Staff profiles

Publications
“Critical Collaboration: an ethnographic narrative account of a newly established cross-specialist team.” (2014) in Collaborative Learning Development Innovative Libraries Press
“A Social Turn in Language Teaching?” in Innovations in Language Teaching ed Mallows, D. (2012) OU / British Council
The Teacher Educator Handbook: Principles and Practice (2010) Griffiths, G, Sunderland, H and Sutter, JS (eds) LSIS http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=247832
Two chapters (“Second Language Acquisition and the contexts of UK ESOL practice” and “Planning and assessment; reflection, evaluation and the learning cycle” ) in Teaching Adult ESOL: Principles and Practice (2010) eds Paton, A and Wilkins, M Open University press/NRDC London

Experience: John has worked as an ESOL/literacy specialist in the context of teacher education and national improvement projects since joining LLU+ at London South Bank University in 2004, and then going on to co-found Learning Unlimited in 2012. He has designed, run and taught on a wide variety of ESOL, Literacy and generic teacher education courses, ranging from initial qualification to MA level, and has also worked in HE enhancement and learning development contexts, where he led a team embedding language and literacies in creative arts subject areas. John has had a long involvement with many national and regional projects in ESOL and Literacy including: – working as researcher, consultant and writer for the new Adult ESOL Core Curriculum – working as researcher and writer for the Lifelong Learning UK Professional Standards ESOL and Literacy – working as researcher, consultant, and materials writer for the ESOL Citizenship Project and Materials Pack – working as researcher, consultant and writer for Lifelong Learning UK CPD Framework for Teacher Educators – leading the LSIS ‘Films of principled practice’ project (films of embedded ESOl/Literacy/numeracy) – providing mentoring and evaluation for the ETF Joint Practice Development project leading, with Judy Kirsh, on the development and delivery of LU’s nationally acclaimed Teaching Basic Literacy to ESOL Learners courses.

Publications:
Kirsh, J., Akthar, A., Dudley, K., Kelly, B. & McGerty, J. (2013) Welcome to the UK project Year 3 Impact Assessment Research Report. Kirsh, J. & Dudley, K. (2014)
Active Citizenship and English project Year 1 Impact Assessment Report
Teaching ESOL Literacies Learners (2020), Language Issues Journal, Vol. 31.3 Summer 2020
Welcome to the UK materials toolkits – contributor
Preparing for Life in the UK toolkit – contributor
Integration for ESOL workshop article (2016) RaPal
Working with ESOL learners with basic literacy needs
Films for ESOL training

Experience: Judy has more than 35 years’ experience in the field of English Language Teaching, as a teacher, teacher-trainer, external examiner, consultant and materials-writer. She has worked on many international, national and regional projects such as the Active Citizenship and English project (2013-2015), the Welcome to the UK project (2012-2013), the Citizenship materials for ESOL learners, ESOL and Literacy subject specialist modules and diplomas, and the highly acclaimed Teaching Basic Literacy to ESOL learners course. Judy led on the development of ESOL CPD modules for the British Council ESOL Nexus project (2011-2014) and has undertaken consultancy work for the Education and Training Foundation and Learning and Work Institute. Most recently, she has developed, with John Sutter, the innovative online Teaching ESOL Literacy Learners (TELLs) course. Judy is interested in all areas of ESOL teacher development, with a particular focus on literacies learners. For many years she was a trustee and co-chair of NATECLA, the professional association for ESOL practitioners in the UK, and a member of the ESOL Strategy Steering Group. She currently volunteers with Herts Welcomes Refugees, supporting volunteers and partners.

Experience: Marie-Josée is a literacy subject specialist with 25 years experience in the field of family learning, delivering a range of courses and developing course materials for embedding literacy into existing family learning provision. She has played a leading role in developing Learning Unlimited’s Parents as Mentors Course to develop adult’s knowledge and skills in literacy and as mentors. She also has considerable experience in Primary School Education, delivering Supporting Teaching and Learning in Schools”, at all levels. She is a qualified internal verifier.

Publications
Kelly, B., Devlin, M., Giffin, T. & Smith, J. (2021). Family Learning Online During Lockdown in the UK Adults Learning Mathematics: An International Journal. 
Family Learning in Prisons (co author) 2011

Experience: Linda has worked for over 30 years in Further Education, Adult Education and Higher Education managing, designing and delivering programmes across a range of levels for ESOL, Literacy and Dyslexia. She has wider sector experience through Continuous Professional Development consultancy (LLU+ and LSIS), material development (‘Excellence Gateway’) and curriculum content for Initial Teacher Training for the Lifelong Learning Sector. Previous work has included projects for OLASS, the Prison Service, the Home Office and Family Learning. Linda has also worked as an External Examiner for Literacy and ESOL Subject Specialist Diploma programmes.

Publications
Volunteers, English language learners, conversation clubs – editor and contributor
ESOL for refugees – editor and contributor
New to ESOL – editor and contributor
Family Skills toolkit – editor and contributor
Literacy for Active Citizenship for ESOL readers – editor and illustrator
Parents’ Integration through Partnership (PIP) toolkit – editor and contributor
Teaching and Learning English topic based units – editor and contributor
Welcome to the UK materials toolkits – editor and contributor

Experience: Karen has worked in ESOL, adult education and Family Learning for over 35 years as a teacher, volunteer and teacher trainer, FE manager, project manager, writer, materials developer, researcher, moderator and consultant. She has led numerous LU projects including Communities, Languages and Integration Project (AMIF funded); Connecting Families (National Lottery funded); Our Skills (funded by What works for children’s social care); Family Skills (funded by EEF, Bell Foundation and Unbound Philanthropy); Active Citizenship and English, Parents’ Integration though Partnership (PIP), Teaching and Learning English and Welcome to the UK (all funded through EU EIF); and a number of London Community Foundation projects. Previous work has included setting up and running teacher training programmes for an educational charity in Bangladesh, managing a volunteer teaching and ESOL programme for the African Women’s Welfare Group in London and training for the Refugee Council. Karen has undertaken a wide range of consultancy work and LU partnership projects for national bodies and government departments such as Ministry of Housing and Local Government, Learning & Work Institute (and previously NIACE), the Home Office and DfE.

She is a member of NATECLA (the National Association for Teachers of ESOL and Community Languages). She is also a trustee for UKBET (the UK Bangladesh Education Trust) an educational charity and NGO in Bangladesh.

Experience: Julia has worked in the community and education sectors for over 30 years, firstly as a teacher and then as an adviser and manager. She taught EFL, ESOL and adult literacy for over 12 years in the community, FE and private sectors before moving into project and operations management. She has considerable experience of managing projects of all sizes from small grants to very large national and international programmes funded by a wide range of funders and commissioners. She is an experienced staff and finance manager and project evaluator and also leads on the quality management of Learning Unlimited, which currently holds the ISO:9001 quality mark.

Publications
Kelly, B., Devlin, M., Giffin, T. & Smith, J. (2021). Family Learning Online During Lockdown in the UK. Adults Learning Mathematics: An International Journal. 
Co-edited and written Family Learning in Prison – a complete guide

Experience: Tessa has worked in Family Learning and adult education for over 10 years. Previous work has included being the project co-ordinator and trainer for the Best Start for Families prison project. This involved developing and delivering training for parents in prison, prison staff, volunteers and museum staff as well as designing activities for Children and Family Visits. She has been a course trainer for a number of courses aimed at parents and carers. These include Helping My Child With Reading And Writing, Healthy Families, Best Start for Toddlers and the Teaching Assistant training programme.

Publications
Parents Integration Project toolkit – 2015
Family Skills toolkit – 2017
Council of Europe – Language support for adult refugees – 2017
New to ESOL resources – 2019
Picture This! toolkit – 2021
Literacy for Active Citizenship series of graded readers – 2021
Creative Writing and Photos series of graded readers – 2023

Experience: Sarah is an ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) project manager, teacher trainer and tutor with an extensive background in the field spanning over 15 years. Sarah’s main interest and specialism lie in photography, visual storytelling and creative writing in the ESOL classroom. In 2022 her participatory photography and ESOL project, Picture This!, run in partnership with Fotosynthesis, won the British Council ELTons award for local innovation. Other organisations Sarah has worked in partnership with, while working at Learning Unlimited, include English for Action, Victoria and Albert Museum, Council of Europe and Learning and Work to name but a few. She has contributed to the development of many educational resources, including a number of toolkits for ESOL practitioners and the Literacy for Active Citizenship and Creative Writing and Photos series of ESOL readers. Outside of work, she is a keen photographer and enjoys painting, writing and escaping to the sea whenever she can.  

Publications
Kelly, B., Devlin, M., Giffin, T. & Smith, J. (2021). Family Learning Online During Lockdown in the UK. Adults Learning Mathematics: An International Journal. 

Experience: Mary has worked in Family Learning, Children’s Services and Early Years training and consultancy for over 20 years. In that time, she established and led a children’s centre for 7 years and worked for the National Children’s Bureau as a trainer and consultant, including on a national rollout of the PEAL – Parents, Early Years and Learning – training, and Making it REAL – Raising Early Achievement in Literacy – project. She is also an artist and enjoys designing creative workshops for parents and children. Whilst at Learning Unlimited, she has delivered a range of courses and workshops for parents and carers including Best Start for Boys, Best Start for Nursery and the Teaching Assistant training programme. She also participated in the research project Family Learning Online and co-ordinated the Bags of Fun project, designing activity packs for families who were stuck at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. More recently, Mary led on our European Erasmus+ project, Money Matters.

In her spare time and particularly on Friday nights, Mary manages a very popular jazz club in Camberwell called Jazzlive at The Crypt.

Publications
Bilingual Children – A Guide for Parents
Helping My Child with Reading & Writing with Shan Rees
On the Road – Journeys in Family Learning with Shan Rees and Attilah Malik

Experience: Foufou has 25 years experience of family learning developing new courses, accreditation, materials and teaching as well as being a teacher educator and consultant in family learning, Skills for Life awareness. She has worked in two inner city London boroughs to develop appropriate family learning provision, liaise with a wide range of agencies and providers, develop working partnerships and recruit learners. Foufou has 20 years project management experience including international projects in family learning, bilingualism and offender learning. For the last 15 years she has worked with the offender learning sector in various projects, developing programmes and training teachers. In addition Foufou has 5 years as teacher educator and consultant on Caribbean language issues and Caribbean literature and 6 years of teaching at secondary school level.

Experience: Ian has over 20 years of administrative experience, working with a range of voluntary sector organisations to implement information systems, publicity campaigns, communication strategies and record keeping. He has previously worked on European-funded projects, offering funding advice and writing applications for charities across London, and developing an e-network of over 3,000 organisations. At Learning Unlimited, he works across a number of projects, providing administrative support to team members and partner organisations. He has also developed the website for LU.

Publications
Teaching adult numeracy: principles and practice. Maidenhead OUP (2013) Co edited with Rachel Stone
Numeracy Works for Life Proceedings of the 16th international conference of Adults Learning Mathematics – A Research Forum London LLU+/ALM (2009) Co-edited with David Kaye
The Teacher Educators Handbook Co edited with John Sutter and Helen Sunderland

Experience: Graham has more than 30 years experience working in the further education and skills sector as a teacher, manager and teacher trainer. For 12 years he worked for City and Islington College, initially as a teacher of mathematics and numeracy for a range of age groups and then as a Curriculum Manager responsible for adult learners. In 2003, Graham joined LLU+  developing adult numeracy teacher training programmes and supporting the continuing professional development of teachers. Since 2011 has worked at the IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society. During this time he has worked with the Education and Training Foundation as a specialist advisor, led a team to develop the GCSE Mathematics Enhancement Programme, supported the development of Citizen Maths and worked on the roll out of Core Mathematics in colleges.

Publications:
Beth Kelly, Financial literacy and numeracy: exploring the skills and knowledge needed to survive in complex financial systems. Twelfth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (CERME12), Feb 2022, Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. ⟨hal-03745529⟩ Kelly, B., Devlin, M., Giffin, T. & Smith, J. (2021). Family Learning Online During Lockdown in the UK. Adults Learning Mathematics: An International Journal. 
Kelly, B., (2019) What motivates adults to learn mathematics through trade unions in the workplace: social factors and personal feelings. Eleventh Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education. Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands. ⟨hal-02409302⟩
Kees Hoogland, Beth Kelly, Javier Díez-Palomar. Introduction to TWG07 Adult Mathematics Education. Eleventh Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education, Utrecht University, Feb 2019, Utrecht, Netherlands. ⟨hal-02409248⟩
Kelly, B., (2019) What motivates adults to learn mathematics through trade unions in the workplace: social factors and personal feelings. Eleventh Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education. Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands. ⟨hal-02409302⟩
Kelly, B. (2019) The role of Emotions and Confidence in motivation to learn Mathematics. In Kelly, B., Kaye, D., Griffiths, D., Dalby, D., Stacey, J. (Eds.). (2019). Boundaries and Bridges: Adults learning mathematics in a fractured world.
Proceedings of the 25th International Conference of Adults Learning Mathematics: A Research Forum (ALM) (pp.67-69) London, UK: UCL Institute of Education 
Kelly, B. (2018). Motivating adults to learn mathematics in the workplace: A trade union approach. International Journal of Lifelong Education,1-16.
Kelly, B., Moulton, R., Stone, R (2013) Teaching Everyday Maths and Finance through Open Online Learning: Open Online Learning: Some Critical Perspectives in Proceedings of the 20th International Conference of Adults Learning Mathematics. Wales 1-4 July. London: Adults Learning Mathematics (ALM)- an international research forum, pp. 223-235.
Kaye, D., Kelly, B (2013) Financial Literacy Competencies Project: Reflecting on the resources, activities and outcomes in Proceedings of the 20th International Conference of Adults Learning Mathematics. Wales 1-4 July London: Adults Learning Mathematics (ALM)- an international research forum, pp. 211-222.

Experience: Beth has wide-ranging experience in Education, Health and working with the community. She has been a mathematics specialist for over 25 years teaching and assessing adults, teachers, teacher trainers and trainers of teacher trainers from Entry Level to Level 7. She specializes in working in vocational contexts including trade unions, construction, health and financial literacy. She is currently the Chair of ALM, an international research forum for people working with Adults Learning Mathematics.