Ellie Baker

During the pandemic, 23 women came together to write a book called ‘Dreamers and Change Makers’ due to be released on the 5th March, in time for International Women’s Day. My chapter is called ‘Why School Screws Us Up And How We Can Fix It’ – where I talk about the huge need for reform of the UK education system in the face of the pandemic. All proceeds for the book go to an amazing charity, Amistad Sagrada, promoting cultural renovation …

Is it time for a complete overhaul of the Education System? READ MORE

Today on a coaching call with a teacher, I learned that she was off work with stress due to a number of issues which I won’t go into here…let’s just say I have heard them all before  (& experienced some myself). She shared with me that she had contemplated ‘ending it all.’ I also learned that in her school, out of 18 members of staff, 9 of them are known to her to be on antidepressants due to the job. …

50% of teachers on antidepressants? READ MORE

Happy to have contributed to the languages conversation here in the UK (thank you SecEd) 🙏 We can’t ignore the impact that COVID & Brexit are having (and will continue to have) on the decisions we make about what young people actually need to thrive today. We can’t continue to base these decisions on outdated systems and old school institutions that have no clue what it is to be a young person in 2021. Teachers, if you could redesign the …

Compulsory GCSE languages? READ MORE

I always found that November was the worst month for me as a teacher. The dark mornings and short days would start to sap at any energy and optimism I had left. I know this will resonate with many of you, as this is the time of year where I usually see a steep rise in people reaching out for my free Breakthrough Calls. This year however, instead of December seeing teacher’s spirits being lifted by the approaching holidays and …

December sees spike in teacher stress READ MORE

Looking back, I realise I depended on my ‘school teacher’ identity for my sense of self-worth. Like many of us, I held onto it far beyond the point where enough was enough. Even when I knew it was making me and those I loved so unhappy, I just couldn’t walk away. Until I did. In 2013, I said goodbye to the dark cloud that hung over every special moment. There were tears, there was a great deal of sadness. I …

I chose me READ MORE

I’m so excited! Last night I had the honour of being hosted by one of MFL’s most humble tech geniuses – the one and only Joe Dale! I am sure many of you will have had the pleasure of being in his presence at least once or twice in your language teaching career; and I for one can vouch for the impact he has had on me as a teacher, never mind the wider MFL community and of course ultimately …

Coaching as a catalyst for change – with the amazing Joe Dale READ MORE

As teachers and kids activity providers, I’m sure we can agree that all children deserve the best opportunities in this complex and divided world. We have built our careers and businesses on the basis that kids need access to a broad range of activities, which schools and early years settings alone cannot provide. We could go as far as to say that children need a broad and varied curriculum even more today than they did before COVID-19 pulled the rug …

The Future of Language Teaching in the UK READ MORE

Many of you ask me first ‘but Ellie, what is BilinguaSing”? It’s a good question, and the answer is difficult to put into written words, which is why I decided to make this video for you to show you what it’s all about! However, more often than not, what we really want to know is what we have in common with each other; our teaching backgrounds. So before you dive in, I’d like to give you some context and background about what …

“Ellie – why did you leave teaching, and what is BilinguaSing?” READ MORE

It’s been really interesting chatting to fellow MFL teachers about what they have enjoyed about lockdown teaching. We have also addressed some of the many challenges – such as how difficult it has been to engage lower ability groups, and get year 10s to switch on their cameras on a zoom call! I have another burning question though . . ..   What have you NOT missed about going into school each day? You can see what happened when I asked this …

Teachers – it’s ok not to be ok right now READ MORE

Wow – what a strange month this has been! Some of you may know that I have a business called BilinguaSing, which is where I have been spending most of my time since the Coronavirus hit.  We’ve been flat out (as I’m sure you have been too), just adapting to this new normal. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster as we’ve moved all of our customers onto an online version of our usual face-to-face classes. It’s been really successful but also very stressful! BilinguaSing …

Livin la vida ‘Covid’ READ MORE