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Our Tutors and Staff
Hampstead Fine ArtsAboutOur Tutors & Staff

Our Tutors & Staff

Our tutors and staff are responsible for a great deal of the success Hampstead Fine Arts College enjoys. Our tutors are subject specialists, many of whom actively contribute to and engage with the disciplines they teach – whether as writers, researchers or lecturers, musicians, actors or filmmakers, or artists exhibiting their work across the world. Students are taught by a combination of experienced tutors and with more recent graduates to ensure both traditional and innovatory knowledge, ideas and techniques are fully covered.

You can see a complete list of our staff below.

Senior Staff

Principal

  • Emmy Schwieters: BA Leeds

Founder

  • Candida Cave: MA, CFA Oxon

Deputy Head Pastoral

  • Julie Cope: MA, BA Wales, PGCE

Deputy Head Academic

  • Spencer Pinkus: MA Cambridge, Ba Cambridge, LLB London

Head of Sixth Form

  • Christina Boyle: BA York, PGCE

Pastoral and Academic Middle Leadership

Heads of Year

  • Karine Cooper: BA Open University (Year 11)
  • Loulou O’Leary: MA Liverpool, BA Liverpool, PGCE (Year 10)

Directors of Studies

  • Akhil Merchant: BA Oxon, PGCE
  • Edmund Knox: MPhil London, MA Oxon, MA, PGCE
  • Larry Bliss: MSc London, BSc Bath
  • Nir Shaki: MA, BA London, PGCE

Departments

Business

  • Steven Kern: PhD Nottingham, MA, BA (Hons)

Classics

  • Lekha Menon: PhD London, MA, BA (Hons), PGCE
  • Oonagh Ryan: BA Oxon (Head of Department)

Dance

  • Sophie Champion: BA London, PGCE
  • Haley Sadler BA Leicester, PGCE

Drama

  • Harriet Eyre: BA Arts University Bournemouth, PGCE

Economics

  • William Toong MBA Cranfield, BCom Australia

English

  • Akhil Merchant: BA Oxon, PGCE (Head of Department)
  • Spencer Pinkus: MA Cambridge, Ba Cambridge, LLB London
  • Zara Kaiserimam: MA, BA London, PGCE

Fashion & Textiles

  • Joanna Priya Ghosh: BA London
  • Kerri Fairweather: BA Canterbury

Fine Art

  • Bella Toghill: BA London, PGCE
  • Chris Kenny: BA London (Head of Department)
  • Gabriela Lesniewska: MA Glasgow, BA London
  • Suzanne Holtom: MA Slade, BA Cardiff, PGCE
  • Timothy Betton: MA Sheffield, BA Edinburgh 

Geography

  • Loulou O’Leary: MA Liverpool, BA Liverpool, PGCE

Graphics

  • Maria Kelesidi: MA London, MA London, BA Derby, PGCE (Head of Department)
  • Mike Burles: BA Manchester

History of Art

  • Daniel Greaney: MA London, MA London, BA Limerick, PGCE
  • Emmy Schwieters: BA Leeds
  • Lekha Menon: PhD London, MA, BA (Hons), PGCE (Head of Department)

History

  • Sam Brearley: MA, BA London, PGCE (Head of Department)

Mathematics

  • Hina Kamal: BSc London, PGCE
  • Luke Heaton: DPhil Oxford, MSc Oxford, BA London, BSc Edinburgh, PGCE

Modern Languages

  • French: Edmund Knox: MPhil London, MA Oxon, PGCE (Head of Department)
  • French: Karine Cooper: BA Open University
  • German: Katja Miarka: MA Germany, BA Germany
  • Italian: Luigi La Falce: BA Rome, Italy, PTETC
  • Spanish: Edmund Knox: MPhil London, MA Oxon, MA, PGCE

Media and Film Studies

  • Ben Clements: BA Canterbury, PGCE
  • Natalie Keen: BA Manchester (Head of Department)
  • Terri Murray: DPhil Oxford Brookes, BA London, PGCE

Music and Music Technology

  • Christina Boyle: BA York, PGCE (Head of Department)
  • Jonathan Healy: MA, BA Leeds, PGCE

Philosophy

  • Nir Shaki: MA, BA London, PGCE (Head of Department)

Photography

  • Bella Hull: BA London, PGCE
  • Consuelo Giorgi: DPhil, BA Carrara, Italy, PGCE (Director of Photography Students)
  • Dominik Klimowski: MA Hertfordshire, BA Kingston (Head of Department)
  • Timothy Betton: MA Sheffield, BA Edinburgh

Politics

  • Hugh Greany: BA Oxford, PGCE

Psychology

  • Paula Tulliver: BSc London

Religious Studies

  • Nir Shaki: MA, BA London, PGCE (Head of Department)

Science

  • Adam Rodaway: PhD London, BA Cambridge
  • Larry Bliss: MSc London, BSc Bath
  • Stephen Taylor: BSc Leeds, PGCE

Sociology

  • Emma Jones: MSc Sussex, BA Sussex, PGCE (Head of Department)

EPQ Coordinator

  • Zara Kaiserimam: MA, BA London

School Productions

  • Bryony Reiss: MA Canada, BA Sussex

SEN Tutors

  • Bryony Reiss: MA Canada, BA Sussex
  • Matthew Peters: MA, BA Falmouth

SEN Co-Ordinator

  • Jennifer Lok: MA Exeter, BA Italy, PDip Warwick, CSML Harvard, PGCE

Administration, Careers and Safeguarding

Financial Controller

  • Rana Iftikhar: BSc Plymouth
  • Gabriela Ince: BSc London (Accounts Assistant)

Health and Safety and Premises Manager

  • Sarmad Ismail: BSc Bristol, IOSH

Caretaker

  • Fitzroy Hamilton

Director of Compliance

  • Leanne Slavin: BA London

Director of Admissions

  • Meena Sharma: HND, London

Director of Careers Guidance

  • Margaret Park: BA Sussex, PGCE

Director of Welfare

  • Oonagh Ryan: BA Oxon

Marketing Administrator, PA, and Reception

  • Finley Hart: Level 3 Apprenticeship

Designated Safeguarding Lead

  • Julie Cope: MA, BA Wales, PGCE

Assistant Designated Safeguarding Leads

  • Oonagh Ryan: BA Oxon
  • Sigrid Assan: DI HAS Feldkirchen, Austria
  • Matthew Peters: MA, BA Falmouth

Exams Officer

  • John Hicks: GCE London

Marketing

  • Finley Hart: Level 3 Apprenticeship

Sustainability Co-ordinator

  • Loulou O’Leary: MA Liverpool, BA Liverpool, PGCE

Administrators

  • Leanne Slavin: BA London
  • Meena Sharma: HND, London (Senior Administrator)
  • Sigrid Assan: DI HAS Feldkirchen, Austria
  • Finley Hart: Level 3 Apprenticeship

IT Engineer

  • James Theocharous: BA London
Open Days
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Universities & Careers

Most students progress to higher education either at top academic institutions or leading art colleges. We host regular talks on higher education options and future careers. We advise and help students complete their university and art school applications for institutions in the UK, Europe, US, Canada, and Australia.

Hampstead Fine Arts College became part of Dukes Education in 2015, and our students benefit from careers advice from Dukes Education’s team of Oxbridge and US admissions specialists. Students who wish to follow academic courses are regularly accepted to study at Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, LSE, King’s College, the Courtauld Institute, St Andrews, Edinburgh, York, Bristol, and Leeds. The most popular destinations for our art students are Central Saint Martins, London College of Fashion, Camberwell, and Kingston. Our leading American destinations are Parsons, Pratt, NYU, and Cal Arts.

Students flourish in future careers in film, fine art, fashion, creative writing, the media, and academia, amongst others. Whatever FAC students go on to do, an education at Hampstead Fine Arts College provides a strong foundation for forging a distinctive career in a changing and competitive world.