BEd
Stephen joined BSB Shunyi in August 2015. He came from Leeds in the North of England and completed his Bachelor of Education degree at the University of Edinburgh. He qualified as a teacher in 1995 and began teaching in his hometown, Leeds. His first teaching position was as a Year 4 teacher at his local primary school and he actually used to play on the same school fields as a ten year old! During that time, he qualified as an FA soccer coach and became involved in coaching at under 11 level. He has also taught in various schools in West Yorkshire for 7 years, gradually building experience across the primary school age range.
In 2000, Stephen taught children from all over the world in Alberta, Canada for the whole summer. He then went on to teach in the same summer camp in the Rocky Mountains for the next 9 summers. It was during one of the trips that he decided to travel and teach. Stephen arrived in Qingdao, China in September 2002 and taught English at the Ocean University. This gave him a love of China and Chinese culture. So in 2006 he returned to Beijing and taught Year 6 for the next 6 years. After a brief spell at an international school in Shanghai, he returned to Beijing and have since been a Year 3 teacher.
Stephen has a daughter who was born in Beijing who attends BSB. His wife is Chinese and is a High school teacher. She has a Masters degree in Chinese Literature but still feels Stephen is her most difficult student to date as she tries to teach him the intricacies of the Chinese language!
