Who we are

Emma’s field of expertise is second language teaching and learning, specialising in several interconnected areas: the learning and teaching of morphosyntax; how learners process the input; the nature and roles of different types of knowledge; and motivation and attitudes to language learning.

Emma works to improve access to research, engaging with teachers, teacher educators, and policy-makers to increase awareness of and involvement in research. She has taught French, Spanish, and English as foreign languages, including as head of Spanish in a comprehensive 11-18 school in Derby.

She has supervised PhD students on topics including motivation, home languages in the classroom, input processing, metaphoric competence, effective grammar teaching, and primary school language teaching. Between 2015-2022, Emma was Associate then Journal Editor for Language Learning (Wiley), one of the most highly cited journals in the field. She has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles, chapters, and books. 

Rachel is an influential and renowned speaker as well as past President of the Association for Language Learning (ALL), previous Head of Modern Languages, AST and SLE.  

Co-author of several textbooks, Rachel has both MEd and PhD from Cambridge University, focusing on teacher and learner interaction in the secondary languages classroom.  

Seconded until recently as Co-Director NCELP, the National Centre for Excellence for Language Pedagogy, Rachel is now back in role as Director of Languages and International Education for The Cam Academy Trust and working as collaborator on the Progression in Primary Languages project (IoE, Uni of Reading).

Victoria is a highly experienced MFL teacher and SENCo. Over the course of her career she has held positions of leadership at subject, departmental, whole school and Local Authority level, and as a Specialist Leader of Education for MFL, SEND and Pupil Premium.

 Whether as a class teacher or a leader, developing and enabling others is the aspect of Victoria’s professional practice which motivates her the most.  

She is also highly committed to her own professional development and as such holds a Masters in Special Educational Needs, from the University of Leeds.

Jenny possesses a wealth of MFL teaching and leadership experience.  

She has taught German, French and Spanish for 21 years, and has  successfully led a high performing MFL department for 12 years. As an associate Assistant Head she has also led whole school projects on embedding formative assessment.

Through her roles as Teacher Training Coordinator and MFL Subject Tutor for SCITT-based ITT providers, as well as ECT facilitator, Jenny has enjoyed sharing her expertise with new entrants to the profession.

Jenny’s significant contributions to teaching were recognised in 2021 by the Goethe-Institut who honoured her with a lifetime achievement award as part of the German Teacher Awards.

Mel is a teacher of French and German and Head of the MFL Faculty in a comprehensive school in Hertfordshire. This is a large department in a state secondary school where French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish are taught to all abilities.

She was a Specialist Teacher and Course Leader with NCELP throughout the national programme working with Hub Schools, delivering CPD nationally online and in person exploring LDP pedagogy and developing resources. 

Mel is passionate about improving Teaching and Learning in MFL and enjoys exploring relevant MFL research alongside delivering CPD and working with her own MFL department to implement best practice. 

Louise has over ten years of experience teaching French, Spanish and Italian up to A-level in secondary schools.  This, together with her MFL examiner and assessment writer experience at AQA, enabled her to make a significant contribution to the NCELP project and the LDP resource portal.  She has enjoyed the opportunity to share her knowledge and expertise in resource creation with MFL teachers at CPD events.

Louise has since developed her project management skills working on several high stakes projects at the University of York and the Hull York Medical School.

From January 2025, Louise will begin work on her PhD project, looking at motivation amongst secondary school learners of foreign languages from socially disadvantaged backgrounds.

Joanna is an Assistant Headteacher at a comprehensive school near Preston in the North West of England.  She is a teacher of French and Spanish and was previously Head of the MFL and Advanced Skills Teacher.

She was a Specialist Teacher and Course Leader with NCELP throughout the national programme working with Hub Schools, delivering CPD nationally online and in person exploring LDP pedagogy and developing resources.  

Joanna is passionate about improving Teaching and Learning in MFL and also has a keen interest in Reading across the curriculum, leading on whole school Reading strategy and intervention in her current role.  

Emma is a teacher of French, German and Spanish in a large comprehensive on the south coast. She was a Specialist Teacher and Course leader for NCELP and thoroughly enjoyed working with MFL departments in Hub schools exploring LDP pedagogy and developing resources, as well as delivering online CPD nationally.

Currently, she is a teaching and research coach in her school, mentoring ECTs and contributing to whole school CPD programmes.