Teachers for our University Pathways and Gap Year programmes

Our academic teaching staff are experienced and highly skilled in teaching in an international environment. They specialise in a range of intellectually engaging subjects including Art, Business, Economics, English Literature, Film Studies, History, International Relations, Philosophy, Photography, Politics, Psychology, Sociology and many more. Some teachers are examiners in their specialist area. Also, many teach at the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University, as well as universities in London.

Our academic programmes benefit from small class sizes. This high staff-to-student ratio provides greater levels of support to develop academic literacies in essay writing, debating, critical thinking, researching and presenting. Many students comment that our programmes really prepare them for further study at university and beyond.

Our teaching approach extends beyond the classroom with engaging Study Visits; utilising some of the many academic resources that Oxford has to offer. One of the benefits of selecting us as your study destination.

The latest inspection report highlights our education quality ‘Teaching is excellent and results in high levels of student engagement and motivation to learn.’  – ISI PFE March 2019

Anna Castriota

Anna is Italian and came to Oxford in 1994 following her Italian doctoral degree in Philosophy (Summa Cum Laude) and her Research Fellowship at Pembroke College, Oxford. She immediately fell in love with Britain and Oxford and decided to settle here. In 2001, Anna took the decision to undertake a Masters in History of Fascism at Oxford Brookes University with a dissertation on post-fascism in Italy. In 2003, she began her adventure as Politics and Philosophy tutor at some tutorial colleges in Oxford. In 2006, she became member of the academic staff of St Clare’s, as a Politics instructor. Since then, her academic interests have focused mainly on the study of the far right and ideological radicalism as her several publications can testify. Since 2014, Anna has become involved in academic projects like the Radicalism Forum at the University of Northampton where she is concluding her second PhD (Politics) with a thesis on fascist mysticism and neo-fascist terrorism. Since 2014, Anna has been collaborating with the Riga Holocaust Studies Centre and the European Centre for Democracy as political analyst and researcher by monitoring the rise of ultra -nationalism, xenophobia and far-right in Europe. In 2015, Anna became secretary and member of the editorial board of the philosophical society British Personalist Forum on behalf of which in June 2016, she co-organised a conference on the theme of Persons and Personalism at York St John University.

David Chaplin

David Chaplin has been a member of the St Clare’s community for twenty years. He teaches Theory of Knowledge on the IB and Photography on our Pre-IB, summer school, and senior courses. He also developed our popular ’TOK tours’ of Oxford, which explore the rich intellectual heritage of the city. In 2015 he began working as a Personal Tutor, and also works in the library where he recently set up an educational e-video platform for staff and students. He was awarded his first degree by the University of Wales in the Humanities, gained his PGCE in Oxford, and has studied Art and Design. He also has a certificate in teaching basic literacy and numeracy to adults with learning difficulties, which was inspired by his work prior to St Clare’s in the mental health division of the NHS. His main interests are photography and hiking. He has exhibited photographs in Oxford and has taken many of the pictures on this website.

Denise Hopgood

Denise Hopgood is the ‘ELT Academic Director’ at St Clare’s and manages our English Language Teaching provision. She has been teaching EFL for over ten years, including six years’ experience in Barcelona, Spain. She has taught a range of courses since starting at St Clare’s in 2014 including, Summer English for teenagers, the University Foundation Course, English plus Academic Subjects and Teacher Training. With a first degree in Economics and Politics from the University of Bath, Denise brings with her experience from a previous career in Central Government including a policy role at Her Majesty’s Treasury and project management roles in two of the UK’s economic regulators.

Denise holds a PGCE in International Education from the University of Nottingham and has completed the Cambridge CELTA and DELTA English language teaching qualifications. Denise is currently teaching and developing materials for St. Clare’s new Leadership Course. In her free time, you can find Denise travelling and spending as much time as possible with her young daughter.

Edward Clarke

Edward Clarke has taught English literature and art history on the Liberal Arts Study Abroad program at St Clare’s since 2008. He also teaches English literature and creative writing at the Department for Continuing Education, Oxford University, as well as tutoring at various Oxford colleges. He has an MA (Oxon) in English Language and Literature and was awarded a PhD by Trinity College, Dublin, for his work on the American poet, Wallace Stevens, in relation to Shakespeare, Milton, and various Romantic poets. His latest book, The Vagabond Spirit of Poetry, published in 2014, makes claims for the efficacy of poetry in our industrialized world, where we are presented with environmental, political and economic challenges. The Later Affluence ofW.B. Yeats and Wallace Stevens was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2012. He is currently embarked on a cycle of poems in response to his experience of reading the Psalter through once every month according to Cranmer’s divisions in the 1549 Book of Common Prayer.

Francesca Shakespeare

Francesca Shakespeare is a practising artist and Art teacher. She has worked part time for St Clare’s for nearly a decade and teaches on the Pre IB program, the senior courses and the summer schools. Francesca did a Fine Art and Italian degree at Exeter University, living and working in Italy before and during her course. Before moving to Oxford over twenty years ago, she ran a mural and decorative Art business in London with a studio in Notting Hill and commissions all around the country. She then started painting and teaching and exhibits both locally and further afield.

Francesca is an active member of the local art community. She co-ordinates Summertown Artweeks (part of the big Oxfordshire Art Festival) and is a founding committee member of Young Art Oxford, a county-wide children’s art competition that exhibits at The Ashmolean Museum. She also works regularly with the Ashmolean’s education department to create interactive artworks for the galleries.

As an illustrator, she has produced the decorative map of St Clare’s as well as ones of the River Thames and Cherwell. Francesca is married with three children in their twenties.
Website: www.francescashakespeare.com

Geoff Taylor

Geoff Taylor teaches English as a foreign language (EFL). He has a BA (Hons) in Fine Arts from StMartin’s School of Art, London, an MEd (English language teaching and educational technology) from the University of Manchester and the RSA Diploma (TEFLA). After almost10 years teaching abroad, mainly at International House affiliated schools, on three different continents, he returned to Oxford and has taught at the 18 Bardwell Road site since 1992. He was lead writer of“Keep Going 2”, a text book for the German-speaking market, and more recently published “Sounds IELTS”, an interactive pronunciation tutorial app. He has presented at the IATEFL annual conference and, over the years, led many teacher development seminars. For a number of years, he served as IATEFL Computer SIG webmaster and then as International Baccalaureate Schools and Colleges Association (IBSCA) webmaster. Hehas worked as CALL Co-ordinator, Senior Teacher, ADOS, Summer School DOS, and freelance asan Apple Demonstrator and technology consultant. He is site contact person for the University and College Union (UCU), Secretary of his Labour Party branch, and an active campaigner for a fairer more tolerant Britain

Helen Forey

Helen Forey has been the Careers and Higher Education Adviser at St Clare’s International College since 2015, supporting students in all aspects of application to university (outside the USA), careers and job search, assessment centres and interviews. She loves helping students to prepare to navigate the changing world of work and develop lifelong career learning skills. Helen studied modern languages at the Universities of Cardiff, Passau and Reims and became a member of the Institute of Linguists in 2003. After a brief stint teaching English in France and working in curriculum development for the IB, she was able to combine her love of classical music, languages, photography and design in her dream roles over the following decade at Decca Records, EMI Classics and a media agency where she managed a team of young product managers working on DVD production for international opera houses. The death of the CD, a growing interest in education and young people’s entry into working life and an eventual welcome move to Oxford led Helen to a change of career and a Postgraduate Diploma in Career Development and Coaching Studies at the University of Warwick. She has a particular professional interest in international education and social justice and is a member of the Career Development Institute. In her free time she is the chair of a local primary school’s governing body, plays the tenor horn with a traditional British brass band and spends most Sunday mornings on a wet touchline cheering on her goalkeeping son.

Jadwiga Wanelik

Jadwiga studied Literature and French at Jagiellonian University in Kraków and at Sorbonne IV in Paris. In 1986 she was awarded a Master’s degree in Romance Philology from Jagiellonian University, which included a Polish equivalent of PGCE. Between 1986 and 1989 she taught French at the French Institute in Kraków, after which she moved to Oxford. During her first three years in England she worked for Oxfam as a part-time translator, translating monthly bulletins from English into French. Jadwiga has been working at St Clare’s since 1993, teaching both Polish and French. She has also been working as a residential warden, duty manager and library assistant.
Jadwiga loves literature, films, art and has a keen interest in Japanese literature and culture. She also very much enjoys her voluntary work for Mind, the mental health charity.

Jing Ping Fan

Jing is a teacher of Chinese who joined St Clare’s in 2003. She currently teaches Chinese A: Literature, Chinese B, Mandarin ab initio and Pre-IB World Literature. She is also a personal tutor and has worked as an IB examiner.
Trained as a teacher, Jing graduated from Central China Normal University with a BA in English Language and Literature, and she then did a postgraduate certificate in Comparative Literature in Wuhan, China. She also holds a PhD in Education and PGCE in Language Teaching from Goldsmith’s College, London. During her PGCE work placement, Jing spent one academic term at the prestigious Eton College, where she had an interesting and memorable experience. Before moving to the UK, she worked as a university lecturer, teaching English as well as Chinese to undergraduate students.
In her spare time, Jing enjoys yoga, swimming and playing the piano. She also enjoys travelling with her family, exploring exotic places and authentic foods.

Julia Gutierrez

Julia has been teaching EFL for over 16 years, working in schools in Uganda, Australia, China and Austria, as well as the UK. She currently teaches on the University Foundation Course and teacher training programmes at St Clare’s. At the beginning of her career, Julia worked as a volunteer in rural Uganda where she taught pupils from underprivileged backgrounds. She later went on to become Head of Foreign Teachers at the renowned Sun Yat Sen Memorial Middle School in China, where her responsibilities included designing and administering bespoke teacher training sessions. She gained her Trinity Diploma in 2006 and became a Trinity approved Teacher Trainer in 2012. Furthermore, she has held positions as EFL Programme Co-ordinator andAcademic Manager at busy and prestigious schools. She has been an author and editor for the ELT Division of Oxford University Press since 2012. During this time, her work has included writing for their online testing system and the recent ‘Navigate’ course book, as well as preparing CEFR mapping documents for publications such as ‘New Headway’. Julia loves travelling to new countries to learn about their culture and language. She also has a keen appreciation of the beauty of nature and enjoys spending time outdoors.

Kay Alty

Kay Alty is a marketing professional with over 30 years’ corporate experience in Publishing, IT and Marketing Services. She has been teaching Marketing courses on the Liberal Arts programme since 2008 and joined the University Foundation Course as Business Studies teacher in 2012. She advocates applying business theory to actual business case studies and creative assignments and encourages interactive learning. From 1996 to 2015 Kay was founder and MD of Data Print & Mail Ltd, a marketing services agency specialising in consultancy; database management; telemarketing and desk research; event management and CRM. Prior to setting up in business Kay was Client Services Director at ABC Promotional Services and Special Projects Manager at Pergamon Press. She graduated in 1982 from the École Supérieure de Commerce, Reims (linked then to Middlesex Polytechnic) with the Diplôme des Etudes Européennes de Management and BA (Hons) European Business Administration. Kay is a volunteerRiding for the Disabled Association Coach, teaching riders with physical or learning disabilities at New Yatt Riding for the Disabled Group where she is also a Trustee.

Magnus Moar

Magnus Moar is a graduate of Oxford and Sussex universities. After graduating from his Theology degree, he went on to complete an MA in Literature, Religion and Philosophy and a DPhil in Philosophy on the work of the Danish thinker Soren Kierkegaard. Magnus began teaching in 2001 and has been teaching Philosophy and Religion courses at the International College since 2007, working on all of the academic programmes. Beyond his work at St Clare͛s, Magnus also works for Oxford University͛s Department for Continuing Education teaching adult learners in Philosophy in Oxford and Reading. As a former departmental head at another college, Magnus has been involved in tutor recruitment and training. He has a published article in the volume ͚Despite Oneself: Subjectivity and Its Secret in Kierkegaard and Levinas͛ (Turnshare, London) and is no stranger to the conference circuit. Magnus is currently working on an interdisciplinary text that examines the philosophy of human nature in literature.

Paul Sinclair

Paul Sinclair is the Director of Studies for the Academic Programmes at the International College and enjoys both working with our university partners in the USA and advising students who apply to American Universities, a role he has fulfilled since 2007. He studied Medieval History at the University of St Andrews and also completed a year of study abroad at Queen’s University, Canada, and an MA in History at the University of Washington in Seattle before moving to Oxford to research thirteenth century England on a British Academic Scholarship at St John’s College, especially kingship, knighthood and the reign of King Henry III. Paul teaches Liberal Arts courses on history and art history and gives seminars on a range of medieval topics, J.R.R. Tolkien and Victorian medievalism; he is currently researching the utopian writings of William Morris. In his spare time, he likes to explore eighteenth century English landscape gardens and listen to 1960s American soul music – although rarely at the same time. He is also a residential warden at St. Clare’s and lives on site with his wife and young son.

Victoria Staveley

Victoria Staveley works at St Clare’s in various capacities. In addition to teaching Theory of Knowledge, she is a residential warden, a duty manager, and the Academic Office manager. She also teaches Liberal Arts courses in Renaissance Studies, European Crime Fiction, and Jane Austen. She studied English and French at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada before coming to do postgraduate research at St. John’s College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada doctoral fellow. She lives on site with her husband and small son (and many, many tiny pieces of Lego).