David holds a First Class Honours degree in French Language and Linguistics and began his professional career with LEGO as a Product Specialist within the European Contact Centre, where he developed strong communication and intercultural skills. He subsequently worked as a Production Editor for academic journals, before completing a CELTA qualification and training as an ESL teacher. Following this, David undertook teacher training in French with a primary specialism, including a term teaching in Strasbourg, and spent two years teaching in the primary sector before specialising fully in French. Since 2015, he has been teaching at Pilgrims’, where he continues to cultivate a dynamic and engaging approach to language learning.
David is deeply committed to fostering a love of languages in his students, underpinned by both academic rigour and creativity. Music plays a central role in his teaching: he regularly incorporate the ukulele and original songs into his curriculum to support language acquisition and grammatical understanding and retention. A sense of humour is also integral to David’s practice, creating a classroom environment in which pupils feel confident to experiment with language and develop memorable, often inventive ways of mastering vocabulary and grammatical structures. Through this approach, his aim to inspire curiosity, confidence, and a lasting enthusiasm for language learning.
Art education sits at the centre of Charlotte’s professional life. She is committed to championing the value of creative learning and to promoting high-quality art teaching within her own school and across the wider prep school community. Charlotte believes strongly in the role of art in developing confidence, curiosity and creative thinking in young people, and she is equally passionate about supporting teachers to share ideas, practice and inspiration. Charlotte is currently Head of Art at Caterham Prep, where she leads the curriculum for Years 1–6, design SoWs, coordinate cross-curricular projects and support pupils preparing for 11+ Art scholarships. Alongside this, she serves as an IAPS Art Subject Adviser, contributing to subject development and collaboration.
In addition to her subject leadership, Charlotte is Assistant Head (Pastoral) at Caterham Prep, overseeing pastoral care, and supporting wellbeing and safeguarding. Prior to this, she held several roles at Caterham School (Senior), including Head of Art and Head of History of Art, teaching from KS3 to A Level and establishing the History of Art department. She began her career at Oasis Academy Shirley Park, where she taught Art & Design and supported students’ progression to sixth form and university. Charlotte holds a BA in History and Philosophy of Art from the University of Kent, an MA in Contemporary Art Theory, and a PGCE in Secondary Art & Design from Goldsmiths, and has also worked as a GCSE and A Level moderator.
Margo is a sustainability education consultant and experienced school geography lead, with 23 years of teaching and leadership in both prep and secondary schools. She created the ISI-recognised, award-winning Global Citizenship Pathway (gcpathway.com), embedding sustainability across school life through her Learn → Do → Become approach.
Margo has presented on the panel for Climate Courage Schools and contributed to Teach the Future’s redraft of the Primary National Curriculum for a Changing Climate. She helps schools, teachers and pupils turn knowledge into meaningful action, using geography as a starting point for whole-school culture change. Her approach connects experiential learning, real-world projects and pupil-led initiatives to lasting behaviour change, leadership and character development.
Living on the edge of the New Forest, Margo enjoys decompressing outdoors with her spaniel, reflecting the same love of nature and connection she fosters in her work with young people.
Marc would describe himself as a very passionate English teacher. He loves the subject and he loves being in the classroom. Having worked at a range of prep schools, some selective and others very much non-selective, he feels he has a strong understanding of the academic spread and the different demands and challenges faced by English teachers.
Being an exam setter for the last six years has offered hugely valuable experience in terms of understanding the standard we wish our pupils to meet and putting together interesting, engaging papers. It has also allowed him the privilege of working closely with other teachers in different schools and sharing good practice.
It is a fascinating time to be an English teacher. Technology is moving forwards at a rate we have previously not witnessed and the digital future has become the present. AI has been a huge discussion point in recent times and there is still a long way to go in terms of understanding how it will affect the future and how we might respond to its presence. Marc is very keen to explore how we might embrace it and harness its obvious potential, and how our pupils can use it in a proactive and intelligent manner.
That said, at the heart of our pupils’ needs is also the ability to tackle the fundamentals. Fostering a love of words, of reading, of writing, and teaching essential grammar points is still hugely important, and somehow we, as teachers, have to adapt to all these elements. It’s a challenge – and an exciting one, too.
Geography Writer, Editor & Education Consultant
Cecilia Bidie is Deputy Head Pastoral of St. Philip’s School, London. A Religious Studies subject specialist, she continues to work with several organisations and initiatives to raise awareness of the subject’s importance on the curriculum.
