Born in 1967, I grew up in North London in the 1970s and 80s and was really keen on sport at school and college, playing football (I’m a Spurs fan), basketball, volleyball and cricket for all the school teams. When I was 16, I moved to the south coast of England, where I practised and taught watersports. At the age of 19, I went to Portsmouth University, graduating in 1990 in German & French: History, Politics & Language. After travelling independently (by road, rail and hitch-hiking) many times in western, southern and central European countries, and then working as a teaching assistant in Senegal and Germany, and a watersports instructor in the south of France, I decided in 1991 to learn to teach English. I completed the Cambridge CELTA course at International House, Piccadilly in London, and soon took my first teaching job in Indonesia, which gave me a wonderful opportunity to travel around South-East Asia. Two years later, I was teaching general and business English in Madrid, Spain, where I stayed for two years. After short spells teaching in London and Chester, I arrived in Bournemouth in 1995, completed my Cambridge Diploma in Teaching English (DELTA), and began a thoroughly enjoyable career as a trainer with ITTC and senior teacher with BEET Language Centre. I got married here in Bournemouth, bought a house on the outskirts of the town by the River Stour, and had a beautiful daughter in 2000.

Much of my professional has been dedicated to training and developing teachers on Cambridge teacher training courses, and in addition, I have also run monthly teacher training sessions for teachers from over twenty schools in Bournemouth, and am a regular Cambridge examiner for Preliminary. First, Advanced and Business exams. When I’m not working, I love spending long evenings and weekends exploring the local countryside and coastline of the region on foot and by car, bike and kayak. Dorset has some amazing scenery and wildlife (birds, mammals and reptiles) and I’m passionate about the natural and local history available here. I try to take a driving holiday to France every year, as well as a holiday to one of my favourite destinations – Spain, the USA and Cornwall. I love to cook at home and have dinner with friends (I try to experiment with different nationality dishes), I grow my own fruit and vegetables and I watch lots of history and wildlife documentaries on the BBC whenever I can. Another thing that I spend time doing is studying languages on the Internet. At the moment, I’m using various podcasts and apps to improve my French, German, Spanish and Italian and I’ve just started trying to learn Portuguese too as my partner of two years is from Brazil. This is where I spend the long winters now! Finally, I enjoy watching films at home, particularly historical dramas and biopics – and I’m always listening to the newest and classic rock and Indie bands from the UK and the US. I just wish there was more free time in a day! I really look forward to getting to know you and helping you to improve your English during your stay at BEET.

My path to teaching has been a long one! After graduating with a Law Degree (after the dinosaurs, but before social media!), I spent time working in companies and travelling to countries where I could put my French and German language skills to good use. A chance meeting with a young Kiwi (now my husband) was the start of many travel adventures and led to New Zealand becoming my home for 10 years. In 2006, I returned to the UK with two young children and started a new career in Human Resources Management. After many years of working in large companies, and dreaming of doing something different, I finally took the plunge and gained my CELTA qualification in 2021. I was absolutely thrilled to be offered the opportunity to teach at BEET in 2022 and love being part of the team. I don’t know why I waited so long!