New Staff at St. Clare's

We have made a significant number of staff appointments for next year, principally replacing retiring colleagues. The following six appointments have now been made.

Careers and Higher Education Adviser
Paul Lennon, currently Senior Guidance Counsellor and Head of PE at the International School of Milan has been appointed to this post. Paul is a graduate of De Montfort University and currently oversees university placement, careers education and work experience.

Director of English Language – Pre-university courses
Marzena Kochanska is currently Head of English as an Additional Language at North Westminster Community School, London, where she has worked for over ten years. She heads a large department (including former St. Clare’s colleague Jenny Helfrecht), and has very considerable experience of developing the use of English language in subject classrooms. She has a First in English and French from Leeds and a PGCE in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from the Institute of Education. She has also taught English in Poland, Japan and Portugal and was seconded from her current school for a year to work with the local authority on developing English language provision for second language learners.

Chemistry and General Science Teacher
Ian Gill currently teaches at St. Margaret’s, Bushey Heath, where he is head of year and head of house. He has IB experience as Head of Science at the International School of Lusaka (where he was a colleague of Maureen Guy’s), and was previously Head of Science at Lincoln International School, Kampala. He has also taught in Kenya. Ian, who graduated from Bristol, will have particular responsibility for the Pre-IB science programme.

Spanish Teacher
Jésus-Antonio (Suso) Rodríguez-Blanco is currently teaching at Knowsley Community College, Liverpool. Previously he has been a Spanish language tutor at the Universities of Liverpool and Santiago, Spain. He studied at the Instituto Teologico Compostelano and the University of Santiago, where he continues to be registered as a research student. Suso has also worked as an academic researcher and as a producer/commentator for a local radio station in Spain.

Tutor for Chinese Students
Xiaohui Yan (pronounced Chow-way) is currently teaching Chinese and acting as software developer at Djanogly City Technology College, Nottingham, while undertaking an MA in English Language teaching. She studied English in Beijing, and obtained a Postgraduate Certificate in General Linguistics and Teaching Methodology at Nanjing University, China and Columbia University, New York. She lectured in English for five years at Northwest University, China, during which time she edited and wrote three English language teaching books.

Teacher of Mathematics
Susie Savas-Ingram is currently teaching IB Maths at Bilkent University Preparatory School, Ankara, Turkey. She previously taught IB at the International School of Istanbul, and A level in a UK college of further education. A graduate of Glasgow, Susie also has a CTEFLA (English language teaching certificate) and taught English as a volunteer in Moldovia. She is a qualified hockey and weight training coach, has served in the Territorial Army and has worked as a Samaritan.