Meet The Team

Helen Prochazka is a leading expert in Montessori education. She set up Montessori Partnership in 1997, following a successful career in teaching and academia.

Helen currently serves as a Council member for Montessori Education (UK), having previously chaired the organisation. She is an active writer on Montessori methods.

Helen has a PhD in Russian, a PGCE in post-compulsory education and training, and diplomas in early years and primary Montessori education. She is also a qualified NVQ Assessor for Early Years Care and Education Awards and has worked as an Early Years Professional Status Assessor.

I am Anthony Mathews, B.A. (Hons) in German (Newcastle-upon-Tyne), PGCE (Birmingham), MA in Comparative Literature (East Anglia), PhD (East Anglia).

I am an outsider to Montessori but, as a member of the Assessment Board, I am interested in contributing what I can to the development of the scheme. I have taught English as a Foreign Language (in Austria, West Africa, Germany, Morocco and Tunisia) and French and German (in Jersey and currently for the U3A).

I was an associate lecturer, I.e. tutor, for the Open University for sixteen years on the MA in Humanities Programme: the Postgraduate Foundation Module in Literature, the subject module on Poetry and Criticism, 1830-90, and supervising students working on their MA dissertations. During this period, the OU started to transfer to online resources, including the online marking of essays and supervision. I retired just at the moment they were going over from face-to-face tutorials to video conferencing.

I have also worked as a translator, mainly from German into English, of works on topics related to art and cultural history. I have always been interested in intercultural relations and consider that the learning of languages should be encouraged, not just for practical reasons, but as part of mental and social development