Meet the Modern Languages Department

By Claudia Freeman Head of Modern Languages

When it comes to looking at our department, we are truly all-singing, all-dancing. We cover a lot of different languages and cultural backgrounds. We not only think internationally, we are international - with roots and interests covering the world - reaching from southern Argentina to northern China.

There are 23 Modern Language teachers across the Stephen Perse Foundation and amongst the whole Stephen Perse staff there are many speakers of different languages, both through family connections or interest.

If we were to consider a collective noun for our department, we would suggest a gaggle of linguists, mainly as we are a lively bunch, chatting away, sharing our recent experiences of reading, music, baking or travel.

We enjoy communicating with each other, sharing idioms and comparing differences in grammar structures or etymology of words. We revel in the enthusiasm we have for the idiosyncrasies of our languages. Furthermore we share this love for our languages and their cultural settings with our students - the preceding direct object agreement in French or the ‘n’ in a German dative plural. You name it, we enjoy it!

The languages journey at Stephen Perse starts at Junior School Dame Bradbury’s and Junior School Fitzwilliam Building, with Marta at the helm. At this stage, language lessons are exciting, imaginative and often cross into other subjects.

Learning to introduce yourself in Spanish, talking about your hobbies in French or writing imaginative poetry are just a few of the challenges on offer. Pupils also familiarise with the culture of the Francophone and Hispanic world, learning about festivals and traditions in countries where the language is spoken.

Marta Guerrero Aguera

Marta, aka Señora Guerrero, studied teaching English as a second language and earned a master's degree in Psychology for Education. She loves languages and getting to know different cultures. She enjoys singing, dancing and art which she tries to integrate in her lessons as a way to engage her students to enjoy the Spanish language and culture. She enjoys organising clubs and cultural events to celebrate our diversity at the junior schools.

Madame Prowse

Madame Prowse has taught French at Dame Bradbury’s School for 26 years. She is half French and English with family in Paris and Provence. She studied French at Royal Holloway, London University. She enjoys seeing the enthusiasm from the children when they have been to France having used all the things learned in school and helping them all to gain an interest, love and appreciation of French culture and language. She enjoys Arabic belly dancing, drawing, gardening and creative writing and has shared all of these as clubs with the children over the years.

Marie-Christine Clemente

Marie-Christine, aka Mme Clemente, started teaching French at the Junior School Fitzwilliam Building in September 2020. Coming from a multilingual family, she loves discovering new countries and cultures. Languages are a real way of life for her and nothing makes her happier than to hear how her pupils have taken their learning outside the classroom to order food at a restaurant during their last holiday in France - because this is what languages are all about!

Marisa Fernandez

Marisa, aka Señora Fernández, has been at Stephen Perse for about five years. She started off by teaching at Junior School Dame Bradbury’s and three years ago she came to Junior School Fitzwilliam Building. She has a wide experience of teaching in different settings from middle school to secondary school and also sixth form colleges. She has been involved in many projects such as exchanges with a secondary school in Santander and trips to London. She believes that the best way to teach Spanish is to make it varied and fun and her lessons are exactly like that.