I am a Chinese-African-Caribbean woman from Kingston, Jamaica. I completed school, university and my teaching diploma in Jamaica before coming to the North-West with my English husband who had
been teaching in Kingston. After teaching in a school in Preston and the birth of my two daughters, I came to Manchester and began working with the City Council’s Adult Education Service.
In Moss Side, I led a language project with Caribbean students which created and published literacy learning materials using Jamaican Patwa and Standard English. I worked in the South Central area of Manchester for 26 years organising and teaching classes in Adult Literacy, English for Speakers of Other Languages, Family Learning, Parent Education and courses for Women Returning to Education.
During my working life, I was a perpetual student completing a Master’s in Education, a Management Certificate, the Adult Learning Assessor’s Certificate, and Diploma for the Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages, as well as lessons in Spanish Conversation and Jewellery Making!
After retiring, I looked after my Mum who had had a stroke, volunteered at a local Primary school and at Mrs D.’s Saturday School and did some outreach work for the Open University. I am now a busy grandmother, a volunteer at an English Conversation class for new arrivals in Manchester and I travel as often as I can to visit my far-flung family.