At Havant & South Downs College, we have a number of highly skilled, dedicated and passionate teaching staff.
These lecturers go above and beyond to help our students reach their full potential.
We want to shout about these integral members of our HSDC community, so every month we will be finding out about the people behind our teaching excellence with our ‘Staff in the Spotlight’ feature.
This month we are recognising Raquel Cabo-Acosta who is the Spanish A Level Course Manager.
Name?
Raquel Cabo-Acosta
Position at HSDC?
Spanish A Level Course Manager and ESOL lecturer
How long have you worked at the College?
13 years
What are your main roles within the College?
I manage the A Level Spanish course and teach English to speakers of other languages.
Why did you choose the subject that you teach?
I am qualified to teach English as a foreign language but, because I am Spanish and very proud of it, I took the opportunity to teach A Level Spanish where I have the chance to teach my language and my culture.
What was your journey/training before coming to HSDC?
I went to university in the south of Spain and achieved my English language and literature first degree. I was given a scholarship to study in Kingston University (London) for some time.
I returned to Spain to do my PGCE and qualified as a teacher of English. Due to the lack of job opportunities in Spain, I decided to come to the UK on my own and look for an opportunity to teach. After some time teaching in secondary schools, I decided that adult education was what I wanted to do and moved to South Downs College.
There I was given the opportunity to achieve my Level 5 subject specific with the University of Bedfordshire. The chance to teach Spanish arose and I took over the role of A Level Spanish Course Manager where I have had a chance to develop teaching and learning skills through both internal and external providers.
Do you practice the subject you teach outside of work?
I teach Spanish to my children who are being raised bilingual.
What is the highlight of your role at HSDC?
The students. I really enjoy the positive vibes the students give me in class. They tell me my lessons are fun and relaxed.
The students are free to express themselves as long as they respect others’ points of view and often my lessons turn into debates on the topics we study in the specification.
What I love the most is when, at the end of the lesson, sometimes the ask me “are we finished already?, time flies!”.
What kind of careers have your students gone on to do?
Languages, teaching, business.
What three words would your students use to describe you?
Dedicated, fun, supportive.