About us
Our work group is composed of people with professional experience in various fields, from teaching to finance, from law to public relations, who volunteer for the school.
Emanuela Federspil Bernstorff (Chair of the Board of Trustees)
Laura Arcelli-Fontana (aka Laura Marani) (Headmistress)
Ines Saltalamacchia (School Secretary)
Francesca Nelson-Smith (Trustee)
Raffaella Celia (Trustee)
Ernestina Meloni (Trustee)
Alberto Pravettoni (Trustee)
Silvia Carrara de Sambuy (Trustee)
Domenic Pini (Trustee)
Giuliana Falbo (Volunteer)
Adriana Brancaleone (Volunteer)
Marcella Lardeo Marcello (Volunteer)
Arturo Tosi (Patron)
Emanuela Federspil Bernstorff
Emanuela is the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the charity “La Scuola Italiana a Londra” and she has been the president of the committee “Una scuola per gli Italians” since its inception. She put together the group of voluteers who worked on the project and coordinates it. She is responsible for dealing with the Italian Authorities and Institutions as well as the Italian community at large and she is involved in fundraising.
Emanuela read Law at the University of Bologna, has a master degree in Communication Strategies and External Relations at Burson-Marsteller Milan and attended a postgraduate program on Marketing Strategies at the London School of Economics.
She worked as marketing and external relations consultant until 2003 both in Italy and UK.
Emanuela is a member of the Board of Governors of St. Joseph’s RC Primary School in Maida Vale, London.
Laura Arcelli-Fontana (aka Laura Marani)
Laura is the School Headmistress.
She joined the project in November 2005.
Laura was born in Piacenza and moved to Britain when she was 4 years old. She was educated in an English convent school and at an international and multilingual school in Switzerland.
She worked as an interpreter until she married and had two daughters, then she attended London University as a mature student where she obtained her degree in Education in 1978.
Laura taught at Pembridge Hall School for Girls for 23 years, nine of these as Headmistress, during which time the school was consistently in the top three London primary school.
Laura is currently a Governor of Queen’s Gate School(a charity), and a senoir adviser of Hurlingham School and a Governor of Notting Hill Preparatory School were she has played an integral part since its conception.
Ines Saltalamacchia
Ines is the School secretary.
She has been involved in the project since March 2006.
She graduated in Philosophy at the Università degli Studi in Milan, where she also took a MSc in Information and Communication Technology for Human Sciences.
She worked as editor and website editor at the Enaudi Scuola Editorial office in Milan. From 2001 to 2004 she worked as researcher at Università degli Studi in Milan and at the King’s College of London, obtaining a PhD in Logic.
Francesca Nelson-Smith
Founder of the project la Scuola Italiana a Londra, Francesca has devoted her spare time to the idea of opening an Italian school in London for many years. Finally in 2004, she came across the “Italians of London” organisation. With their support and the help of Emanuela Federspil the “A school for the Italians” commission was founded and a team of volunteers to work on the project was put together.
Today Francesca and Emanuela are still co-responsible for the management of the team and Francesca’a duties focus principally on the school premises and fundraising.
Francesca is a PR and marketing consultant. She graduated in Philosophy and Modern Languages (French) at Oxford University in 1989. She started her career as a bi-lingual magazine and book producer for an anglo-italian publisher in London. Subsequently she specialised in the production of promotional events for the SMH-Swatch Group. In London she has worked on a number of charity and business projects.
Raffaella Celia
Raffaella joined the project in October 2006 and her main contribution is advising on the acquisition of the school premises and other legal matters.
She graduated in Jurisprudence at Padua University.
She qualified as an Italian lawyer in 2000 and as a Solicitor of England and Wales in 2003.
From 2002 to 2008 she practiced as a solicitor in the property department of Withers LLP.
She specialises in commercial property for corporate clients, although she sometimes deals with private individual on property and related tax and planning matters.
Raffaella is a member of the British Italian Law Association.
Ernestina Meloni
Ernestina joined the project in January 2006 and focuses on developing the teaching programme.
She graduated in Modern Languages at Cagliari University and completed a Masters Degree in Applied Linguistics at Birkbeck College, University of London.
Ernestina has been teaching the Italian Language in the UK for the past twenty years in Oxford and in London. At present she is a teacher at the American School in London.
She is an active member of ALL, (Association for Language Learning) and a member of CILT (The National Centre for Languages).
In 2004 Ernestina won the European Language Award and an Italian Embassy Award for teaching languages through movement and dance, which became a teaching model in the UK. In 2004 she was knighted by the Italian Government and her title, Cavaliere all’ordine del Merito della Repubblica Italiana (OMRI ), is the highest recognition for service to the country.
Most recently, Ernestina has been appointed, as Principal Moderator of Speaking, for the Italian language, for the new national exams, ASSET, Cambridge University. In 2005 she received an award from Chicago University for Best Teaching Practice Awards.
Alberto Pravettoni
Alberto has been involved in the project since November 2005, and his main focus has been on the financial business planning.
He graduated in Business Administration at L.Bocconi University in Milan, and attended a post graduate program on Management in Global Enterprises at the American School of International Management (Phoenix, AZ).
Alberto has worked 13 years as a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, where he was the Global Head of Fixed Income Operations. Now he is a Managing Director at LCH.Clearnet, where he is the Head of Group Corporate Strategy and Ltd Commercial Services.
Since 2003, he sits on the Board of Trustees of “La Scuola d’Italia G. Marconi” in New York, of which he is also the Treasurer. In 2004, he has completed a “Nonprofit Leadership Program” at Harvard University, specifically designed for Trustees.
Silvia Carrara de Sambuy
Silvia joined the project in November 2005 and focuses on developing the teaching programme.
She graduated in Humanities from the l’Università Cattolica in Milan and did a M. A. at ISMO on training and human resources management. She also did an M.A. in Game Theory and Strategical Thinking at the London School of Economics.
Slivia published several papers on comparative European education systems. She has lectured since 1995 on education and training at the l’Università Cattolica in Milan, Faculty of Educational Science, Department of Pedagogy. She also works with two consultancy firms in the same area and was responsible for training at Kraft Foods in Italy.
Domenic Pini
Domenic joined the team in 2010 to help on legal advice and fundraising.
Domenic was educated St Georges College Weybridge, Surrey and Cambridge University.
After many years working for a number of practises in London he is now Partner of Pini Franco LLP.
Domenic was Chairman of the British Italian Law Association 1984 to 1996 and former President of the City of London Rotary Club.
Now he is President of the Mazzini Garibaldi Club Limited and Council Member of Business Club Italia as well as Freeman of the City of London and a member of the Parish Group of the Church of Our Lady Lisson Grove, London.
Giuliana Falbo
Giuliana joined the project in December 2009 supporting the team with office management and the running of fundraising events. She graduated in 1995 from the Universita’ degli Studi in Naples reading Economics and the following year qualified as a Chartered Accountant. She has over ten years professional experience in the banking sector. Her career began in Communications & PR at Citigroup, subsequently she assumed responsibilities for Management Training as a course organizer and trainer/facilitator this time for a major Italian bank. Giuliana now resides permanently in London . At present she is involved in various voluntary projects with local charities for the improvement of Social and Healthcare services. Most recently she was elected on the Steering Group of Westminster Local Involvement Network (LINk) and holds the seat of representative for Younger People and Children.
Adriana Brancaleone
Adriana is a member of the “fundraising committee” of Scuola Italiana a Londra since October 2007.
She graduated in Law from Siena University in 2002. After moving to the UK, in 2004 her interest in human right and a scholarship from Westminster University led her to undertake field research on the death penalty in the Philippines. She currently lives in London where she works as a Trust Fundraiser for Breakthrough Breast Cancer, the leading breast cancer research charity in the UK. She has been a Member of the Institute of Fundraising since 2005.
Marcella Lardeo Marcello
Marcella joined the project in 2007, and she is mainly involved in fundraising.
She read Law at the University of Palermo where she graduated in 1995. She qualified as an Italian lawyer in 1999 and in 2002 as a Solicitor of England and Wales in the UK.
Marcella worked for an Italian law firm in Italy, and in London she worked for LCA and, briefly, for Withers LLP.
Arturo Tosi
Arturo Tosi is Patron of the charity “La Scuola Italiana a Londra”.
He was born and raised in Italy but has taught in British universities for many years. He has published widely in the field of linguistics and has taught in several universities in Europe as well as in Canada and Australia. He is now Professor of Italian at Royal Holloway, University of London, and holds the Honorary Chair in Italian Linguistics at the University of Siena. He is also Visiting Professor at the University of Santiago (Spain) and Opava (Czech Republic). In 2004 he was awarded the title Ufficiale al Merito della Repubblica Italiana for his contribution to Italian language and culture abroad. Arturo Tosi is devoted to the cause of Italian culture in Europe, and the UK in particular, and has set up a number of initiatives to support the teaching of Italian language in schools and universities. He has set up a profitable Summer School the income from which amplifies the resaerch fund of the Italian Department at Royal Holloway and enables it to offer new scholarships and bursaries for research and doctorate students. He has also run for many years resaidential courses in conjunction with the Italian Cultural Institute for the in-service training of teachers of Italian in Britain.
To read about the HISORY of the project click here.
