Sara C Stillman

I accepted the position of Early Years Support Teacher to take over for a teacher who will go on maternity leave and have mainly been teaching classes with students aged 1-2 and 2-3 years. This has been a great opportunity to practice and work with the UK Oxford International Curriculum for Early Years in a truly modern and holistic school. However, since February 2025 I have been providing support and have been the point of contact for all operational and academic matters related to my campus while my line-manager has been outside of the country. This has involved leadership duties such as class observations, working closely with the School Counselor to address behaviour issues and students of concern, teacher development, organizing school-wide events, timetabling, teacher training and contributing to school policies and SOPs.

• Offered administrative support to head teacher, reducing workload pressures while she has been out of the country (two months).
• Created and led a workshop on behaviour management of students using the Conscious Discipline framework (both campuses; early years and primary).
• Organised and led school events such as Ramadan Celebration and Founding Day
• Adjusted teaching methods according to individual student's needs, ensured inclusive learning environment.
• Maintained up-to-date knowledge of early years curriculum standards, aiding effective instruction delivery.
• Enhanced learning outcomes with implementation of early years foundation stage curriculum.
• Communicated regularly with parents about their children's performance and behaviour at school.

I started out responsible for all English and Languages (French and Spanish) plus homeroom classes for grade 6. In this role, I reported to several line managers and supported KG, Elementary and Middle School teachers with their teaching of National Geographic Learning curriculum for English, ensuring it was aligned with California Common Core Standards. My role evolved to focus more on Middle School, while full-time teaching English for grade 3 and grade 6 and teaching weekly part-time grades 7 and 8 to support a teacher-in-training. This experience in a new but unexpectedly very traditional and homogeneous school, increased my ability to be flexible in my points of view about education and leadership.

• Led 'Go Green' projects for all secondary English classes which culminated in a National Geographic event
• Taught grades 3, 6, 7, and 8 English and Homeroom
• Curriculum mapped all Secondary English curriculum using Common Core Standards Curriculum and National Geographic curriculum
• Wrote all of the Secondary English exams (including practice exams)
• Participated actively in staff meetings, contributing valuable insights on curriculum development and student progress assessment methods.
• Coached half of the secondary school participants afterschool to compete in the International Olympiad competition
• Provided ongoing support and feedback to teachers regarding curriculum implementation.
• Developed comprehensive yearly, weekly and daily lesson plans.
• Created and personally implemented intervention plan for students of concern in English for Middle School.

Putting to use my experience in curriculum management, teacher training and management of teacher teams, I made significant organizational and academic changes at HEI Schools, Al Malga, particularly in the grades 1-6 levels.This contributed to a rise in student enrollment and retention, a higher standard of grades academics more in line with the Finnish approach to education and a healthier, more trusting school culture. In this position, I benefitted from learning more about running the operations of a school in collaboration with the vice principal.

• Performed diverse human resource activities, including hiring, training, disciplinary and termination in compliance with legal guidelines and requirements.
• Developed productive relationships with parents through 'coffee mornings with the principal', collaborating with parents to reduce disruptive behavioral incidents and to increase academic success, as well as creating and conducting a parent workshop series over three evenings on various topics of interest to parents.
• Directly line-managed fourteen grades teachers and the school counselor / SEN lead. Supported the vice principal, SEN leader and the academic supervisors in managing administrative assistants, KG teachers, SEN teachers and national identity subject teachers.
• Led weekly meetings to convey policy changes, gather information, assess employee thoughts and celebrate wins with the grades teaching team. Chaired weekly student wellbeing meetings which tracked the academic and behavioral success of our current mainstream students of concern and SEN students.
• Assessed the training needs for grades teacher schools and provided ongoing group and one-to-one training throughout the year. Organized an intensive training week for grades teachers for both branches of HEI Schools in KSA whereby I mentored high-achieving teachers and the SEN team to provide workshops in their areas of specialty, collaborated with the KG academic supervisor and led training sessions myself. Introduced instructional strategies such as project-based learning with grades teachers, mentoring them to use the Gold Standard PBL framework.
• Embedded social-emotional skillsets to teacher evaluations, teacher training, events and grades curriculum (including an emphasis on behavioral learning goals and objectives in lesson plans activities)
• Facilitated a culture of collaboration with teachers, inviting them to workshop their ideas into solutions to issues (for example, we created a new marking policy that was balanced between the Finnish and localized approach).
• Co-created and performed extensive written classroom evaluations to assess teacher strategies and effectiveness and identify areas for growth. Held one-to-one meetings afterward to celebrate successes and work to together to achieve the teachers' career excellence and growth goals.
• Collaborated with and supported the KG academic supervisor on KG matters, staff and school concerns.
• Established and optimised programme schedules to cover planned needs.
• Organized school-wide events such as a term project exhibition and termly parent-teacher meetings with the admin team, from start to finish (with debriefing and surveys to assist with evaluation)rriculum management, teacher training and management of teacher teams, I made significant organizational and academic changes at HEI Schools, Al Malga, particularly in the grades 1-6 levels.This contributed to a rise in student enrollment and retention, a higher standard of grades academics more in line with the Finnish approach to education and a healthier, more trusting school culture. In this position, I benefitted from learning more about running the operations of a school in collaboration with the vice principal.
• Performed diverse human resource activities, including hiring, training, disciplinary and termination in compliance with legal guidelines and requirements.
• Developed productive relationships with parents through 'coffee mornings with the principal', collaborating with parents to reduce disruptive behavioral incidents and to increase academic success, as well as creating and conducting a parent workshop series over three evenings on various topics of interest to parents.
• Directly line-managed fourteen grades teachers and the school counselor / SEN lead. Supported the vice principal, SEN leader and the academic supervisors in managing administrative assistants, KG teachers, SEN teachers and national identity subject teachers.
• Led weekly meetings to convey policy changes, gather information, assess employee thoughts and celebrate wins with the grades teaching team. Chaired weekly student wellbeing meetings which tracked the academic and behavioral success of our current mainstream students of concern and SEN students.
• Assessed the training needs for grades teacher schools and provided ongoing group and one-to-one training throughout the year. Organized an intensive training week for grades teachers for both branches of HEI Schools in KSA whereby I mentored high-achieving teachers and the SEN team to provide workshops in their areas of specialty, collaborated with the KG academic supervisor and led training sessions myself. Introduced instructional strategies such as project-based learning with grades teachers, mentoring them to use the Gold Standard PBL framework.
• Embedded social-emotional skillsets to teacher evaluations, teacher training, events and grades curriculum (including an emphasis on behavioral learning goals and objectives in lesson plans activities)
• Facilitated a culture of collaboration with teachers, inviting them to workshop their ideas into solutions to issues (for example, we created a new marking policy that was balanced between the Finnish and localized approach).
• Co-created and performed extensive written classroom evaluations to assess teacher strategies and effectiveness and identify areas for growth. Held one-to-one meetings afterward to celebrate successes and work to together to achieve the teachers' career excellence and growth goals.
• Collaborated with and supported the KG academic supervisor on KG matters, staff and school concerns.
• Established and optimised programme schedules to cover planned needs.
• Organized school-wide events such as a term project exhibition and termly parent-teacher meetings with the admin team, from start to finish (with debriefing and surveys to assist with evaluation)

I started out responsible for managing all curriculum for English enrichment and speech and drama while I focused on rewriting English primary curriculum so it was more closely aligned with the Singapore Ministry of Education standards. My role evolved to include international business development, teacher, writer and curriculum coordinator management, teacher training as well as the the digitization and dramatic transformation of the school's conceptual framework of the curriculum from Nursery 1 (age 3) to Secondary 4 (age 16). With our sudden shift to online classes because of the pandemic, I created and delivered all of the training to all teachers for online teaching, the use of the Learning Management System and Zoom, using LWS methodology, the conceptual framework and training videos for using our LMS. When physical classes reopened, I worked with the head of the company to create LW Online (LWO), recruiting and managing half of the teachers based in multiple countries.

• Designed, developed, evaluated and improved curriculum and resources for both Singapore and Malaysia (preschool through secondary levels, for in-class and online lessons).
• Line-managed the curriculum coordinators for Malaysia and Singapore, teams of writers, editors and illustrators for curriculum projects in various countries and remotely working teachers.
• Fostered an inclusive, communicative, creative and collaborative culture where all stakeholders participate in assessing the needs and quality of curriculum and professional development through regular meetings, workshops and surveys.
• Integrated 21st century skills such as the ISTE Standards for Students and CASEL's social-emotional framework across programs across departments and programs.
• Collaborated with the other heads of departments to improve company operations, policies and procedures.
• Created and developed interactive professional development workshops and training sessions for all school staff.
• Taught English enrichment (and the occasional speech and drama) classes to children aged 3 to 12.
• Worked with the marketing department to write and edit marketing materials / articles and to produce podcasts.

With my experience teaching in Japan and South Korea, I started out as a teacher. However, as I became more involved in the success of the holiday camps, I volunteered to create the company's presence on social media platforms (Facebook and Instagram). Later this developed into the assistant marketing manager position when I learned to boost brand awareness and generate leads through marketing campaigns. I also became involved in copy writing and writing curriculum.

Responsibilities across both roles included:

• Taught children from Nursery One to Primary Six.
• Fostered communicative and long-term relationships with parents of students.
• Assisted with teacher training.
• Website development, design, management, training, content writing/editing and maintenance.
• Management, copy-editing, content writing, publication and distribution of the company newsletter.
• Social media platform (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) management.
• Copywriting advertorial and article writing for external publications.
• Updating and writing curriculum for the Page to Stage 2015 Workshop materials plus organizing and training teachers for the initial workshop, auditions, finalist workshop and the competition in collaboration with Singapore’s Child Magazine.
• Worked closely with product development teams to create and maintain marketing materials.

• Created vibrant learning atmosphere through interactive exercises and discussions.
• Delivered key academic concepts using engaging teaching methods, improving student understanding.
• Targeted practice and revision to develop students' abilities in speaking and writing.

• Taught adult students important points to prepare for examinations, business presentations and international travel.
• Designed learning plans tailored to individual needs.
• Provided in-depth feedback and constructive criticism on students' work and language abilities.
• Created curriculum for a start-up school
• Substituted for nursery and elementary age ESL schools

• Planned lessons to meet language department curriculum strategies.
• Built rapport with students, incentivising engagement and interaction.
• Adapted teaching styles and resources to suit student age and ability.

• Tailored curriculum and instructional methods to accommodate varied learning styles.
• Applied various instructional approaches, experiential learning and self-assessment to increase retention and understanding.

• Taught all ages English as a second language 1:1, small classes and adult community clubs
• Established positive, productive classroom environments for maximised student engagement.
• Related course material to students' interests, preferences and experiences.