Learning doesn’t just end in school. Lifelong learning is the pursuit of continuing to grow your knowledge, skills and mind throughout your life. Lifelong learning can take many forms, from enrolling in a new course to simply regularly reading about new topics in your spare time. However you want to explore it, though, there are a number of traits that are always useful in your efforts to grow. Curious The first step of lifelong learning is deciding what you actually want to

This summer is no ordinary one at Notting Hill College. Our language school Think English will host its Summer School right here at Notting Hill College’s Greater Manchester headquarters! Over two weeks, learners aged 10 to 17 from all over the world will join us to learn English, develop life skills and have fun. Think English recently held an induction session with two of its teachers, Kirsty and Paul, sharing details of the Summer School and answering attendees’ questions

TEFL, CELTA, TESOL, DELTA, TESL… these acronyms don’t exactly clear up what makes each English teaching qualification different and which is the right one for you. Two of the most notable ESL qualifications are TEFL (which stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and CELTA (meaning Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults). Both of these sought-after courses, provided by training institutes worldwide, prepare future English as a second language teachers to

Having a great short-term memory comes in useful in so many ways in our everyday lives, whether it is at work or at home. Luckily, short-term memory can be improved! Read the small lifestyle changes you can make to gain a better short-term memory. Exercise Of course, there are lots of benefits to increasing the amount of exercise you do, but did you know improving your memory is one of them? Exercise increases blood flow to your brain which in turn increases its short-term me

Every country has different curriculums that its schools must follow, but something that is shared by many is that arts funding is often cut or is continuously limited. To decide how much we should value the arts in schools in comparison to other more traditionally academic subjects, we have to know how important they are in students’ development. Here are reasons why we should value the arts as part of the school curriculum. The provide future-proof skills In the future, man

Maybe the last thing you want to do after a day teaching is watch TV programmes set in schools, but perhaps watching relatable content about the challenges faced by educators everywhere is a great way to unwind. Since there are millions of teachers worldwide, it is only natural that there are many television shows focused on days in the lives of them. Check out some top picks below! Abbott Elementary Abbott Elementary is a new hit sitcom from the US. In a mockumentary style,

We are back with a brand new episode of Teach Talk, the Notting Hill College podcast. Listen here . In Episode 6, Kirsty and Paul dive into a subject feared by EFL teachers everywhere: gerunds! What is a gerund, you ask? A gerund is a verb form which acts as a noun in a sentence. Yep, confusing! Examples include "Do you mind my asking you?" and "I like swimming ." In these sentences, 'asking' and 'swimming' are being used as nouns despite usually being verbs. As usual, our h

We have reached the fifth episode of Teach Talk! Hurray! In Episode 5, Kirsty and Paul talk through challenges faced by EFL teachers and together draw from their experience and expertise to find effective solutions. Listen to the new episode here . In this episode, our hosts answer listeners' questions, including: How should you discipline a misbehaving student? How can we inspire students to be more self-directed? How do you get students to complete homework? Is it okay to u

Becoming a training is a great career path for anyone with a specialist skill or particular knowledge that can be shared. However, having an area of expertise is not enough to be able to train others in it. You also need the coaching, leadership and people management abilities that are vital to a successful training session. A Training of Trainers course is designed to transform someone from a person with a specialism into a person who is a trainer in that specialism, as well

At their cores, teaching and training have the same aims. In both, you are transferring information into the minds of another person or group of people with the aim of them gaining an understanding of the topic. However, there are marked differences between the two which make them two very different roles in actuality. Read how being a trainer is different from being a teacher. The main differences between teaching and training Teaching imparts theoretical knowledge and trai

Introducing our brand new programme, Diploma in Training of Trainers (TOT) for Healthcare Workers! Notting Hill College is excited to announce the launch of a brand new programme for healthcare sector workers. The Diploma in Training of Trainers (TOT) for Healthcare Workers is designed to raise the skills of anyone in the healthcare industry who is required to give training as part of their role. The first Virtual Campus start date of the programme is Wednesday, 20th July 20

Deciding to change your career is scary. You may feel comfortable in your current role in an industry you are familiar with, and entering a whole new one would feel like going back to square one. However, there are great advantages to finding yourself in teaching later in life. Find out how you could succeed if you were to retrain as a teacher. You can bring your life experience and the skills that come with it into your teaching Think about the person you were when you were

Episode 4 of Teach Talk is now live and we are excited to introduce the podcast's first ever guest! Tune in and listen to the latest episode . Teach Talk is Notting Hill College's brand new podcast aimed at EFL teachers and the wider education community. Each episode, hosts Kirsty and Paul answer listener questions about taking on the English teaching role and discuss solutions to lesson difficulties. This week, Teach Talk is joined by Notting Hill College's very own Olivia,

With digital lessons delivery rising in popularity, there is a huge demand for engaging and effective virtual tools to use in lessons. Educational technology tools can also be used in the physical classroom to add variety to lessons and to make learning a topic a fun and creative process for students. Discover our top picks of ed tech tools to help with your teaching duties and to introduce into your lessons. Anchor Podcasts are all the rage and creating your own can be a gre

Kirsty and Paul are back to tackle all of the challenges EFL teachers face in the classroom! Have a listen to this week's episode here . Each episode, listeners send in their questions and teaching grumbles, and our hosts dive into the solutions. Episode 3 explores: How do we teach intonation to students who speak English with no emotion in their voice? How should we approach having to teach from lots of different curriculums? How we invite shy students to be open and communi

Lifelong learning is defined by the education of learners over the age of 16. It consists of publicly-funded post-16 education excluding universities and, in the UK, one in five of all adults are in some form of lifelong learning at any one time. There are so many roles within this vast and rewarding sector. Here is why you should consider a career in lifelong learning. Choose from a wide variety of positions Of course, qualified and passionate teachers are required in the li

Trainers can be found in every industry and they take many forms. Corporate trainers act as guest speakers visiting and teaching skills at a different organisation every day. HR workers are required to be able to train staff at their company to ensure they are up to date with its policy and its wellbeing protocols. For many workers, training is only something they do when they are onboarding new colleagues. Whatever form training takes, however, there are always key attribute

Have you ever wondered if becoming a head teacher is in your future career path? The job is something many teachers think about when moving up the ranks at their school. However, it is difficult to know if it is one you would be suited to until you get there. Here are just some of the responsibilities of being a head teacher and the skills you need to pull them off effectively. Coming up with, planning and executing your school’s educational vision A successful school starts

We are back with Episode 2 of our new podcast, Teach Talk. Each week, hosts Kirsty and Paul will discuss the goings-on of the EFL sector and respond to questions and challenges submitted by fellow teachers. Episode 2, our hosts answer the questions of: How do you cope with mixed levels in a class? Should we teach slang and idioms? Is it possible to eliminate an accent? Which comes first when learning vocabulary: spelling or meaning? How do you create exams and tests? What sho

Students are made up of different kinds of learners. Some benefit from seeing information, some benefit from hearing it and some benefit from actions. This raises the question of how we must approach teaching to ensure we are catering to each student’s learning needs. Find out about different learning styles found in students and the range of activities you can include in each lesson to help them all. Visual learners Visual learners retain information best when they have watc