Janet founded Cumbria CLIL in 2010. She is a specialist in CLIL (Content & Language Integrated Learning) and has coordinated and taken part in several EU foreign language and CLIL projects. These involved producing training materials for Primary & Secondary teachers and organising exchanges and work placements abroad. Throughout her teaching career Janet has taught English, German and French in several different education settings and to different age-groups. These include vocational schools, secondary schools, adult education and university.
She also has a research degree in Modern European History. Janet loves teaching and particularly enjoys motivating learners to engage with lesson content. She has a lot of experience of working with subject teachers and teacher trainers to design courses and CLIL materials. She is passionate about raising intercultural awareness and has made this a key element of our residential courses.
Ryan's passions are language learning and education. He has been teaching Languages in secondary school (and sometimes local primary schools) for nearly 20 years. His pupils at school benefit from the same teaching strategies that we teach on our international CLIL courses. Ryan has been training subject and language teachers with Cumbria CLIL for several years and enjoys helping them with the practicalities of applying CLIL principles to the real classroom.
Ryan has been working with Janet on the management side of the business for some time now and has particular responsibility for the residential courses in the UK and Ireland.
Veera grew up in Finland and having completed the IB programme, has first-hand experience of being a student in a bilingual environment. She has been teaching French in a secondary school for more than 15 years and also has experience of teaching other subjects, such as Geography, ICT and Mathematics.
Veera uses CLIL techniques in her day-to-day teaching. She has been working with Cumbria CLIL in various countries for several years, both as a trainer and an administrator. She particularly enjoys helping course participants plan lessons that include CLIL strategies.
Becky began her teaching career 25 years ago when she taught EFL to children in Italy and Australia. She has also taught French and Italian to secondary school aged children and adults. She has led school excursions and trips in the UK, Australia, Italy and France. She particularly enjoys seeing her students gain confidence by developing their language skills whilst being immersed in the culture of the language they are learning.
Qualified in both PGCE and TEFL, Becky has used CLIL methods throughout her teaching career and her passion lies in making language learning accessible to all.
Tony has been a teacher for over 20 years and has worked with Cumbria CLIL for over 10 years now. He is Head of Education (Primary and Secondary) for the Bilingual Program in Budapest where he manages a large team of teachers and teacher trainers working in bilingual classrooms. The Bilingual Program specialises in CLIL and an "Active Classroom" approach generally, and also EFL.
Alongside his other duties, Tony teaches Science and English in bilingual classes at both Primary and High School. Tony is passionate about bilingual education in general and, in particular, about the interweaving of content, language and culture in his and Bilingual’s classrooms in Hungary.
Ralph has been a teacher in bilingual education for more than 15 years and as such brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the team. He started teaching Biology in regular classes, but once he discovered how to use CLIL strategies in lessons he couldn’t stop using them. His first contact with Cumbria CLIL was in 2012 when he attended a residential course in Carlisle and the Lake District. He set up the subjects Biology and Science in his department at a secondary school in the Netherlands and also works as a CLIL coach.
Ralph is a passionate teacher and very enthusiastic about bilingual education. He has learnt at first hand that CLIL strategies and a focus on using language benefit not only students in bilingual classes, but also those who are studying in their first language (L1).
Ralph enjoys working with teachers to support them in the classroom and is interested in project-based learning and the internationalisation aspect of CLIL.