College Staff

Allan Cairns is Principal at the College. His role encompasses the oversight of the Academic policies within the College, as well as ensuring that behaviour and conduct is well managed. Curriculum management and the oversight of the quality of teaching and learning within the College are also key parts of his role.

He studied Modern History at the University of St Andrews, and then completed a PGCE in Secondary History at the University of Gloucestershire. Before coming to the College, Allan enjoyed ten years’ state school teaching experience, serving as both head of department and faculty. Allan has also enjoyed pastoral leadership, having been Head of GCSE and Director of Studies at the College before his promotion to Vice Principal (Academic), which he undertook for three years before being promoted to Principal.

A committed, experienced and innovative teacher and senior leader, his achievements include a consistently impressive range of department results in GCSE and A Level, modernisation and reorganisation of curricula, and leading on whole school initiatives at the College such as Timetabling, Teaching and Learning, Quality of Assessment, Marking and Feedback, Whole School results analysis, and SEN provision.

Allan has delivered numerous teacher continuing professional development sessions, both in the UK and internationally, and mentored both NQTs and more experienced staff in four schools to an excellent standard. During his time in the profession he has organised international school partnerships in India, helped to lead a month-long excursion trekking through the jungles of Malaysia and Borneo, climbed a 5,200 metre high mountain whilst leading the first College overseas expedition to China and transformed a History corridor into a replica First World War Trench.

Allan teaches History at the College, and is dedicated to ensuring that academic quality across all subjects consistently meets the high standards which we set for ourselves. He also leads the College’s Running Club and Law/Politics pathway, whilst coaching the football team, West London Independent College league winners in 2015-2016 and 2016-2017.

Laura is the Vice Principal of the College, and her role focuses on the pastoral wellbeing of the students. She is the Designated Safeguarding Lead and the SENCO, and she also leads on the university admissions process. In addition, she supports Allan with anything else that may need to be done in order to ensure that the College provides the best possible environment for both students and staff.

Laura studied Business Management at University before completing a PGCE, and she is currently studying for her National SENCO Award by distance learning. She has been teaching for eighteen years and has a wealth of experience in both pastoral and academic leadership. She also has extensive experience as a governor in state schools. Her most recent role prior to joining the College in September 2020 was as an Assistant Head in an independent school. Laura is committed to achieving the very best outcomes for each student, regardless of their starting point.

Laura teaches Economics and Business Studies in the College and works with the students to run Student Council.

Guillermo Esteban Llorente is the Head of Biology as well as the Spanish teacher at the College. He studied a Biology degree at the University of Valencia (Spain), and then became a specialist in Applied Biology at the Bonn Rhein Sieg University (Germany). Following that, he relocated to Glasgow to take part in an Internship Programme at the University of Strathclyde. He then completed a PGCE in Secondary Biology at the University of Valencia.

Before joining Ealing Independent College, Guillermo worked as a teacher in Spain and the UK, focusing on several different roles such as A-Level Biology Coordinator and Most Able Students Programme Coordinator in the Science department. This last role gave him the opportunity to encourage gifted and talented students to take part in exceptional projects. During this time, three of his students won the first ever BioMedia Meltdown Competition Award, which was a competition run by The Linnean Society of London (the world’s oldest still-existing biological society). Seeing his students achieve this, reinforced his ambition to continue helping young people to become the best version of themselves.

In addition to his day-to-day role as a teacher, Guillermo also leads the College’s Biomedical Society. The society enables students to learn about the latest advances in medicine and creates a space for learning and discussions with other students with similar aspirations.

James joined Ealing Independent College in September 2018 as the Head of GCSE and also teaches Geography and Psychology. He brings 20 years of experience acquired from independent and state schools in South Africa and England. Most recently, he has been working in a London inner city school as Head of Geography where his remit was to help set up new A-Level departments and syllabuses for Geography and Psychology. Prior to this he was Head of Geography and Head of House at an international independent school in Surrey. It was here that James developed many online learning opportunities for the students where the focus was – ‘learn anywhere anytime’. Due to much of the work he did here James became a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society (FRGS).

Prior to working in the UK he taught in various schools in South Africa. James worked at Camps Bay High School (Cape Town) as Head of Guidance & Counselling and Geography and at St Andrew’s College (Grahamstown) as a Geography teacher. He is a Geography and Psychology graduate from the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS, Johannesburg), has a Bachelor in Education (Bed) from the University of South Africa and holds a Masters in Environmental and Developmental Studies from London, South Bank.

Along with his teaching and managerial roles James has been passionately involved in extra-curricular programmes. He has coached various sports including Cricket, Rugby and Football (boys and girls) and organised many excursions ranging from geographic trips to hiking and camping expeditions (Duke of Edinburgh Award).

Claire Greenwood has over twenty five years’ experience of teaching. She has taught in independent schools, boarding schools, FE and HE colleges and in Higher Education. She taught at the independent girls school Woldingham in Surrey and Queen’s Gate School in South Kensington.

She has been a Head of Department, Director of Studies, Senior Teacher and Head of Year. Her most recent teaching positions were Director of Studies at Mander Portman Woodward in London and as Head of Year at Lansdowne College. She has been Head of UCAS, Oxbridge, has run Drama Clubs – writing and directing productions; Debating Cubs competing nationally and Creative Writing Clubs with visiting authors and poets. Claire has a First Class Masters degree from Cambridge University and is a Fulbright Scholar.

Claire joined EIC in January 2018 as Head of English and teaches across the age range at the college. She is involved in UCAS, co-running the successful summer UCAS programme at EIC and runs the Debating Society.

Geoff studied Mathematics at Constantine College of Advanced Technology in Middlesbrough (now known as Teesside University) and was awarded a 1st class honours degree. He then moved down to London to study Pure Mathematics at Imperial College where he was awarded an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. for research in Complex Analysis (Bieberbach’s conjecture for weakly p-valent functions).

Geoff started teaching Mathematics at David Game tutors in 1978 and then moved to Ealing Independent College in 2001. He took on the role of Head of the Maths Department in both posts until 2017 when he became a part time teacher.

Geoff also trained to be a teacher of the Alexander Technique (a method of helping people use their bodies better in order to alleviate back pain) from 1984-1987 and has been practising since then.

He was born and grew up in Leeds and started supporting Leeds United when Don Revie took them into the first division in 1965.

He also takes special pride in his Honda CBR600RR motorcycle which is ‘an absolute delight to ride’.

Further to this, in the last two years, he has also taken up drawing and painting and has since spent a large part of each summer holiday painting the mountains in Auvergne in Central France. He is now trying to learn how to paint portraits which he is enjoying immensely as he says that learning to draw in class helps him to understand better what it is like for his maths students to struggle in class.

Kashif is the Head of Chemisty at the College. He studied a BSc in Biochemistry and following on from this completed his PGCE at Cardiff University. He has been teaching at the College for three years.

Kashif began his teaching career in 2004 – teaching both A level and GCSE Chemistry. He has over fifteen years experience in this field as well as over 10 years experience teaching GCSE Biology. He has taught in FE Colleges both in England and Wales and also has as a wealth of secondary school teaching experience.

Kashif is a big fan of all sports, particularly cricket, hockey and football.

Nazanin Moradi is an Iranian-born artist living and working in London. She received an MA in Fine Art from the Chelsea College of Art (UAL) in 2016. She has exhibited in the UK, Europe, America and the Middle East.

Nazanin’s work is explores the act of re-inventing her origins in the context of contemporary art. She expresses her personal stories through the broader theme of cultural history. Nazanin’s work combines costume making, performance, painting, soft sculpture, and digital collage and her practice is defined by constant construction, deconstruction and reconstruction. She moves between three-dimensional textile works and two-dimensional images to create a dialogue between her materials, the studio space, and her body.

Lucilla Nitto teaches Photography at the college and joined EIC in 2018. She is an award winning architect and photographer, and a Licentiate member of the Royal Photographic Society.

Lucilla holds a degree in Architecture from the University of Naples Federico II and a BTEC in Photography from Kensington and Chelsea College in London, where she earned the highest marks (double Distinction). After her Post Graduate Diploma in Architecture (RIBA II, with Honors) Lucilla worked as an architect in a variety of roles before starting her carrier as a professional Architectural Photographer. Her works were often featured in architectural journals, magazines, and online.

Lucilla has a particular passion for vintage cameras and old photos, and has experience with an extensive range of photographic, lighting, and studio equipment. She also greatly enjoys related media such as visual art, music, and cinema, and co-founded the college’s Film Club to share these passions with her students. Lucilla lives in London with her husband and daughter, and enjoys yoga and meditation when she’s not behind the camera or in the classroom.

Nemone Sariman is Head of Modern Foreign Languages at the College and oversees French, German and Spanish for internal candidates as well as a range of European and non-European language examinations for external candidates. She studied French at Durham University, specialising in French literature, and worked in Marketing after graduating. She began teaching “as a stop-gap, whilst deciding what she really wanted to do” and, 11 years later, she is still teaching after falling in love with the role. Nemone has taught year groups from 6 to 13 and very much enjoys the challenge of taking on new students at Year 10 with a wide variety of French knowledge and experience and seeing them through to GCSE and A Level.

Being a linguist, and having worked as a copywriter and proofreader during her time in Marketing, Nemone is naturally drawn to words, and her favourite part of teaching is encouraging students to play with words, inventing new words and finding creative, fun ways to enhance their vocabulary. She is also an English language pedant, and enjoys spotting printed spelling and grammatical errors and complaining about them to others. Her pet hate is Autocorrect which, she feels, causes the very problems that it is intended to solve.

Nemone is fascinated by ghosts, Hallowe’en and all things spooky, and she loves being able to explore this darker side in the College’s Metaphysics and Folklore Club.

Richard Smith is the new Head of Science at the College and he attended Liverpool University where he read Marine Biology BSc (Hons). He also completed his PGCE in Manchester.

He has a wealth of teaching experience, having previously taught in three previous schools in the Isle of Man. In these roles, his additional responsibilities included: Head of Year, Coursework Coordinator, KS3 Coordinator and an Assistant Pastoral Leader.

His hobbies include Sailing, Swimming, Cycling, Running, Basketball and Music (Violin, Guitar and Piano).

Richard has also represented the Isle of Man for Basketball in the Natwest Island Games in 2009 and 2017.

James is the head of Computer Science at the College, as well as the College’s timetabler. He started programming as a hobby when he was twelve years old, and has maintained an ongoing interest in the use of technology and its impact on society. He studied Physics as the University of Sheffield, working on practical, theoretical, and computer simulation based projects.

James has worked at Ealing Independent College for over ten years, and in that time has been head of GCSE, exams officer and Senior Teacher.

Before entering teaching James ran an internet start-up company, and he has also run Emotional Intelligence training for a range of skills such as mental wellbeing, emotional robustness and mindfulness. James has always been particularly interested in developing the wider skills of his students, beyond simply course content – how to develop good study skills, maintaining an appropriate perspective on one’s own work, managing personal motivation and how to see the subject in the wider context of the changes technology continually brings to society. This hopefully equips students with the resources they need to become even more successful in the future, and keep those successes in line with their own values and goals.

Parth is a teacher of Physics at Ealing Independent College. He studied Physics at Imperial College London. During his degree, he worked at a tutoring centre where he taught Physics, Maths and Further Maths to student with a large range of abilities. Being an experienced researcher, Parth aims to incorporate current developments in various fields of physics in his lessons to shed light on the application of what the students are learning.

In addition to his role as a teacher, Parth also leads the College’s Engineering Society in which students learn how to program micro-controllers and build functioning robots. This society allows the students to see how various hardware and electronic components interfaces with software, and teaches students how to bring their ideas to life through research and developments.

Adrian Winiecki is Head of Mathematics at the College and is also responsible for Teacher Development.

He studied Automotive Engineering at Coventry University and then completed a PGCE in Secondary Mathematics at St Mary’s University.

Before coming to the College, Adrian enjoyed nine years’ state school teaching experience, serving a number of those years as Head of Faculty. During those years of leadership, Adrian enjoyed success with his Faculty as they reached levels of progress in the top percentiles nationally. He is passionate about students achieving at all levels and enjoys teaching all age groups.

Before teaching Adrian played professional rugby player for the Premiership team Wasps. He still tries to continue an active life when he is not teaching and has led many ski trips and cycling trips with the school. The most memorable was a 1500 mile cycle across the length of England to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer research, which he managed to complete in six days.

Maria joined Ealing Independent College approximately 5 years ago. Before Maria joined the College, she had many years experience working as a GP Receptionist.

When Maria joined us originally she oversaw all the housekeeping at our Boarding House which we offered to International students. Maria thoroughly enjoyed, cooking, cleaning and generally giving the boys in her care a ‘home from home’.

Although we no longer offer our boarding house facilities, we are lucky enough that Maria has proceeded to carry her caring nature and willingness to help others in the College as the Housekeeper. Maria also offers Office Administration and general support wherever it is needed.

Omar has recently joined Ealing Independent College, after completing a Level 3 Laboratory technician apprenticeship. Whilst completing his apprenticeship he has also worked at an independent school for 2 years as their first technician.

Prior to entering the education sector, he was working in Customer service for over 5 years; he then graduated in 2013 with an honours degree in Biomedical Science.

Omar thoroughly enjoys working at Ealing college and preparing and setting up all the practicals for the science department.