We might not be the largest school in Jarosław, but we are mighty!

Witam. A few words about me.

My name is Craig Robins, I'm from London and yes, I love schabowy.

"Proszę pana powiedz coś po polsku....proszę, proszę......"

I've been living here in Jarosław now for some time now since 2009 actually and we have been running our school here ever since. My mantra is 'Relax...no stress'. I know that we get the best from our students when they feel comfortable and relaxed, feeling calm is the key to communication, breaking down walls that stop a person from progressing. I like to think that I make my students feel 'at ease' even if they have little or even no experience with English. Yes, even if a person, (young or old) can't communicate we are still actually able to have lessons together. Children for example. When we first meet, They look confused, they look to their friends for help and well, sometimes this helps a little, but generally, they observe my lips and see my gestures, and over time, a month or two, their eyes move from my lips to my eyes. It's at this moment that I know we are moving forward in a good direction. Of course, all while they are saying.."Proszę pana powiedz coś po polsku"and I try Stół z powyłamywanymi nogami.... I normally fail, but they prefer if I do and to be honest, I just love watching the kid's faces as I struggle with Polish pronunciation....it's priceless!

"Relax....no stress"

Unfortunately, I'm still quite far from where I should be with my Polish skills with even my 7-year-old daughter asking me to stop speaking in Polish as it embarrasses her. Krok po kroku, I guess I do find it tricky!

Always moving in the right direction

I trained to teach English as a foreign language back in London many years ago and over the years I've taught all age groups including adults of course. The one thing we all do as adults is ask questions....."Why is it like this in English...it isn't like that in Polish." This is a common question. The truth of the matter is that it....'it just is' and it's when we question things or compare a language to our own, we just literally slow down our progress as a result. We have no problem in telling our children not to be nervous or don't worry about making mistakes but unfortunately, we don't tend to listen to our own advice and curl up into a ball when we might have to use another language at work in front of our workmates in that team meeting or presentation. I really do try to encourage all my students every step of the way to allow them to bring down that barrier which really does have a negative impact on their confidence and in doing so it really pushes them forward to free-flowing and interesting conversation.

Proud as Punch

Many of our students have grown with us of course, and we are incredibly proud of both them and our teachers when we see the results first hand of the achievements they have made in English.

Our students regularly tell us that they have got some of the highest marks or grades in tests and exams in class and even for their whole year in their school.

We continue to learn as times change and adapt our methods to the challenging world around us.....but I'm really very sorry....Phrasal verbs are here to stay! ;)