Greg
Principal
Dear All
As we approach the end of this academic term, Christmas is upon us yet once again.
The Queen made reference to 1992 as being an ‘annus horribilis’ following a devastating fire which caused widespread damage to Windsor Castle and three royal marriages which ended in divorce.
While no castle has burnt down for us (fortunately!), 2020 has been a rather challenging year to say the least. For many people, 2020 has been their annus horribilis as a result of the widespread damage the pandemic has done to many people around the world and the global economy.
In spite of the lockdown in March 2020, I promised our staff that we would try and soldier on and weather the proverbial storm. While we have had several difficult challenges, some really good things have happened during this period:
- Our school won a grant from the British Council to help develop a teacher training programme for teachers in Cameroon.
- Our application to run an authorised exam centre for OET (Occupational English Test) with a partner school in Brazil proved successful. We are now the first exam centre in Minas Gerais to be authorised to run OET exams and only the second in Brazil.
- We have learnt to adapt teaching from a traditional face-to-face environment to both online and hybrid solutions to counter the difficulty students have of travelling to the UK to learn English
We are resolute in our determination to continue in spite of having one lockdown after another which makes the ability to deliver face-to-face teaching programmes a real challenge!
We sincerely hope that 2021 will be a more prosperous year for everyone. It is very encouraging to learn that we now have two vaccines approved with a third on its way. This will hopefully alleviate the situation for many and better protect people against the spread of the virus.
We hope that instead of the annus horribilis of 2020 we might all have an annus mirabilis or wonderful year in 2021!
From Grace and I, the owners of CELT, we would like to send you all our seasons’ greetings.
Warm wishes
Greg Nelson
Principal
