Meet The Teachers – The English Department

What makes King Alfred School so special? Ask any of our students and they’ll say ‘the teachers’ – so we thought we’d peek behind the curtain and find out a bit more about some of our fabulous teachers.

Alex Marrion – Head of Department

Alex has been Head of English at KAS for the last five years and has a particular passion for Old and Middle English literature as well as the Gothic genre, with Frankenstein a particular favourite:

“It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn…”

Zoë Rawlings

This is Zoë’s sixth year at King Alfred. She teaches English to Years 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 and is also our Key Stage Four Coordinator and a Year 13 tutor.

Her favourite text to teach is Hamlet because every time she does, she notices something she hasn’t before. Currently, Zoë’s favourite book is Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie- an incredible love story that has taught her much about England, America and Nigeria.

Steve Fothergill

Steven has been an English teacher at King Alfred for four years. He currently teaches Years 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 and is also a Year 13 tutor. Steven has a particular interest in 20th century and contemporary American novels and short stories, and his current favourite books are The Rotter’s Club by Jonathan Coe and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

“That’s one thing Earthlings might learn to do, if they tried hard enough: Ignore the awful times and concentrate on the good ones.” – Vonnegut

Anna Ni Chaoimh

Anna joined King Alfred School in 2012 and became Head of Year 7 a little later. For the last two years, she worked on the SLT, looking after teaching and learning, and she has just started a new role, Director of Research, Projects and CPD.  She loves to teaching poetry, especially when she gets to explore some of her favourites: Heaney, Boland, Frost and Dickinson.  In recent months, she’s been reading all of Ottessa Moshfegh’s work, while filling the rest of her time with knitting, ceramics and wild swimming.

Shivani Singh

This is Shivani’s third year at King Alfred. She teaches English to Years 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 and 13 and is also a Year 7 tutor.

She loves postcolonial literature and some of her favourite novels include The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan and A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. Her favourite text to teach is The Handmaid’s Tale because of its enduring relevance.

Daniel Love

This is Daniel’s seventh year at King Alfred. He currently teaches Year 7 and 8, alongside his role as Assistant Head and SENCo. He has also previously been Head of Years 10 and 11 at the school. His current favourite text to teach is An Inspector Calls, as it raises many questions about the nature of community and society that resonate just as strongly today as they did when the play was originally written and performed. His personal reading tends to be varied: he is currently enjoying short stories by Amy Hempel, as well as David Runciman’s writing on politics.