Yorschool, the home of lively language learning in York and online.
Meet the Team
About Us
Yorschool offers qualified and bespoke foreign language tuition in English, German and French for school pupils and adults.
Founded by a highly experienced, fun languages teacher Rita Bose, Yorschool specialises in student-led language classes to people around the world. Whether you’re looking to practise your conversational skills, achieve a specific grade, gain a formal qualification (such as GCSE or IELTS) or conduct a business meeting in another language, Yorschool will design a language course to suit you.
We’re passionate about helping people develop a love for languages, and offer sessions for:
Students requiring extra tuition to support their German, English or French language learning at school
Students requiring an IELTS qualification to gain entry to a UK university
Businesses providing language learning as an employee benefit or for those who need Business German or English
Adults who need or simply want to develop their language skills
We offer all of our sessions online.
The name Yorschool was born out of the fact that we are a company based in York. We pride ourselves on making ‘Yorschool’ exactly that: ‘Your’ School, because we respond to each of our student’s individual needs.
Find out more about our prices and packages
Meet the Team
Rita Bose,
Yorschool Founder
Fun fact: Rita is a real foodie and avid traveller. She can describe her travels in terms of the best places to eat!
Yorschool founder Rita Bose is a qualified foreign language teacher with many years of professional experience in teaching students of all ages.
Rita was Head of Modern Foreign Languages for 16 years in a North Yorkshire 'outstanding' school, and previous to that, she also taught for 8 years in British Forces schools in Germany (Nordrhein Westfalen). In 2012 Rita was appointed by the government as a Specialist Leader in Education.
In 2017 Rita obtained the CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) qualification, and in the summer of 2018 she decided to leave the state education service to realise her dream of opening her own language school.
““Rita is a very warm person and so she found quick a way into our all hearts. Her teaching was always personalised to each of us. She made us so more confident in terms of using the English language at work, school and leisure. She also helped us sometimes with the paperwork by integrating it into the classroom. My children loved her kind of lesson because they didn’t feel pressured.””
Caterina and her husband came to spend a year in York, as her husband's managerial position at Lidl (in Lübeck, Germany) led to his supervision of a new Lidl supermarket opening in Yorkshire. Yorschool taught Caterina and her two young children English, enabling the smooth transition into education in their new English schools.
Find out more about how our sessions work on The Yorschool Way page
David Key,
Head of Business Services
Fun fact: As a life-long drummer, he’s now learning the piano; so we’re expecting our first Yorschool concert anytime now.
David keeps busy with his own software company, currently holding all meetings online with clients and partners world-wide. However, when he's not thinking about software, he enjoys making new and innovative strategic plans for Yorschool; he was the inspiration and main driving force behind our online school.
As a businessman with various international partners, David understands only too well the impact of Brexit. He sees a real need to show initiative and respect in business meetings by at least attempting to express the 'niceties' in a potential client's language. If you would like to read more about the impact of Brexit, have a look at David's white paper on our blog page, Brexit makes business German critical.
Claudia Unger-Bloor,
Programme- Coordinator for Germany
Fun fact: Claudia’s a passionate baker and her latest challenge for this year is to bake a bread speciality from each of the 27 EU countries!
Claudia was born and grew up in Fürth/Hessen. She studied Italian and European Studies in Glasgow and Florence and lives with her husband and their two children in Staithes, North Yorkshire. Travel and languages are important aspects of Claudia’s personal life and throughout her career.
We struck gold when Rita got to know Claudia in 2019 on a joint venture in Germany and persuaded her to work with us! Claudia has worked hard on translating our website into German, paying close attention to getting all the nuances just right. She has now moved on to liaising with our German schools, parents and business contacts.
If you want to read more about what Claudia has done with North Yorkshire / England and the education sector, take a look at her blog (those of you who are learning German, try the challenge of reading some authentic German!).
Ava Szajna-Hopgood,
Head of Marketing
Fun fact: Ava is currently planning a camping trip in Germany with her best friend, in their converted VW camper van.
Ava is based in London, but loves to travel in Europe as often as she can. After completing a Masters in Creative Writing, Ava works as a copywriter and marketing for arts organisations and creative businesses.
An invaluable part of Yorschool's journey from the very start, we are so blessed and proud to have Ava onboard, as she designed and created our website from scratch. It started from just a few conversations with Rita and since December 2018 it has grown and grown, thanks to Ava's natural intuitive approach and genuine care. In between our website updates, we are very happy that Ava is able to manage all of our UK marketing.
Lady Smokie,
Sleeping Partner / Teaching Assistant
If 10 Downing Street can have a cat, then why can’t Yorschool?
Actually, Lady Smokie is Rita’s 20 year old very vocal cat. She features in most lessons, usually sprawled across the desk or peering into the camera. She's loved by all students and often provides a fun talking point.
Hear direct from our students about their experience with Yorschool
““Rita is a passionate educator with a lot of commitment and empathy. Like no other, she knows how to respond to the individual needs of her students with her tailor-made learning concept and to inspire and motivate them for the language to be learned. In addition, Rita is in constant contact with the parents and keeps them informed about the progress made through permanent updates.
Our daughter was very lucky to get to know and appreciate Rita during her language holidays in York. To this day our daughter continues her language training with Rita in the form of online lessons.””
