How we got started
Caroline Scott, Author and Director at Across Cultures originally began writing an induction to English, funded by the Local Authority of Tower Hamlets in 2002.
This funding was awarded to accommodate for the distinct need for additional support for new-to-English learners in the mainstream. After writing her first draft, Caroline went on to develop this further, eventually providing training for many schools in Tower Hamlets and beyond. After some years, Caroline left Tower Hamlets to start an international School overseas. There, she was able to develop ideas further.Following significant additional research, she wrote her first book, 'Teaching Children as an Additional Language: A Programme for 7-11 year olds.' She later went on to write her second book, 'Teaching English as an Additional Language 5-11, A Whole School Resource', which encompassed many more facets of language learning, including language learning strategies, additional assessment and differentiating further for all levels of language across all curriculum subjects.
The Learning Village, an online English language learning programme for learners in schools (www.learningvillage.net), was a natural evolution of her work. It allows increased flexibility for learners and teachers, as well as providing significantly more content and assessment opportunities. Caroline also delivers a three-day training for senior teachers/leaders on supporting EAL learning across the curriculum (the EAL Framework course) as well as whole-school insets and one-day courses on how to achieve effective EAL teaching through the Learning Village.
Caroline Scott
Director, Author & Trainer
Caroline Scott BA, DipM, NPQH, MA has a wealth of experience in supporting young emergent bilingual learners within culturally rich, internationally minded learning environments. Caroline has taught at schools Europe, South East Asia and the Middle East, where she has also trained other teachers in supporting language learning with the curriculum.
Caroline was the founding Head of Primary at CES, a British International school in Cairo, Egypt (a 3-18 IPC school) and the Primary Principal at the International School of Milan, Italy (a 3-18 IB PYP school). She has also held a number of class teaching, EAL co-ordinator, senior leadership and advisory roles in the UK.
Caroline is the author of 'Teaching Children English as an Additional Language: A programme for 7-11 year olds', 'Teaching English as an Additional Language 5-11: A Whole School Resource' and 'An English as an additional language (EAL) Programme: Learning through images for 7-14 year olds'. She is the creator of the Learning Village (www.learningvillage.net), an online learning programme for 6-14 year-old English language learners in schools where English is the language of instruction. Through this programme and her books, she designs resources for learners, as well as training programmes for teachers, to assist them in leading EAL in their school. Caroline is also the editor of the EAL Teaching newsletter, a free monthly EAL newsletter for teachers.
Currently, Caroline is working on extending the Learning Village to communities and families. She has a keen interest in education technology.
Isabelle Bridger-Eames
EAL Specialist
Isabelle is one of our EAL Specialists responsible for demonstrations, training and memberships. She is an experienced teacher having taught KS2 and 3 for over 10 years. She has a Master's in Educational Leadership and Management. She is a freelance author of educational books, having had four KS2 English revision books published . Furthermore, she has also been a consultant teacher trainer for a large education company, training teachers on an online learning platform. She is very excited to be part of the Learning Village and Across Cultures team.
Breda Matthews
EAL Specialist
Breda Matthews, MA, B.Ed., Dip TESSOL, is responsible for demonstrations and training in the Australasia region, as well as content development. She is a facilitator and teacher of English language learners and has wide experience and expertise in programme design, teaching and assessing English language learners, resource creation and professional development in New Zealand. Breda has designed and delivered face-to-face and online programmes to English language learners. She is the founder of the English Language Resources Centre in New Zealand.
Eli Briasco
EAL Specialist
Eli is responsible for demonstrations and training in the Australasia region, as well as content development. He is a registered secondary teacher who has 15 years' experience teaching English in Japan, Australia, Brunei and New Zealand. As an education project manager, he worked closely with the Brunei Ministry of Education in several national-level literacy initiatives and designed resources for use in secondary schools across the country. He is now based in Nelson, New Zealand. Eli has a Master of Applied Linguistics and a Cambridge Delta (ELT Management specialism).
Simon Lobo-Morell
Developer, CDU Digital
Simon joined the Across Cultures team to work collaboratively in developing our online EAL learning environment, The Learning Village. Simon has over 10 years' experience as a programmer and has a keen interest in languages, having also taught English as a Foreign Language in the past. Simon runs CDU Digital, a website development and digital marketing business.
Beverley Roby
Memberships
Beverley is often the first person you'll speak to if you register on the Learning Village. She'll help with all your initial questions and set you up with your EAL Specialist, who can provide you with initial training and ongoing support. Beverley lives near Manchester with her dog, Poppy, and is the proud mother of Jasmine.
Heidi Niederkofler
Administrator, Marketing and digital communications
Heidi deals with day-to-day administrative tasks, our courses and webinars, newsletters and content production. She is also responsible for our social media channels and all things Marketing. She has a BA in Business and Management and is the co-founder of an events company based in Bath, UK. Already speaking three languages fluently, she has a lot of experience in language learning.
Alana Thurston
New Zealand Administrator
Alana facilitates managing new and existing memberships for the Australasia region. Based in Auckland, NZ, Alana has a BA in Social Science and has previously worked in local government and the private sector. She has a keen interest in democratic participation and education.
Yzanne Mackay
Editor and Content Writer
Yzanne joined Across Cultures and the Learning Village in 2018. She has worked for over 20 years as a writer and editor and has a wealth of knowledge of the educational sector. Yzanne genuinely enjoys correcting grammar and spelling and loves working out the best ways of communicating: she gets to grips with the nuts and bolts of the Learning Village programmes, tidies everything up, writes articles for us and creates new resources.
Sobia Zaman
Content production
Sobia supports the development of content on the Learning Village... among other things! Sobia works as a Teaching Assistant part time and is a qualified programmer!
Sara Marchetto
Illustrator (Learning Village)
Sara does an incredible job of bringing the online learning tool 'Learning Village' (www.learningvillage.net) to life! Sara lives in a beautiful, small village in the Italian Alps and loves walking in the mountains and practicing yoga. She started her illustration career by creating a little ugly, but adventurous, comic series about her and her primary school classmates in her first days of school. She started to publish in 2006 and, since then, she's been creating illustrations for textbooks, educational projects and fiction books, collaborating with publishers and public and private clients in Italy and worldwide. www.blog.saramarchetto.com, [email protected]