For over 36 years and across three countries, Ana Demitroff has always kept a foot in the classroom designing and giving classes to students of all ages. Moreover, she has been a trainer for over 26 years, in the UK (NATECLA), Spain (government agencies, Erasmus Plus programs, institutions like BEDA and ELT publishers), Portugal (APPI), Tunisia (British Council) and the US (Online Professional English Network). Currently, she runs a language centre in Galicia which sends language assistants to various schools and nurseries. Ana has collaborated with Macmillan Education on a regular and long-running basis. She holds an MA in TESOL from the Institute of Education (University of London), as well as the CAP (the pre-service Secondary qualification from the University of Santiago de Compostela or USC) and two post-graduate qualifications in ELT from the Royal Society of Arts. She has also taught on the CAP at both the USC and Coruña University (UDC). For over four years, she has been a co-tutor, with Anabel Reis, on two of the modules within the intercollegiate MA in CLIL at the University of Jaen. Her special interests are in Early Years and Primary Education, as well as Science.
Gail joined Macmillan Education in 2002, working for 9 years as a teacher trainer before joining Macmillan Training Services in 2011. A UK state school and ELT-qualified teacher, Gail has over 15 years of experience working in the classroom. From 2006 to 2009 she was actively involved in the creation of European-funded teacher training project (Getting started with Primary CLIL), working alongside educational professionals in Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland. From 2011, she became part the Macmillan Training Services team, working alongside David Holmes to create a range of face-to-face and online courses aimed at the Pre-school, Primary and Secondary sector in both ELT and CLIL. In 2015, their courses were awarded the APeL prize for innovation in online training and in 2016 their Macmillan Early Learning Project was short-listed for the British Council’s ELTon awards. From 2017 to 2020 Gail worked as a Bilingual Development Editor for ByME (Macmillan & Edelvives). During this time, she also qualified and worked as a KiVa anti-bullying trainer, delivering training courses and workshops around the country. Since 2020 Gail has worked freelance as an ELT / CLIL author, consultant, content creator and editor.
Dave Holmes spent 15 years in the classroom, teaching English language and music. He joined Macmillan Education in 2004, working for 6 years as a teacher trainer in schools and national events while also editing The Macmillan Magazine for teachers. He then helped set up Macmillan Training Services in 2010, working together with Gail Butler creating online courses for Pre-school, Primary and Secondary levels in both the ELT and CLIL sectors. Their courses won the APeL prize for innovation in online training courses in 2015, and their Macmillan Early Learning Project was short-listed for the British Council’s ELTon awards in 2016. Dave authored and contributed to various ELT and Formación Profesional course books and also went on to work as Development Editor for ByME (Macmillan & Edelvives) Social Science. He holds a KiVa anti-bullying trainer qualification from the University of Turku, Finland (2017) and has trained in schools all around Spain. He has also written ELT songs and other materials for the British Council Learn English Kids Zone website, Macmillan Education, Oxford University Press, Richmond Publishing, Edebé and Bloomsbury.
With more than twenty-five years of experience and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics, Anabel has been the DoS of a language school in northern Portugal for over twelve years and is a regular speaker at conferences both in Portugal and Spain. As a teacher trainer, she has provided training to state-school teachers in Portugal as well as primary teachers in Tunisia and has also organized several conferences in Portugal to provide further training for in-service teachers. A Cambridge English assessment specialist (oral examiner), Anabel is also the co-author of a coursebook for 7th grade published by Raiz Editora. Her main teaching focus for EFL and CLIL lies in gamification to foster motivation, using technology in and out of the classroom to promote digital literacy and project-based learning, thus encouraging student practices such as collaboration, critical thinking, authentic communication and creativity, along with other 21st century skills.
James is London-born, but also a proud Yorkshireman and European, with a Law degree from Durham University in the UK and over 30 years of sales, marketing and promotional experience in educational publishing in Spain. Initially teaching in Cataluña, he then moved to La Coruña, on the north-western tip of Spain, to set up Oxford University Press’s office in 1990 and has been there ever since. Now a business consultant and a legal and business English language coach, James is fluent in Spanish, understands Galician and also speaks Catalan. Due to his unique skillset, James is also the founder of the Orange³Legal platform which aims to provide high-quality language training specifically for legal professionals.