The ALL London Regional Branch depends on the commitment and time given by its committee members for its activities. Here are some of us at the end of the January 2023 event.
We are fortunate enough to have a wide range of members from different backgrounds with a variety of skills and expertise.
Many thanks to committee members who are providing pen portraits of themselves so that you can get to know them better. Here they are so far (alphabetically sorted by surname):
Catherine Ames
The Grey Coat Hospital
Nadine Chadier
Cara Bleiman
Harris Federation Language Consultants
Nathalie Blondeau
”I am delighted to serve on the ALL London Branch committee to support, connect, and empower language educators across the capital. As a Senior Languages Consultant, I have worked extensively with London schools and teachers to strengthen language teaching, promote inclusive practice, and broaden opportunities for all pupils. I am passionate about building vibrant professional networks where teachers can share ideas, access quality CPD, and advocate for the vital role of languages in our diverse communities.”
Liz Fotheringham (Secretary)
Liz is a former Head of Languages of a school in Hertfordshire with experience of
teaching French, German, EFL and also some Mandarin. She has been involved in various projects to
support the teaching and learning of languages in association with ALL, Links into Languages,
Network for Languages and the London schools’ Excellence Fund. She is the author of the BBC
Bitesize revision guides and workbooks for Edexcel and AQA GCSE French (9-1), of the teacher’s
guides to the Mission français course, and a contributor to Teachit Languages resources.
Sarah Hau (Treasurer)
Sarah is a Head of MFL, based in South-East London/Kent, with experience of teaching French, German and Spanish. She has worked in a range of schools across her career, in mixed and girls’ comprehensive and grammar schools in Wiltshire, Somerset and London. Originally training in Southampton and a graduate in Maths and French, she has also taught Maths to GCSE, quite possibly the right attributes to bring to ALL London as Treasurer! As a “Saturday morning keenie”, she enjoys trying out different ideas in the classroom, as well as learning other languages, such as Japanese.
Mary Heath
A keen linguist, Mary teaches French, German and Latin and is Head of Modern Languages at a secondary school in London.
Rachel Heer
Ali Koubaa
Elisena Lavecchia
I am a native Italian speaker and currently a teacher of French and Spanish, passionately guiding students up to A level. Before embarking on my teaching journey, I worked for Air France in Turin, where I was born, and later in London from 2008 to 2011.
My path into education began unexpectedly when a friend, returning from an evening class at university, asked if I had ever considered studying languages and pursuing a degree. That moment sparked a realization—teaching had always been my dream, inspired by my mother, who taught French in Italy for 35 years. Without hesitation, I decided to follow in her footsteps. I completed my degree and postgraduate studies in French and Spanish in London and have been teaching both languages with dedication and enthusiasm since 2012.
Beyond teaching, travelling the world is my greatest passion. I love immersing myself in different cultures, practicing the languages I have learned, and soaking up the customs and traditions of each country I visit. I bring these experiences back to my students, enriching my lessons with real-life cultural insights.
During lockdown, I discovered the Association for Language Learning and took part in all the inspiring Teacher Show and Tell events. A pivotal moment came when I attended a CPD session at the BFI in London—instead of heading straight for the exit at the end, I wandered back to the main hall. Someone asked, “Would you like to stay another half an hour? The ALL Committee is having a meeting—maybe you can join us and be part of it.” And just like that, I became involved!
I am now honoured to be part of the ALL London Branch Committee, contributing as much as I can between an incredibly busy teaching career, frequent travels, and a vibrant, fast-paced life!
Nick Mair (Vice Chair)
Nick Mair is a French and Spanish teacher in both an Academy and an independent school. He is the former HoD, chair of ISMLA and Vice Chair of ALL-London. He is particularly interested in CLIL projects. He is involved in the NML SCITT, a school governor and a trustee of the Chartered Institute of Linguists. He is beyond hope of any improvement for his tones in Chinese.
Sharon Mangion
Teacher of French & Italian of 24yrs. Head of Department. Very passionate about keeping languages alive!
Wanda Marshall
Wanda has been teaching German and French in London secondaries and primaries since 1999. Currently she teaches German A level at Albemarle College and at the German Saturday School Islington and has worked on the new German GCSE textbook for Pearson. She works for the Goethe Institut as one of their “German Expert Mentors” (GEMs) and she also runs workshops there as part of their student days in London. She has taken students to the German film days at the BFI and has organised many primary school day trips to Paris. She is an examiner for the AQA German A Level speaking exam, has written study guides for some of the key books and films studied at A Level German and runs training courses for German teachers for Hodder and Keynote Education.
Helen Myers (Chair)
As well as being Chair of ALL London branch, Helen is an Invited Trustee of ALL’s Management Board. She has 40 years’ experience of teaching and managing in comprehensive schools, and throughout that time has always taken a great interest in curriculum and assessment developments at secondary level, sharing detailed objective analyses and resources via her blog and the variety of social media platforms to which she contributes. She has been a keen advocate of the use of technology to make language teaching effective and efficient, an aspect which came to the fore for everyone during the pandemic, prompting her to increase the number of webinars held on the ALL London Zoom platform.
As an ALL volunteer she is keen to support others in any way she can, and willing to visit ALL group member schools for free if this helps.
Miriam Paridjanian
French teacher at Rosendale Primary School. Hosts the South London Primary Hub for ALL.
Judith Rifeser
Quadrilingual languages and media teacher – teacher trainer – researcher – filmmaker, former ALL President, Director of the Critical Connections: Multilingual Digitial Storytelling Project; passionate about raising our labrador and little one multilingually.
Antonio Marcio da Silva
Dr Antonio da Silva is currently a lecturer and the Director of Admissions, Outreach, and Recruitment for Language and Linguistics at the University of Essex. He has a PGCE in Modern Languages (Spanish and French), an MRes in Modern Languages, and a PhD in Hispanic Studies. He has taught at all school levels in Brazil and at secondary and higher education in England. He has completed the Upskilling Level 3 Mandarin Course for school teachers in the UK offered by UCL, the Institute of Education, and the Confucius Institute for Schools. He is passionate about learning languages (he has learned a bit of 13 languages so far) and making language learning accessible to everyone. In 2015, he won the School of Humanities Teaching Award at the Students’ Teaching Awards for Teaching Excellence at the University of Kent.
Antonio focuses on two areas of research: cinema and linguistics. In cinema, he is interested in representations of race, social class, gender, and sexuality, which are the subjects dealt with in his first book: “The femme fatale in Brazilian Cinema” (2014), and the two following edited books: “Space and Subjectivity in Contemporary Brazilian cinema” (2017) and “Human rights, social movements and activism in contemporary Latin America cinema” (2018). In linguistics, he focuses on the uses of new technologies in language teaching, particularly Portuguese, interlanguage influence, heritage languages, registers, genres, students’ and teachers’ beliefs about language learning and teaching, web-based teaching, the integration of cinema, memes, reels, and music in language instruction, and the development of teaching materials for foreign languages. Antonio has published numerous high-impact papers and articles in academic journals in different countries. Currently, he is managing a project “Developing employability skills through language learning: a pilot project with adult learners in the Colchester area” at the University of Essex, funded by the British Academy, and a few studies based on his project “The Effect of ChatGPT on Student Writing in Multiple Languages: A Systemic Functional Linguistics Analysis”, funded through the University of Essex’s Executive Dean Funding.
Kerry Phipps
Kerry Phipps has been a member of ALL for over 20 years, and has presented at ALL conferences, as well as contributed articles to the magazine and website. She is a qualified translator, TEFL teacher and specialist Primary French teacher, currently teaching languages at infant and junior school level. Kerry has taught a range of subjects in primary and secondary British and International schools. She is passionate about languages, has taught Spanish and German and is currently learning Italian for pleasure.
Faris Sanhaji
Faris is a languages teacher and a Lecturer in Education. He teaches on the PGCE Secondary Modern Languages Programme and is also involved with the PGCE Primary as well as Masters in Education programmes. Faris has been teaching French and Spanish in several inner London schools, before becoming Head of Spanish from KS2 to KS5 in an East London school. He has a great interest in language pedagogy, research on second language acquisition and heritage languages.