Staff at Embassy

The Oxford Passion

Lorna Hicks, teacher at Embassy CES Oxford, writes:

When I retired, at the end of June, I did not expect that the next two months would turn out to be quite so exciting. A long-standing love of the theatre led me to jump at the chance of auditioning to be part of the amateur Community Chorus supporting the cast of eight superb professional actors in the Oxford Passion.

The play was performed nightly in the open air in the old prison exercise yard at Oxford Castle from 2nd August to 8th September. The members of the Community Chorus were by turns a gang of rather menacing angels, a crowd of people desperate to be healed, an angry mob threatening to stone an adulteress, mourners at the raising of Lazarus, jubilant palm wavers and crowds baying for Jesus' crucifixion.

It was a stimulating and uplifting experience and a wonderful opportunity to see at close quarters a professional production being put together. Sadly, the summer is over and the play has finished. Happily, the autumn term is starting and I shall be back at Embassy CES on two mornings a week to teach the Proficiency class. The play was visited by both students and staff, who enjoyed it very much.

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Antiques Roadshow

Raymond Butler, our Auckland Activities Manager, writes:

A much smaller version of that well-known TV programme "Antiques Roadshow" was held at Embassy CES Auckland campus last week.  Armed with a variety of objects both weird and wonderful, teachers Ray and Elena introduced their classes to the "thrill of the old"!  Teacher Ray is arguably older than some of the items shown here but nevertheless everyone had a good time.

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After viewing a clip from the programme, students picked up an object from a table and then had to ask each other questions about it as well as make up a story that matched the object in question. A toy cannon, an old jewel box, a fake whale's tooth (from a fake whale....) and Ray's grandfather's letter scale were some of the items that came to light.

Jim wondered if this old grenade would still work and if you look at Ray's face he isn't exactly sure either.......

Victoria, Celia, Jim, Young and Judy (Taiwan) stand holding their "treasures" and Horst (Brazil) and Azooz (Saudi Arabia) seem happy just to look on.

Embassy CES teachers always like to try to make the language "real", and not just words in a book - this was another chance to learn to make the language live.

Embassy CES students and staff - stars of the TEFL world!

The Embassy CES schools in London and Hastings were recently the scene of some professional filming - and our staff and students were the stars!

Renowned publishers Longman Pearson sent cameras into the classrooms to film examples of real-life English lessons. They were keen to show the use of our modern and recently-installed interactive whiteboards, as well as more traditional methods based on course books.

The resulting DVD is to accompany the new edition of 'The Practice of English Language Teaching' by Jeremy Harmer - one of the best-selling books on TEFL methodology. It shows some of the best practices in teaching, discusses common issues in the classroom, and hopes to instruct new teachers.

Each teacher was interviewed about his or her lesson, and the interviews appear on the DVD, along with full-length footage of the classes. Watching the DVD gives a very good impression of what it is like to study at Embassy CES. It is also a fine tribute to our staff that we were selected to stand as an example to teachers entering the TEFL profession.

If you are interested in seeing the results, the DVD is included as an insert with the new edition of 'The Practice of English Language Teaching' . All Embassy CES schools also have a copy available for students and staff to borrow.