A few welcoming words from Ms Melanie

Welcome to our school.

In our school I am the director. Besides the smooth operation of the school, I am responsible for curriculum development and quality control for teaching English and Literacy, as well as designing and managing a range of cultural and community events.

I have been passionate about education and culture all my life and have had a successful career as an educationalist in England, Hungary and Russia. My first degree from the University of Nottingham was in Russian, and I lived and worked in Moscow and St Petersburg as a teacher, translator and interpreter for the SDA church before returning to the UK to train as a teacher and take up my first post as a tutor in a sixth form college in Basingstoke. In 1994 I moved to Hungary for a post as a university lecturer in English and Russian. I settled happily into the gritty realism of Budapest’s seventh district.

I have extensive experience of education in Budapest. This comes both from my own experiences of teaching and leadership in British international schools in Budapest and from the experiences of my two children, Rose and Thea, who have attended Hungarian state schools as well as foundation and international schools.

During my years in Budapest I have served in school management, first as Manager of Teaching and Learning and Head of Sixth Form and Pastoral Care in an international school, and most recently I successfully led a major quality development as School Director of the English School of Budapest.

My first passion in education is children’s literature and drama. While on maternity leave with my younger daughter, I completed a Masters Degree in Children’s Literature and I have written and directed several plays for children and young people, performing at the British Embassy and at the IBS Theatre. In my free time I enjoy swing dancing, cycling and travel. One of my hobbies is exploring history and I work freelance for a British company as a History guide taking UK school groups around Budapest and Krakow.

Although I have lived in Hungary since 1994 and am integrated into this country, speak the language and care deeply about its fate, I am still very much a “Lancashire Lass”, proud of my British roots and the heritage of the north west of England, cradle of the industrial revolution. I feel I belong to both countries.