About Us
Gail Ellis is a picturebook devotee and has been working with picturebooks since 1989 when she set up Penguin Jeunesse, a publishing section of Penguin France to promote the Puffin collection of children’s literature into schools in France. This led to the publication of The Storytelling Handbook for Primary Teachers in 1991. She opened the first Teaching Centre for the British Council in France in 1998, specialising in teaching children and teenagers, and was awarded an MBE for her services to the teaching of English to young learners in the Queen’s Birthday Honours Awards in 2004.
In 2011, she became responsible for ensuring Teaching Quality throughout the British Council’s global network of Teaching Centres. Gail now works as an independent teacher educator and adviser. Her main interests include promoting learner agency and children’s rights, using a picturebook-based pedagogy, and embedding inclusive practices and teaching quality in early language learning. She is a member of the Editorial Review Board for the Children’s Literature in English Language Education Journal (CLELEjournal). Gail is a winner of the British Council 2024 ELTons Outstanding Achievement Awards.
Gail and Tatia are two of the co-founders of Picturebooks in European Primary English Language Teaching (PEPELT), a finalist in the 2020 British Council ELTons Awards for Innovation in Teacher Resources..
Tatia Gruenbaum taught EFL, EAP and ESP at a number of higher and further education institutions in London and in the Netherlands. Over the years, Tatia has been part of several successful, international projects. In 2013, Tatia founded a not-for-profit project called The Little English Library in the Netherlands which was short listed for the School Library Inspiration Award in 2015 and for a British Council ELTons Award for Local Innovation in 2016. As a member of the Avans Expertise Centre for Primary Teacher Education, Tatia was part of the ICEPELL Erasmus+ project which won the 2024 ELTons Award for Innovation in Teacher Resources.
Tatia holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics and is now a visiting researcher at the TU Braunschweig (Germany), based in the Netherlands. Her current research focuses on visual Holocaust children’s literature (picturebooks) in ELT to support Global Citizenship Education in the upper-primary & lower-secondary ELT classrooms. She is also a member of the advisory group for the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education Kindertransport Educational Programme. In 2023, Tatia co-authored a lesson series with Gail Ellis for the British Council, exploring the theme of economic disparity.
Tatia and Gail are two of the co-founders of Picturebooks in European Primary English Language Teaching (PEPELT), a finalist in the 2020 British Council ELTons Awards for Innovation in Teacher Resources..
Gail Ellis
Tatia Gruenbaum
Gail Ellis is a picturebook devotee and has been working with picturebooks since 1989 when she set up Penguin Jeunesse, a publishing section of Penguin France to promote the Puffin collection of children’s literature into schools in France. This led to the publication of The Storytelling Handbook for Primary Teachers in 1991. She opened the first Teaching Centre for the British Council in France in 1998, specialising in teaching children and teenagers, and was awarded an MBE for her services to the teaching of English to young learners in the Queen’s Birthday Honours Awards in 2004. In 2011, she became responsible for ensuring Teaching Quality throughout the British Council’s global network of Teaching Centres. Gail now works as an independent teacher educator and adviser. Her main interests include children’s rights, picturebooks in primary ELT, young learner ELT management, and inclusive practices. She is a member of the Editorial Review Board for the Children’s Literature in English Language Education Journal (CLELEjournal).
Tatia Gruenbaum taught EFL, EAP and ESP at a number of higher and further education institutions in London and in the Netherlands. In 2013, Tatia founded a successful not-for-profit project called The Little English Library (www.littlelibrary.nl) to support young English Language learners, speakers, and primary teachers in the Netherlands. The Little English Library project was short listed for a British Council ELTons Award in 2016 and for the School Library Inspiration Award in 2015.
Tatia holes a PhD in Applied Linguistics and is now a visiting researcher at the TU Braunschweig (Germany), based in the Netherlands. Her current research focuses on Holocaust literature (picturebooks) as part of Global Citizenship Education in the upper-primary & lower-secondary ELT classrooms. She is also a member of the advisory group for the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education Kindertransport Educational Programme. In 2023, Tatia co-authored a lesson series with Gail Ellis for the British Council, exploring the theme of economic disparity.
