems based on worked examples and achieve mastery through critical thinking strategies, lots of practice and responding constructively to feedback.

As a teacher, I believe that the educational landscape is changing daily. We all continue to learn everyday and as an MFL teacher I am a passionate advocate for making language learning fun and engaging for my students. I find that language learning can also be deepened by using interactive platforms. They play a significant role in motivating and reinforcing key concepts as the students can learn through playing, physically manipulating words, letters or sentences on a screen. One of the best language learning platforms I use is educationperfect.com.  
This is not only more engaging for students, as I am able to create extensive content which reflects the curriculum that I am delivering, but it also provides the students with immediate feedback on their answers enabling them to correct their responses straight away, thereby taking ownership of their learning.   
 I am also passionate about being the best teacher I can be, not just teaching but actively supporting our policies regarding Keeping Children Safe in Education. School has to be the place where students feel safe, safe to thrive, be themselves and safe to learn and develop into well-rounded young adults who will be well equipped to make informed decisions as members of the community and society.
With this in mind, I have always sought situations for me to contribute to the school community such as the International Activities Week in collaboration with the Chinese Educational Development Project from Brighton, Arsenal Double Club, online competitions and sport. I have always taken the opportunity for students to see me outside of the classroom and thereby promote my subject with a French Club and as a table tennis or cross-country running coach.

Over the years I have also taken part and led homestay trips to France and also taken part in a residential trip overseas to China, notably a visit to the Beijing 2008 Olympics following a successful SSAT Trip in 2007. These experiences have allowed me to work with colleagues from across the Schools at various times.
In short, facilitating learning whilst promoting positive values, nurturing young people and guiding them through their school life is what I find appealing in working in the Education sector. 
I am committed to students becoming leaders of the future and responsible international citizens, appreciating other cultures, and learning other languages and customs. I lead by example and my commitment to improving the learning environment has not wavered.
I look forward to having the opportunity to discuss my application with you further.

Alexandra Le Guen-Murray

In short, facilitating learning whilst promoting positive values, nurturing young people and guiding them through their school life is what I find appealing in working in the Education sector. 

I am committed to students becoming leaders of the future and responsible international citizens, appreciating other cultures, and learning other languages and customs. I lead by example and my commitment to improving the learning environment has not wavered.

In charge of French curriculum