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Teaching Staff
Introduction
Following an extensive selection process, Day Waterman College has been successful in recruiting its full quota of six expatriate staff, plus a Nigerian National who is currently teaching in England.
The following is a short biography of each of these people, including the Principal who took up his post on 9th April 2008, and can be contacted at the Lagos Office.
> Helen Sumbola Bajela: Houseparent and Senior Teacher
> Christopher Bennett (Chris): Vice Principal
> Catherine Flanagan (Cath): Curriculum Leader (Linguistics)
> Bernard Gilman (Bernie): Principal
> Scott McKenna: Curriculum Leader (Maths and IT)
> David Owen: Curriculum Leader (Aesthetic & Creative)
> Duncan Shaw: Curriculum Leader (Scientific Area)
Helen Sumbola Bajela: Houseparent and Senior Teacher
Helen is a Nigerian national, who is currently living and working in the UK. She has spent the last five years at a large secondary school in Enfield, London, mainly as a teacher of English Language, English Literature and Media Studies.
As well as being involved in the process of whole-school development and improvement, she has taken on some responsibility for the induction and assessment of Newly-Qualified Teachers (NQTs) and student trainee teachers at her current school.
Helen first started work in Nigeria, and enjoyed a number of senior administrative posts in the field of medicine - as PA to the Medical Director of St Nicholas Hospital, Lagos and as Medical Administrator working for Chevron Nigeria Limited. When she moved to the UK twelve years ago, she continued her career working for different London Local Authorities in various, senior administrative posts.
Helen has a BA (Honours) degree in English Language and Literature, awarded at the University of Benin. More recently, having realised that she wanted a more fulsome career as a teacher, she completed her PGCE at Middlesex University, prior to taking up her current post.
As a key part of her work in Enfield, Helen has undergone training and taken a particular interest in raising standards through improved tracking of student progress and achievement.
At DWC, Helen will be one of the House-parents and teach English, but she will also be a member of the Senior Team with lead responsibility for establishing and developing assessment for learning, and the extremely important skill-share programme, involving local and expatriate staff.
Given her experience and background, she is well-placed to undertake these essential features of her role, which are characteristics of any successful learning organisation.
Helen is a mother of two young sons, and the elder son will attend Year 7 at Day Waterman College, starting in September 2008. Her interests include reading, current affairs, as well as cooking and entertaining.
Christopher Bennett (Chris): Vice Principal
Chris is a married man with two grown-up children. His wife is a Thai National, and they own a farm in Thailand. Chris is currently working at Al Khor International School in Qatar.
Chris graduated from Keele University in 1976, with a BA Joint Honours degree in American Studies and Sociology, after which he obtained his PGCE in Humanities from Sussex University. Since qualifying as a teacher, Chris has worked for many years in schools in the UK and overseas, notably two schools in Thailand, when he worked as a SENCO and Assistant Head of Senior Boarding.
His particular professional interests are in counselling; indeed Chris is a qualified counsellor, and he has done a great deal of work in developing programmes of learning for gifted and talented students. He is also passionately interested in pastoral care and guidance, assessment for learning as well as performance management and target setting, and inclusive strategies involving effective differentiation of teaching and learning.
As well as serving as Vice Principal at Day Waterman College, Chris will also take on the role of Curriculum Leader (Human and Social learning experiences) during the first year or two, where his strong background will be of considerable benefit in the process of designing a balanced and challenging entitlement curriculum for all students.
He lists his main interests and pastimes as fishing, reading, travel, football and cricket!
Catherine Flanagan (Cath): Curriculum Leader (Linguistics)
Cath has been appointed as a Houseparent and Curriculum Leader (Linguistics) at Day Waterman College and, although she is an English woman, she will not have far to travel to take up her new post, as she is currently living and working in Lagos.
At present, Cath is Second in the English Department and Head of Lower School at an International School in Lagos, where she has been working for the last three years in a variety of roles, taking on many additional responsibilities. For example, she has been Head of House and a teacher of History. She is also responsible for training both expatriate and local teachers in how to meet the National Curriculum objectives in English.
Cath has a grown-up son who is currently studying at university in the UK.
She also has a good range of academic and vocational qualifications; starting her teaching career in a vocational setting, training post-16 students for the GNVQ in Health and Social Care. In this role, she was able to put her Further Education Teacher's Certificate to sound, practical use. She also has a BSc (Honours) degree in Sociology awarded by the University of Teesside, and an M.A. in Women's Studies from the University of York.
From 2001 to 2002, Cath studied for her PGCE at the University of Sunderland before going on to work as a teacher of English as well as Food and Textiles Technology. She will clearly have a key role to play in helping DWC incorporate appropriate vocational learning experiences into the balanced curriculum entitlement of all students.
Bernard Gilman (Bernie): Principal
Bernie started his teaching career 32 years ago after graduating from Hull College of Education with a Certificate of Education and B. Ed degree from the University of Hull in Economics and Business Studies. He then spent three years at Billericay School in Essex before moving to open the Department of Economics at a new community school that had been established on the Isle of Wight.
He then spent the next twelve years at that school as the Head of the Faculty of Economics and Business Studies, and then as Deputy Head (Curriculum and Community). During that time, he was awarded a one-year secondment to study for his MA(Ed) in Curriculum Analysis and Design at the University of Southampton. During his time on the Isle of Wight, he also established and developed a student exchange programme with the Moscow Technical Lyceum in the USSR, which grew to incorporate cultural, business and trade links between the Sverdlovsky District of Moscow and the Isle of Wight.
Before becoming a Head Teacher, he took two years out of the school environment to gain a broader perspective as General Adviser/Inspector working for the Curriculum Development & Review Branch of Derbyshire LEA. In that role he set up a student exchange programme between six Derbyshire schools and six schools in The Crimea, which centred on comparative economic studies through work experience placements in the two countries.
He then took on his first Headship at a comprehensive school in Essex, where he undertook a whole-school restructuring exercise to ameliorate a series of major deficiencies in the curriculum, management structure, staffing and budget. After nearly four years in that role, he moved to take on the Head Teacher's role at a bigger secondary school in Suffolk, after which he made an important career shift.
He studied for the RSA Cambridge CELTA and started teaching English as a Foreign Language to adults in Italy and Denmark, before getting back into teaching Economics at an international school in Kuwait. From there he has taught Business English and been a business management trainer in Thailand, in between several years as the Head of International schools in Singapore, Bangkok and New Delhi.
His personal interests are many and varied, but he is passionate about cooking international cuisine, and undertaking solo, long-distance cycle expeditions for charitable causes.
He likes to keep fit, when time allows, and still enjoys rekindling his teenage passion by playing the drums when he gets the chance, having been a drummer in a very successful rock band as an older teenager.
Scott McKenna: Curriculum Leader (Maths and IT)
Scott is actually a Scot (from Scotland). He is 43 years of age and single, and for the past two years has been working as Second in the Mathematics Department at a large and successful High School in Chelmsford, Essex.
His main professional interests in his current role are raising achievement at KS3 and KS4 by identifying and targeting key borderline students, incorporating assessment for learning within the Maths Department, and improving the attainment and progress of low achievers and, importantly, gifted and talented students.
Prior to joining his current school, Scott spent six years teaching Maths at two other secondary schools in Essex. He is now keen to establish himself as a teacher in international education, and he is very much looking forward to life in Nigeria.
Scott has an ONC Engineering qualification, and was awarded a B.Sc. (Honours) degree in Statistics from Aberdeen University in 1997, after which he studied for his PGCE at Strathclyde University.
Before entering the teaching profession, he worked as a warehouse supervisor and a whisky blender!
He lists his personal interests as being an avid, if not passionate, follower of Glasgow Rangers football club, and Arsenal now that he is resident in England. He is currently teaching himself the computer language Visual Basic.Net. In his younger days he was a very keen runner and his personal best time of 2 hours and 50 minutes, for a full marathon is quite an achievement.
David Owen: Curriculum Leader (Aesthetic & Creative)
David is 53 year old single man who has had a long and interesting career in education. He obtained his Certificate of Education in 1977 and later obtained a B. Ed (Honours) degree in Educational Management from Nottingham University. In 1992, he was awarded a M.A. degree in Information Technology from Loughborough University. He also has qualifications as a Licentiate and Associate of the London College of Music.
David is currently working as a Teacher of ICT at the Kamuzu Academy in Malawi, East Africa. His career started with a long period of teaching in the UK, prior to embarking on a career in international schooling and education.
He spent the first fifteen years of his career working as a Teacher and Head of English in four schools in the UK, before becoming the IT Coordinator at a school in Derby for five years. After that, David made the move overseas, working as an IT Manager in the United Arab Emirates.
David then moved to Togo to work at The British School of Lome for two years. After an interlude, working in The British West Indies, David returned to spend a further two years at the same school in Togo, before returning to the UK to teach English and IT for three years before taking up his current post in Malawi.
David also has a very strong interest and passion for Drama and the Theatre, especially in the applications and use of technology in this important area of the curriculum. He has worked as a host on Capital Radio in Abu Dhabi, a Director and Writer for the Derby Youth Theatre (based at the Derby Playhouse), and an actor for BBC Radio Derby.
Not surprisingly, therefore, he lists his personal interests and hobbies to include the theatre (as a writer, director and actor), digital photography, using computers to create web designs, games and to write programs, as well as reading, running and occasionally playing football!
As the Aesthetic and Creative Curriculum Area will include the more specifically vocational subjects, David's background and experience will be an obvious and considerable asset to Day Waterman College.
Duncan Shaw: Curriculum Leader (Scientific Area)
Duncan is a very experienced science teacher having worked in many schools in the UK and overseas in that capacity and as Head of Science in most cases. He brings his wealth of experience to the benefit of Day Waterman College as the Curriculum Leader in one of the core curriculum areas.
Six years ago, in June 2002, he took up the post of founding Vice Principal of the ABTI Academy in Yola, in the North of Nigeria. A little under three years later, he was promoted to become the Principal of the Academy, which is where he is currently living and working.
Before his current posting, Duncan had worked in Costa Rica, Madrid, Bahrain, Dubai, Peru and Sri Lanka. Prior to 1981, he spent 11 years teaching science at three different schools in England.
Duncan has a B.Sc. in Chemistry and Zoology, awarded by the University of London, where he also studied for his M.Sc. in Analytical Chemistry. He is also, correctly titled Dr. Duncan Shaw, as he has a PhD.
Although Duncan is British, his wife is a citizen of Costa Rica, and they have a home there. He has many fairly diverse personal interests, including classical music, photography, hill walking, Indian cooking and gardening - which is useful as his curriculum area will incorporate Agricultural Science.
At the moment, Day Waterman College are advertising a series of additional key teaching and non-teaching posts, working with a local recruitment agency in this important process.
If you feel you have the background, skills and personal qualities we are seeking, and would like to extend your professional development and creativity in an exciting new educational venture, please refer to the 'Vacancies' section on the web-site. We look forward to hearing from you.
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