In the UK, Easter is one of the major festivals of the year. It is full of customs, folklore and food. Whilst it is commonly seen as a Christian festival, associated with the death of Jesus and his rising from the dead, it is believed that Easter actually had its beginnings long before Christianity arrived in the UK. Indeed, it is thought the name Easter actually comes from the Anglo-Saxon goddess of dawn and spring Eostre. When is Easter? Unlike other festivals, such as Chr

Being a global language, English speakers enjoy unique career opportunities Today, the world is getting smaller and smaller. Yes, air travel is shrinking distances, but it is language that is truly making the world a smaller place. It is English that is the Lingua Franca of the world today. Indeed, speak to anyone in the Netherlands, and they no longer see English as a foreign language, but as their second language! As the world gets closer and closer together, English teachi

Credit: Paul Gooddy The idea of travelling overseas and teaching abroad is fascinating for many people. They are excited about the possibility of experiencing new cultures while making a living and perhaps saving as well. However, many other people find earning a living here in the UK by teaching English to international students equally appealing. The good news is there are many EFL teaching opportunities available in the UK. You could work in summer camps, teach online or

Being able to teach listening may sound counter intuitive, but with listening taking up 45% of all communication time, on average, it becomes obvious how important it actually is! In contrast, speaking accounts for just 30% of all time spent on communication. Therefore, it is clear that listening is well worth spending time on. Listening is a skill which, thankfully, can be taught. Teaching listening can be especially challenging because of sound. Not necessarily the words,

Paul with his English language students. Paul Woodcock, Academic Manager at Notting Hill College , talks about how he has used not just the education and training learnt from his studies, but the tools and underlying strategies to pursue multiple career paths before finally arriving with us here in Manchester. Is education something that only happens in schools? Or is it something that is a life-long task? Well, most people would freely admit that they are never too old t

Candidates who wish to study and prepare for the IELTS exam might feel a lot of pressure. All the hard work undertaken in improving your English and expanding your vocabulary and grammatical range must be used efficiently and accurately in the four tests that measure your skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Undoubtedly, your ability to construct sentences and use a wide range of vocabulary is important in achieving a satisfactory IELTS score, but there is mor

A disagreement arises as a marketing team debate over what images to use when campaigning their new product. Diane and Molly are committed to one point whereas Liam is adamantly opposed. The debate gets heated, voices are raised and Molly says to Liam “How could someone with your lack of sophistication understand anyway?” Liam strikes back with a similar cutting statement attacking Molly’s character. Disagreements, such as this one, are all too common these days. Bombarded w

In any group or team environment, you will find people of all different personalities. With each of these types, you may have to approach how you handle them differently. The Hangers-on: The Negligent They are the ones who know all the right things. They may attend all meetings but not actually do anything. Best way to motivate : Assigning roles and delegating tasks would be the best way. This type suffers from lack of energy to experiment new ideas. If their manager gives

William Shakespeare (April 1564 - 1616) was an English poet and playwright. Throughout the world, Shakespeare is generally regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, as well as being one of the world’s most famous dramatist. It is believed he was born on or around 23rd April and the date of his birthday is commemorated. In 2016, The School of English at Notting Hill College UK is celebrating 400 years of a wonderful Shakespeare-filled world, starting with a spec

The IELTS Academic exam is split into different sections to test your skills in various aspects of the English language. Here is how to tackle the writing section. IELTS Academic writing The writing sections of the IELTS Academic test is comprised of two tasks. Within the first task you will be required to summarise and also compare data. What this means is you will have to write about the data given to you. This data can be presented in various formats such as a graph, bar

Are you preparing to take the IELTS exam? Here are three quick tricks to help you achieve a higher IELTS score band! Get to know the question types: There are four areas of the exam you will be scored on: speaking, listening, reading and writing. In the reading and listening part of the test, you will be presented with many different types of question, and you may find some easier to answer than others. It is advisable that you practise all of the different questions types yo

In many English-speaking countries around the world, IELTS is required for skilled migration and permanent residency. These countries use IELTS scores in order to see prospective immigrants' competencies of the English language. If you take the IELTS exam, which stands for International English Language Testing System, you will be scored between 1 and 9 for your competency in English language reading, writing, listening and speaking. There are two types of IELTS tests, namely

Looking back in the history of industrial and organisation (I/O) psychology, World War I and testing within the Army shows the early beginning of this field. Robert Yerkes is given the most credit for developing the Army Alpha test along with others within the early years of the I/O field, and it was based off of intelligence tests created by Alfred Binet. The main idea was to determine the intellectual and emotional function of the soldiers since those with the highest intel

Being responsible for an entire school is a tough job but somebody has to do it. It can be rewarding and will definitely be challenging. Most people are not cut out to be educational leaders as they lack the necessary characteristics to be successful in the roles and responsibilities of the head teacher. Negating obvious professional requirements, there are a specific group of traits that any school leader must possess. All of them are present in the daily routine of running