Staff Profiles
Year 5 – Year 6
At St Christopher’s, our dedicated and well-qualified team of staff put your children at the heart of everything we do.
Year 5 – Year 6
Victoria Amison
Year 5 VA
Victoria is originally from Macclesfield in the north of England, UK and has a Bachelors Degree in Contemporary Dance Technique from Wolverhampton University. She moved to Exeter to complete her teacher training and started her teaching career as a Secondary Dance and Physical Education teacher. The desire to travel and enter the international education sector led her to move to Penang over 3 years ago. In her 11 years of teaching she has had experience in all fields of education including working with special needs children and working to promote healthy eating across a whole town of both primary and secondary schools. Victoria was also the sports coordinator for her feeder primary schools whilst teaching in secondary and prior to joining St Christopher’s, Victoria ran her own Zumba fitness classes in the UK.
Victoria is married to Matthew, who is a hairdresser, musician and swim coach. They both love South East Asia and still find new places they want to visit.
Andy Russell
Year 5 AR
Andy is from the United Kingdom and has a Bachelor’s degree in Ecology from Middlesex University in London. He worked in a laboratory after graduating and analysed environmental samples for pollution before training to be a teacher nine years ago. Andy worked in his home county of Essex as a class teacher and music teacher in KS2 classes and was responsible for designing and equipping a recording studio in his last school. After travelling around Malaysia in 2008, Andy was keen to relocate here.
This is Andy’s first teaching post abroad and his fourth year at SCIPS. He was married to Jenny in 2014, who is also a teacher at SCIPS. They have just had their first baby who was born in July in Penang. Andy’s interests are mostly music based and he loves to produce acoustic and electronic music
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Jessica Mewis
Year 5 JM
Jessica is originally from the United Kingdom and has a Bachelor degree in Geography and English from Keele University. She then went on to complete her PGCE teaching qualification at Derby University. After teaching for two years in her home town of Burton, Jessica decided to fulfil her ambition of teaching abroad. She has taught for two years in Dubai and is looking forward to travelling within Malaysia and its surrounding countries, as well as learning all about Penang.
Outside of school Jessica loves to exercise, travel, explore different cultures and relax in the sunshine. She looks forward to beginning a new adventure with the staff, parents and pupils at SCIPS.
Jack Martin
Year 6 JM
Jack is from London, England and has a Bachelor Degree in Sociology from Staffordshire University. It was here that he met his wife Jessica who previously taught at SCIPS. During a gap year working as a camp counselor in North America Jack made the decision to teach. Having taught in London for 4 years, specialising in P.E and outdoor pursuits, Jack is now in his 11th year of teaching. He has worked in an international school in Beijing and enjoys all sports particularly running, football and tennis.
Since joining SCIPS in 2012, Jack and his wife Jessica, have had two sons, named William and Henry.
Ashley Byrne
Year 6 AB
Ashley is originally from the United Kingdom and has a BA in Education from the University of Northampton. After training, Ashley taught in Rugby, England for 5 years as both a class teacher and member of the Senior Leadership Team.
He enjoys being creative, active and being outdoors whenever possible. Ashley also has a passion for cars and motorcycles. He loves the challenge of anything mechanical and has built his own kit car.
Having visited Penang many years ago, Ashley fell in love with the island and thought it to be an ideal location to launch his international career in teaching. He is really looking forward to working with the SCIPS family.
Sarah Green
Year 6 SG
Sarah is from the United Kingdom. She has a BA in Contemporary Theatre Practice from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Scotland and then later trained to be a teacher, gaining a PGCE Primary Education from University of Paisley, Scotland in 2005. She remained in Scotland and started her teaching career as a Primary teacher. However, the desire for adventure led her to be a volunteer teacher on a remote island in the Marshall Islands, where she lived and worked without any electricity or running water for a year. Sarah returned to Scotland to teach but her adventurous spirit then led her to Malaysia. She loves life in Penang and has enjoyed working at SCIPS since she joined in 2011. At SCIPS, she was previously the ICT co-ordinator for 3 years and loves integrating technology into her teaching where possible, which has led her to be a Google Certified Educator Level 1 and 2 and to run a Google Education Group (GEG) aimed at developing the use of technology in education. Sarah currently holds the role of IPC Leader in the school. She got married in 2015 to a Penangite and they are now expecting their first child.