Category: HOF

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James Foster

Head of Modern Foreign Languages, Spanish & German

James is originally from Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, where he developed a passion for languages and chose to make language learning core to his future career. After graduating from the University of Nottingham with a degree in German & Spanish in 2018, James decided to complete his PGCE at Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln the following year. After this, the sense of adventure acquired throughout his year abroad during undergraduate study led to the desire to work in Prague. He later completed his Masters in Education degree whilst working at ECP. In his free time, James enjoys cycling and exploring the city by foot as well as travelling whenever possible.

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Katy MacLeod

Head of Arts Faculty

Katy MacLeod was brought up in a large family from the Scottish Highlands. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh after studying Drawing & Painting simultaneously with History of Art. After a year as a Royal Scottish Academy scholar in Florence, Italy, and convinced that one day she would live overseas again, Katy returned to Edinburgh to study a PGDE in Primary and Secondary Art & Design, deciding that the best way to address Picasso’s challenge on how to remain an artist when you have grown up was to get a proper job and become an Art teacher!

Three schools later, including a rewarding yet challenging time spent working in a community school in one of Scotland’s most deprived areas, a series of fortunate events led to her arrival in Prague in August 2013 – a city which captivated, and continues to indulge her interests in scenography, film, architecture and the Arts. 
Delighted to join the staff at ECP, Katy has a broad range of educational experiences having worked in primary, secondary and adult Art education. A passionate advocate for the Arts, and experienced in developing artistic and cultural departmental profile, she is familiar with the challenges of managing exhibitions, festivals and projects on a variety of scales, with a range of target audiences and stakeholders. She maintains strong interests in current Arts education practice, and is a contributing member of the International Society for Education through Arts, IJADE conferences, and the National Society for Art & Design Education.

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Francesco Tognini

Head of Mathematics

Francesco is originally from a small town in Ayrshire, Scotland – otherwise known as “Robert Burns country”. He graduated from the University of Strathclyde in 2013 with a BSc degree in Pure Mathematics and subsequently completed his PGDE the following year. After initially teaching in the UK, the desire to work in Europe was too strong and he moved to Prague in 2015, teaching Mathematics at ECP ever since.

He is passionate about sport including badminton and table-tennis, but mainly football, having previously played competitively. In his spare time Francesco enjoys listening to 60s rock music, arthouse cinema and travelling.

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Dr. Harprit Athwal

Head of Science; Chemistry, Science

Harprit is from central England and has always had a passion for science. He graduated with a Master’s degree in Chemistry in 2006 and went on to complete a PhD in Supramolecular Chemistry in 2011. During his time as a postgraduate he was involved in a wide variety of teaching and science outreach activities and decided to pursue a full time career in teaching. He completed his teaching qualification in 2014 and taught Chemistry at Manchester High School for Girls before moving to Prague. In his spare time, Harprit enjoys travelling and playing sports, having spent over a decade regularly playing Ultimate Frisbee.

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Terri Collier

Head of Humanities, Head of Psychology, Head of TOK

Terri Collier has been teaching full time since 2002. In this time she has taught a range of social science subjects at sixth form level including Psychology, Politics, Philosophy and Sociology. She read Interdisciplinary Human Studies at the University of Bradford, UK for her undergraduate degree, specialising in Psychology and Philosophy. Having gained a first class honours degree, she was granted a teaching scholarship at the University of York for her Master’s Degree in Political Philosophy (the idea of toleration). This led on to additional teaching positions in the universities of Newcastle (Politics) and Northumbria (Sociology).

Her love of teaching led her to Durham University where she gained her PGCSE. In her second year of teaching, at Oakbank School in Keighley West Yorkshire, she was asked to take over the teaching of Psychology A level. This quickly led to her appointment as a Head of Department in Social Sciences in 2005. She has been a middle leader in schools for the rest of her career. Before joining ECP in 2015, she spent two years in Haileybury School in Alamty, Kazakhstan where she was appointed to set up a social science faculty for the new sixth form there. Since joining the ECP as Head of Department for Psychology, she has become the Faculty Leader for Humanities. She also leads the TED-ed and TEDx youth ECA, which has run two successful events in its first 18 months.

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Gareth Pugh

Head of German

After achieving a degree in German and a PGCE at his hometown university of Cardiff in Wales, Gareth began teaching in Bedfordshire in 1984, but after two years he decided that the grass was greener in the commercial world and took a job selling business stationery. Six years later recession hit, sales dwindled and the green sward of the teaching profession called him back. Then he met his future wife and, together with their two daughters, they began their international careers in 1996, firstly in Malawi, then Tanzania, where he climbed Kilimanjaro, followed by Bratislava and now the ECP.

Throughout his many varied roles in these schools, Gareth has always tried to pass on his love of foreign languages to his students. He is currently relishing the challenge of gaining some kind of mastery of the Czech language, where his progress is described as ‘pomalý’. In his spare time Gareth also enjoys cooking, gardening and reading.

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Josef Švéda

Dr. Josef Švéda

Head of Czech Faculty

Josef Švéda graduated from Masaryk University in Brno in 2007. He studied Czech Language and Literature, General Linguistics and Aesthetics. He then studied for his PhD at Charles University in Prague. His dissertation was about the Czech Communist and post-Communist mythology. It was published as a book called The Mašín Myth. Ideologies in Czech Literature and Culture (Mašínovský mýtus. Ideologie v české literatuře a kultuře, 2012).

His last monograph deals with representations of America in 19th and 20th century Czech literature. It is called Promised Land (Země zlořečená, země zaslíbená. Obrazy Ameriky v české literatuře a kultuře, 2016). He started teaching at the English College in 2011, becoming Head of Czech in 2016. He is a keen cyclist and mountaineer.

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Stephen Elder

Head of English Faculty

Stephen is originally from Scotland. He graduated in 1992 from Aberdeen University with a degree in English Literature. He then trained as an ESL teacher and moved to the Czech Republic in 1993. He had planned to travel the world learning languages and teaching but his travels only took him from Středočeský kraj to Prague, where he worked for the British Council as an English language teacher and British Studies lecturer.

Stephen completed his PGCE at the University of Buckingham and started work at the English College in September 2002. He enjoys the normal range of hobbies and pastimes from reading and music to sports and spending time with his family.