Virginia Ridolfi

Lead Teacher of Spanish

Born and raised in a small town along the beautiful North-East Italian Riviera, I am delighted to be part of the Park Lane community and I am really looking forward to discovering the culture and lifestyle that the cosmopolitan city of Prague has to offer.

My love for languages, particularly Spanish, dates to a very young age. I have always been a strong believer that having a language is a unique skill that allows you not only to communicate with other people but also to discover and immerse yourself in unfamiliar cultures and this has consistently encouraged me to always travel to ‘learn’ instead of just ‘visiting’, which remains one of my favourite hobbies. I hope to awaken this same curiosity with students and share my experiences with them, as I feel this is a life-long skill that every pupil should be able to develop. I have a passion for making all students feel included and happy in my classroom whilst also learning vital new communication skills. I personally think that inclusive education should be at the heart of any curriculum, and I aim to implement this in a range of positive learning techniques in every lesson.

I have travelled to several countries and I have lived in numerous places, including Spain, where during a university Erasmus project I had the chance to further deepen my fluency in the language and gain a wealth of both cultural and linguistic knowledge. I then moved to London where I graduated with Honours at King’s College University in Modern Foreign Languages. Hence, I am a well-qualified, UK trained teacher and I have been working across secondary schools in the UK and lately in the Middle East.

It goes without saying that as a linguist, outside the classroom, I love reading books in different languages and traveling around the world whenever I can. My husband is a talented Chef, so I also enjoy eating out and savouring different cuisines. Above all, I love animals and spending time with my “furry little companion”, my black cat Ivy, who shadows me everywhere I go.