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Kate's Story

18/8/2014

Tell us a bit about yourself
I'm Kate Norman, born and brought up in sunny Essex and now a secondary school teacher in the north of Cambridgeshire with husband Phil, toddler daughter and 2 snooty cats

What did you do before joining Lingotot?
Taught (and still do teach) secondary French and Spanish

What attracted you to Lingotot?
The low initial investment and the fact that it married nicely with experience gained in jobs I've done before.

What territory do you cover?
West Norfolk and North Cambridgeshire-it's huge and very rural. I had an opening chat today with a school with 28 children!

What training and support have you received to establish your franchise?
All the sessions are pre-planned with resources provided, which is an amazing load off my mind. The head office mentoring calls are also great.

What do you enjoy most about running your own Lingotot business?
It's like a game, trying to find ways in to as many new markets as possible.

What advice would you give to someone considering buying a franchise?
You won't get anywhere unless you put the spadework in-but if you're ok with that, go for it!

Finally, what is your favourite Lingotot song or game?
Gotta be the Boogie-Woogie!

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Teach Languages without a PGCE AND Save Money!

25/1/2013

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Many highly qualified linguists toy with the idea of completing a PGCE and becoming a teacher of MFL, yet they worry about a number of issues: the cost of the course; more time away from employment to study; no guarantee of a job at the end of the course; fierce competition for teaching jobs; horror stories about paperwork, verbal abuse towards teachers and general poor behaviour in schools.

I trained as a teacher and taught in secondary, middle and primary schools in the UK and overseas before founding Lingotot. I LOVED teaching, especially the more challenging classes. Ask all my family, friends and ex-colleagues - I was about the most enthusiastic and dedicated teacher you could get! I never thought in a million years I would give up teaching in a "proper" classroom.

But then I had two little babies and everything changed. So I started my little Lingotot classes as a way to keep teaching and earn some extra money. I wasn't prepared for many things when I set sail down the self-employment route. I didn't expect the classes to be so successful, I certainly didn't expect to love the mechanics of running my own business. But the biggest surprise was that I fell totally and completely out of love of traditional classroom teaching. I do miss the pupils (well most of them!) but I certainly don't miss the politics, paperwork and power games. Oh yes, and the marking!

Instead I have a job I love, teaching really fun and relevant lessons to young children. I get to share that with their parents too, it's a lovely family affair. When I go into a school to teach, the children are excited and look forward to their very interactive classes.

Aside from the teaching I get to set my own timetable and work the hours I want to, meaning I never miss a nativity play. Don't want to work on Mondays? No problem!

So I refer back to my opening point. If you're a graduate (or maybe you're not but you speak another language fluently), why would you spend £9,000 for a year of hard graft doing a PGCE, plus all of your living costs for that year, with no guaranteed job at the end of it (and even if you get one the NQT year is even worse!)? You could come and join Lingotot as a franchisee instead. You get to teach immediately with no daft targets, marking or demanding headteacher. The fee is half the cost of a PGCE, you get to start earning straight away, you choose when and where you want to work AND your business becomes a valuable asset you can keep running or eventually sell on.

Would you like to find out more or do you know someone who might be interested? Take a look at www.lingototfranchise.co.uk and start exploring the possibility of running your own childrens language business now.

Angela, MD of Lingotot Ltd and happy mum to two little girls.

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Kate's Story

Teach Languages without a PGCE AND Save Money!

Lingotot

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