Grammar School of Andrej Kmeť is not unique only in English and Russian bilingual sections but also with foreign pedagogical employees, Andries Peter de Haas and Arthur John Paul Wood, whose teaching and educational process is specifically in the English language.

        Andries Peter de Haas was born in Leiden, a small university town between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. After finishing secondary school, he started studying chemistry at the Free University of Amsterdam. This study was supposed to prepare him for a Master degree in Environmental Sciences. He decided to switch over to Biology. He opted for solitude by focusing on the Theoretical Biology (at the same university). He finished one internship at his own university and one in Christchurch, New Zealand at the Canterbury University, and graduated as a biologist specialized in theoretical biology and plant ecology. As he had been involved in teaching mathematics as a student assistant, he decided to continue with one year educational course (again at the Free University in Amsterdam). This is the place where he met his Slovak wife. They both worked there as teachers for several years. While his wife spent these years at one school, he taught at several schools (and several levels of education). Apart from teaching, he was also involved in writing teaching materials for the innovated national biology curriculum and he was a member of the team responsible for the construction of the national biology exams. At the same time, he became father they decided to raise their children in a more rural environment than the urban environment. They moved to the village in Slovakia. After settling down in and working for IBM in Bratislava, he returned to his former profession: teaching natural sciences. Now, he is presenting his knowledge at the Grammar school of Andrej Kmeť in Banská Štiavnica. He likes reading but he is mainly interested in outdoor activities (like gardening, hiking and cycling) and that is the reason why Slovakia has definitely more to offer him than the Netherlands.

 

         Arthur John Paul Wood was born in Birmingham (England). He has always been fascinated by literature and art, which encouraged him to study humanities at the University of Huddersfield and he was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He developed a big interest in teaching and because of his love of travelling, he wanted to share his university knowledge with students who are not native speakers. He attended a course at Trinity College in London which allowed him to teach English as a foreign language. In Slovakia, he was working at first in Bratislava but  an opportunity to teach at a university sent him to Banská Bystrica, where he worked at the Department of English and American Studies at Matej Bel University. He focused on subjects like English literature, the History of Great Britain and British studies and the History of the United States. Now, he is teaching conversation classes and English literature at the Bilingual Grammar School of Andrej Kmeť. His main interests are reading, classical music, landscape art, writing poetry and discovering foreign lands. His varied experiences are revealed in his educational methods and style.