IB Boarding Staff

Our residences provide a friendly and nurturing environment which enables our Pre-IB and IB Diploma students to thrive. The beautiful and safe boarding environment combines secure residential housing with outdoor green spaces.

House Parents work with you to make the living environment feel like home and arrange social events and activities. These events create enjoyable experiences so you feel truly fulfilled outside the classroom.

Our residential team are committed to supporting your health and wellbeing. They provide a supportive and nurturing environment within our boarding houses. The House Parents are listed below in alphabetical order:

Dolly Rimkeviciute

Professional experience

Dolly joined the Boarding team at St Clare’s in 2022. The aspect she enjoys the most about working in boarding is seeing how different cultures, religions, and life experiences can bond students into one family.

Interests

Dolly loves reading various books, listening to all music genres and going to the theatre. She also likes to hike and travel around the world with her husband Audrius to see the differences between cultures, nature and food. This helps her bond quickly with international students when they arrive at St Clare’s. 

Gwenan Vickers

Professional experience

Professionally Gwenan has specialist experience within the residential environment. Gwenan is a Senior House Parent.

Beginning as an English Teacher for an international language school, progressing to managing activities programmes, House Tutor roles and managing residences themselves. She has also assisted in teaching PSHE and running student engagement workshops focusing on photography, film and performance.

Education

Gwenan is a graduate from Aberystwyth University where she studied Film and Performance BA 2016, followed by studying Politics, Media and Performance Master of Arts in which she graduated in 2018. Her studies have placed interest in International Politics, the Event and Identity. She has also produced work which has been featured in Welsh film festivals. She is currently studying a part time BSc degree in Psychology.

Interests

Gwenan is passionate about working with young people and supporting their needs, and actively participates in courses to support this commitment. She also assists in the onsite Health Centre as a Health Care Assistant. 

In her own time, she enjoys exploring the countryside, photography, performing and participating in film making. Gwenan also has a passion for performing as a drummer and vocalist, having done so from a young age.

Ida Henman

Professional experience

Ida started working at St Clare’s in 1999 and joined the residences team in September 2021.

Ida is very passionate about supporting students, having worked within the student environment for 21 years. She is the House Parent for 13 Lathbury Road and enjoys communicating with people within the St Clare’s community.

Interests

Ida is very family orientated and loves to cook in her free time. 

Jadwiga Wanelik

Professional experience

Between 1986 and 1989 she taught French at the French Institute in Kraków, after which she moved to Oxford. During her first 3 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 works as a House Parent, Duty Manager and Library Assistant.

Education

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 the PGCE.

Interests

Jadwiga loves literature, films, art and has a keen interest in Japanese literature and culture. She also enjoys voluntary work for Mind, the mental health charity. 

Jake Fernihough

Professional experience

Jake is a House Parent for the 155/7 and 159 houses, as well as a CAS supervisor for Fitness Circuit Training and Film Production. Jake has been a House Parent for 3 years and previously worked in summer camps as a camp counsellor in America before joining St Clare’s. Before joining St Clare’s Jake has worked in Banking, Marketing and being a Cabin Crew.

Education

Jake completed his BA in Film and Television Studies in 2016 from Aberystwyth University. Since then, Jake has created an interest in web design, fitness and mental health. Jake completed a diploma in Web Design in 2021. He has gained level 2 and 3 in Understanding Mental Health, which he plans to use towards completing courses in Counselling, specifically for young people and is starting a Personal Training course for fitness.

Interests

Jake enjoys being active. After spending 11 months in New Zealand back in 2019, he started with the travel bug that has seen him visit 6 countries since then. Jake loves fitness and going to the gym, as well as training in mixed martial arts. Jake is a lover of films, cake and writing stories.

Kristina Galiniene

Professional experience

Kristina Galiniene started working at St Clare’s in 2011 and joined the residential team in September 2016. Prior to her role as a Senior House Parent, Kristina worked in several of Oxford’s international boarding colleges, providing both pastoral and security care.

Education

Being passionate about children’s care and welfare, Kristina specialised in Family Education and Protection of Children’s Rights and completed a BA in this area from the State University of Lithuania. On graduation, Kristina was awarded a special Certificate of Appreciation and Gratitude from the University’s Rector for outstanding performance throughout her studies.

Committed to providing high standards of care, she obtained a license from the Security Industry Authority. Kristina gained additional pastoral experience during her studies, completing a placement at a local orphanage. She found this role very rewarding and continued volunteering there after the placement ended.

Interests

In her spare time Kristina enjoys travelling and spending time with her daughter. Kristina is a Senior House Parent.

Megan Allen

Professional experience

Megan is a Senior House Parent for 121 Banbury Road. She has worked in boarding for 10 years, progressing to SLT roles in Boarding, Pastoral and Safeguarding departments in other schools.

Education

Megan completed her BA Hons in Literature through the Open University, before being awarded her PGCE from Bath Spa in Primary Education. Since working in Boarding, she has attained several other certificates and qualifications in First Aid, SEND and Safeguarding practise alongside Boarding-specific professional qualifications.

Interests

Megan enjoys spending time with her husband, Tom, and Cockapoo, Reggie. She also loves rock and metal concerts, baking, going swimming and to the gym, and collecting antique books.

Monika Jakubowska

Professional experience

Monika is the Senior House Parent for 10-12 Lathbury Road. Monika has poured her passion and dedication in international education , where she gained specialist experience of pastoral support within the residential environment. She enjoys meeting new international students every year and watching them blossom. Monica is Security Industry Authority licensed, she is committed to the security and the safety of her students.

Education

Having graduated from Bialystok Higher School of Economics, where she gained a Master’s in Economics with a major in Accounting and Finance. 

Interests

Monika loves cats and spending time with her husband, friends, baking and going for bike rides in the beautiful countryside around Oxford. She also enjoys travelling and discovering different cultures, and spends her holidays exploring the world.

Teodora Petranova

Professional experience

Teodora has been a teacher of Bulgarian Literature since 2011. In 2012 she joined the Theory of Knowledge team. In addition to the regular TOK lessons, she teaches introduction to critical thinking to teenagers on our summer courses.

Teodora’s career in education began Moscow in 2004. She taught in the Anglo-American School until 2011. After returning to England from Russia in 2012, Teodora taught Colloquial Bulgarian at the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages at Oxford University. 

Education

Teodora’s background is in the field of media. She has BA and MA in Journalism (Sofia 1988) as well as an MSc in Media and Communications (LSE 1996). Earlier in her career, Teodora worked in PR for a national NGO, and as a journalist in a national daily in Sofia, Bulgaria.

After settling in the UK, she worked in London as a Producer-Presenter in the Bulgarian section of the BBC World Service (1995 – 2003).

Interests

As well as her teaching responsibilities, Teodora works as a Library Assistant and House Parent. She has also established a collection of books in Bulgarian in the college library.

In January 2015, Teodora and a friend established a weekend language school for Bulgarian children in Oxford. The school continues to support the Bulgarian community.