1. Work as Branch Manager in British Council Mallorca (Palma de Mallorca)
I was both Academic Branch manager, responsible for the efficient running of the
teaching operation in Palma and Centre Exams manager, in charge of organising
Cambridge exams sessions for our own students and outside candidates.
After a very brief handover, I was able to get a grip on the job very quickly, thus
ensuring a smooth transition period.
I forged good relations with the management and fellow teachers at our host
organisation, the Hotel Management School at the University of the Balearic Islands,
particularly with the Director of Studies, who had proved to be difficult to deal with,
and tried to help them improve their teaching resources by doing a presentation on
using e-beams.
Together with Chris Dove, Director Barcelona, we continued to investigate possible
premises for the new Palma branch, (the agreement with the Hotel Management
School ending in 2013) visiting one of the partner schools in which we give classes (San
Cayetano) and assessing the viability of adapting one of their annexes. I also used my
initiative to look at a very promising property on the outskirts of Palma in a very good
catchment area and took first steps at investigating rental prices.
I worked closely with Averil Graham the exams assistant and involved her closely with
decisions affecting Palma exams work, including visiting prospective exams schools
with her, and made sure her expertise was brought to the fore. We were rewarded by
getting a ‘fully compliant’ status after a surprise Cambridge inspection in December
2011 during one of our exams sessions.
Thanks to an injection of funding from Barcelona, I was able to renew teaching and
office resources, thus improving the working conditions for teachers and the exams
assistant. I also tidied the office of outdated equipment and shredded a large quantity
of old documents to free up office space and give a brighter, cleaner impression.
Taking a lead from Rod Pryde, I contacted the editor of a local newspaper, the Majorca
Daily Bulletin, who was interested in using BC Learn English Print material. After weeks
of liaising between Manchester and the newspaper, a deal was signed and articles
were printed on a weekly basis for teachers and students of English, thus increasing
awareness of BC presence in Mallorca.
I was also interviewed for the same newspaper in February and talked extensively
about the BC’s work around the world in a two page article which was published in the
weekend edition. This was useful for many of the Palma teachers, who felt a little cut
off from the Council’s work and allowed them to get a bigger picture.

2. I forged relations with APABAL the teaching association by giving the first in a series of
talks on methodology, at short notice, and attended a key meeting with the Consellería
together with Chris Dove and ST Lesley Denham to look at CLIL training for their
teachers. I also gave a CLIL history lesson to a group of secondary school students, in
collaboration with their teacher, in order to get an insight into this important and
burgeoning area of teaching.