Hannah Darville is a graduate of Liverpool Hope University, where she earned a BA Hons in English Language and Primary Teaching. Originally from Lancashire, England, the same region as the historic Stonyhurst School. So far, Hannah has built an impressive teaching career with diverse international experiences.

Hannah has had the opportunity to teach in Kuwait, where she explored the Middle East and taught at some of the country’s top schools. During her time in Kuwait, she served as a subject leader for Mathematics and developed a keen interest in special education and personalised learning. Currently, Hannah is excited to embark on her fourth year at Stonyhurst as a Year 5 teacher. She is eager to incorporate the skills she has gained from her ‘Kids Life Coach’ course into her teaching practice. Hannah’s international experiences, including living in Kuwait and Penang, have allowed her to immerse herself in various cultures and visit exciting destinations such as Jordan, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Outside of her professional life, Hannah leads an active lifestyle. She was a member of the Kuwait Gaelic Football Team and enjoys playing netball and taking long walks.

James Melody graduated from Lancaster University with a BA (Hons) Degree in Advertising and Marketing. During his spare time at University, he found joy in volunteering with sports camps and children’s clubs, where he developed a passion for working with children and fostering their growth and learning.

Following his first degree, James completed a PGCE at Leeds Trinity University, specialising in teaching Early Years (3-7 year olds). Before relocating to Penang, he taught across multiple schools and year groups in and around Leeds, England. He has effectively applied the skills acquired during his specialist PGCE program to his teaching, aiming to provide all pupils with the best opportunities to explore themselves and independently reach their full potential. As a teacher, his top priority is ensuring that all children feel happy and secure in his classroom, achieved through a variety of activities and the development of strong and positive relationships with his pupils.

In his free time, James enjoys participating in and watching a variety of sports, including football, tennis, and diving. He has a passion for travel, exploring new places, and immersing himself in different cultures from around the world.

Martin trained at the Faculty of Education in Cambridge and began his teaching career at Manor Primary School in his hometown of Wolverhampton. 

Over the past sixteen years, his journey through international education has seen him work at several outstanding schools, including Harrow Bangkok, Bangkok Patana School, and the British International School of Phuket.

Driven by a desire to help children create lifelong memories, Martin focuses on equipping students with skills that endure well beyond the classroom. A calm, kind, and creative atmosphere defines his teaching style, underpinned by a consistently friendly and encouraging approach. By fostering perseverance and curiosity, he empowers pupils to realise that they can achieve remarkable things. This ethos is rooted in a simple guiding principle: “In a world where you can be anything, be kind.”

Beyond the classroom outside of school hours, Martin is a keen fan of five-a-side football and international rugby. For relaxation, he enjoys watercolour painting and is an avid reader of history.

Martin is delighted to join the Stonyhurst Penang community. Having already experienced such a warm welcome, he very much looks forward to getting involved in all aspects of school life and contributing to the wider campus culture.

Emma Hambling graduated from the University of Birmingham with a BA (Hons) in Business and Hispanic Studies. After a period spent in Spain to perfect her language skills, she returned to the UK to complete a postgraduate qualification in Primary Education with a specialist in….. (you guessed it!) Spanish. Since then she has taught Key Stages 2 and 3 at schools in the UK, Spain, Qatar and China.

Emma is passionate about learning how behaviours develop, how feelings influence behaviour, and the impact positive wellbeing can have on a child’s development. Her work internationally and as the mother of a ‘Third Culture Kid’ has also developed her interest in the environmental influences on cognition and more specifically on the impact of global mobilisation and transition in both education and social development. This led to her desire to increase this knowledge through her recent studies of MSc in Psychology.

Emma lives in Penang with her husband, a PE and swimming coach, and son, who is a pupil in the Junior School. As a family they enjoy spending time outdoors exploring, most weekends they can be found exploring the island. She enjoys running and, after spending lots of time on the sidelines watching her husband and son competing in triathlons, she is becoming a reluctant triathlete too!

Gareth is originally from Birmingham, England. He graduated with a BA (Hons) Degree in History from Newcastle University. For over a decade, prior to becoming a teacher, Gareth was a researcher and a writer.

Gareth gained his PGDE through the Teach First Programme. Over the last six years, Gareth has taught in a number of different settings, in and around Birmingham, working with a huge number of children for whom English is a second language. In addition to being a class teacher, Gareth has also worked in schools as a tutor, as part of the National Tutoring Programme.

As a teacher, Gareth’s top priority is helping the young people he teaches to become eloquent, confident and independent learners. Gareth believes in creating a nurturing classroom environment where children’s self-esteem is allowed to blossom and children are encouraged to lean into their innate strengths.

Away from the classroom, Gareth has always been a keen sportsman. His particular passions are rugby, football, basketball and snooker. In addition to sports, Gareth is also a poetry enthusiast, which lately he has channelled into songwriting. Gareth enjoys exploring everything that Penang has to offer with his young family: the stunning landscapes, the wildlife and, if he’s honest, particularly the food!

Joseph studied accounting at Northumbria University, Newcastle, and had the fortunate opportunity to spend his third year studying at Kyungpook National University in Daegu, South Korea. Following graduation with a First Class degree, he seized the chance to work as a lifeguard and swim teacher at a summer camp in America for three consecutive summers, all while traveling to various parts of the world, including Thailand and Vietnam.

Joseph has a deep passion for exploring new places, meeting new people, and immersing himself in different cultures. Upon returning to the U.K, Joseph pursued his PGCE at Leeds Trinity University, where he received the Vice Chancellor’s Prize for Outstanding Academic Achievement. After graduating, he devoted himself to teaching at a Primary School in Bradford, gaining valuable experience in delivering the English National Curriculum. Joseph takes great pleasure in building and nurturing positive relationships with both pupils and parents, and he finds immense pride in witnessing children develop their knowledge, skills, and confidence across all areas of the curriculum and beyond. Joseph is an avid sports enthusiast, enjoying live events such as football and cricket matches.

In his leisure time, he maintains a regular exercise routine, relishes nature walks, and indulges his passion for reading, often getting lost in the pages of a good book.

Craig Laidlaw is from Dundee, Scotland. He has experienced many different cultures around the world having travelled to 28 countries! From the age of six, Craig was considered an international expat himself. Craig moved from Scotland to Qatar, before moving-on to Spain to finish his secondary education and then back to Scotland for his university years. From his time in Spain, he became bilingual in Spanish and English which has helped him greatly in both professional and personal aspects of his life. This has proven to be especially helpful when teaching Spanish speaking pupils, as well as other children whose first language is not English.

Craig has completed his Masters of Arts degree with honours in Sociology and Psychology at the University of Glasgow which is where his passion for child development was ignited. He then furthered his education by completing a Postgraduate Certificate in Education with Sunderland University. With this, he was able to pursue a career in teaching which began in Doha, Qatar, with Oryx International School. This was an invaluable experience, working with professionals and children from a plethora of different nationalities and cultures under the British Curriculum. He looks forward to continuing offering his cultural and professional experiences to a similarly diverse environment that is the prestigious Stonyhurst International School Penang. In addition to Craig’s academic interests, he is an avid musician and has been playing guitar and singing from an early age, as well as participating in various theatre productions.

He is also enthusiastic about football, both playing and watching, along with swimming and athletics. He continues to enjoy experiencing all Penang has to offer and being a part of Stonyhurst’s diverse community.

Miss Summers holds a Business Studies degree and worked as a charity funding manager with ChildLine, a children’s charity, for five years. After returning to the North East of England, she qualified as a teacher following the birth of her daughter. With 17 years of dedicated teaching experience across the Primary Phase, Miss Summers has developed a wide range of expertise. She has thoroughly enjoyed her time at Stonyhurst International School Penang, where the supportive environment has launched her international teaching career.

As a qualified forest school leader, Miss Summers plans to utilize these skills to establish a beach school club at Stonyhurst International School Penang, alongside the proposed water sports centre. She aspires to instill a passion for learning by ensuring that her lessons are engaging, challenging, and tailored to the children’s interests. She firmly believes in meeting the diverse aspirations and needs of all learners and eagerly anticipates cultivating an effective classroom environment that fosters self-belief and teamwork.

Outside the classroom, Miss Summers has embraced the opportunity to discover and share the wonders of Malaysia, enjoying walks in Penang. She has a fondness for reading and yoga, which she shares with colleagues in staff classes. With family connections across the globe, including her sister in Vietnam and her daughter in Melbourne, Australia, Miss Summers has developed a keen enthusiasm for traveling and visiting her family.

Hannah studied English literature at the University of Plymouth and graduated in 2012. After graduating she spent some time working and travelling around Australia and New Zealand. It was in Australia, whilst working as an au pair, that she developed an interest in education. Upon her return to the United Kingdom, she attended the University of the West of England where she studied for her PGCE in Primary Education.

Hannah has a passion for educating the whole child and instilling a strong sense of self and confidence in her pupils. She strives to create a classroom where children feel safe, valued and challenged. Her favourite subject to teach is English and she has a vast knowledge of current children’s literature to ensure that her pupils are reading a wide variety of texts. As well as English, Hannah is a keen singer and has enjoyed running the choir at her previous school in the UK.

This is Hannah’s second position at an international school in Malaysia, having previously taught for six years in the United Kingdom. Outside of the classroom Hannah enjoys reading, cooking and exploring Malaysia with her young family.

Mr Tom Crossley is a very passionate and enthusiastic Primary School teacher with sixteen years of experience. He has supported children both in schools, as a class teacher, and in homes, as a Special Educational Needs teacher and homeschool support tutor.

Tom graduated from the University of Southampton with a BA in English Literature and a PGCE as a Primary School teacher. He taught in schools in Surrey and London, before becoming the lead tutor at a Steiner-inspired homeschool collective in Bristol.

His teaching philosophy is all about forming excellent relationships with his pupils, founded on mutual respect. He prides himself on really getting to know children, identifying what enthuses and motivates them, and incorporating this into his teaching.

His classrooms are always calm, nurturing spaces. Tom continues to be passionate about literature, and enjoys reading and writing in his spare time. He loves to use storytelling in his teaching, and is also an aspiring author, having written several books for children that he hopes one day to get published. He enjoys playing football and tennis, and swimming with his children.

Olivia David is a graduate with a Bachelor of Psychology Hons from HELP University. With a keen interest in Educational Psychology, she transitioned into the field of teaching. Subsequently, she completed her Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) from University Tunku Abdul Rahman.

Olivia brings with her 9 years of teaching experience, primarily focused on the Primary Cambridge syllabus. She has served as a class teacher, specializing in subjects such as English, Math, and IPC. Olivia firmly believes in the importance of differentiating learning to meet the diverse needs of pupils. Her attraction to Stonyhurst lies in its educational philosophy, which aligns with the values instilled in her upbringing as a Catholic. She has absolutely enjoyed her first year teaching at Stonyhurst. She is enthusiastic about continuously bringing in her passion for teaching into each lesson.

Outside of her professional life, she loves spending time with her family and has a passion for cooking, baking, and Acrylic painting, which she enjoys as hobbies.