Congratulations to our Assistant Heads

Mr. Aaron Gilloway completed a four-year teaching degree at the University of Brighton, where he studied both primary and secondary education. Following his undergraduate degree, Aaron taught Year 6 in a four–form entry primary school in the Southeast of England. In that time, he progressed and became Head of Year 6 and a member of the Senior Leadership Team responsible for Upper Key Stage 2. Aaron also had subject-based responsibilities and was the English, ICT and PE Coordinator. In 2016, Aaron moved internationally to Beijing, where he has been for the last six years. Aaron spent three years working as a Head of Year at Harrow Beijing and then moved to be a Founding Assistant Head of a new Nord Anglia Bilingual school. As a result, he has gained valuable leadership experience in multiple schools. 

Aaron has completed his National Professional Qualification in Middle Leadership (NPQML) with University College London (UCL) and a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership and Management with Oxford Brookes. He is currently pursuing his doctorate in education, focusing on language acquisition and bilingualism.

Aaron is excited to move to Hangzhou and get started at Wellington College International Hangzhou. The vision of creating students able to thrive in an ever-changing world aligns with his own educational beliefs. 

Outside of work, Aaron is a keen runner. He has completed many marathons, including the Beijing marathon and a vertical marathon up 109 floors of China Zun (中国尊), China’s second tallest building. Aaron has enjoyed his time in Beijing and is now looking forward to exploring Hangzhou.

Since graduating from the University of Manchester with a degree in English Language and Literature, Catherine has spent most of her teaching career working with pupils for whom English is an additional language. After a 2-and-a-half-year stint as a TEFL teacher in Japan and Taiwan, China, she trained as a Primary school teacher in the UK, gaining her QTS and PGCE from the University of Hull. Catherine then spent two years teaching in Hull before moving to Slovakia to work in a British international school.

On returning to the UK, she took up a post in a large, all-through primary school in Bradford. Here, most of her pupils were EAL. She used this classroom experience to complete her Master's in Education (Applied Linguistics). She explored the importance of purposeful talk in the classroom to scaffold EAL pupils' understanding of a subject and co-construct knowledge. As an Assistant Head Teacher at the school, Catherine led and established specialist "New to English" provision for EAL pupils, and its success was recognised when it became a national "Centre of Good Practice" in its field.

Catherine then worked for two and half years as a Local Authority Education Adviser for EAL Portsmouth, training hundreds of teachers and working with a wide range of Primary and Senior schools to improve EAL teaching and learning in the city. As a strategic lead on a 2-year project for the Department for Education, she also worked to improve access to education for unaccompanied asylum seekers in Portsmouth and beyond. 

Catherine has worked at WCIH since the summer of 2020, helping the school grow and move to its new setting. As an Assistant Head of Primary, Catherine has helped shape EAL practice in the school and supported the English team in establishing a curriculum based on pupils’ needs and high educational standards.