English Home Language MasterClass IEB

The English Home Language MasterClass Series was produced to highlight, clarify and refine the most important concepts and skills required to navigate the examinations, as outlined in the Subject Assessment Guidelines (SAGs) for English Home Language. With its main focus largely on answering technique, the Series aims not only to address the challenges in each of the examinations (Paper 1: Reading and Viewing and Paper 2: Writing and Presenting) but also to engender in the students an empowering sense of confidence. Each video is presented by highly qualified, highly experienced teachers who provide insightful advice and hints in their individual areas of expertise. Students who choose to work through the Series, or parts thereof, stand to gain immensely in terms of their examination preparation.



Tayla Blaire Kaplan is Redhill’s IBDP English Language and Literature teacher. After completing her BA in English and Psychology as well as her Honours Degree, she completed a PGCE and taught at Crawford College Sandton for five years. In 2019, she completed her IB training and joined the Redhill family in 2020. She has just qualified as an IB Examiner, marking student work from around the globe as part of the IB international team. Tayla assists with public speaking coaching and runs Redhill’s Creative Writing Club, helping students learn to love the power of words. Tayla has also written extensively for local and international publications.

Natalie Sherman began her career in education by completing a Bachelor of Arts Degree, with Psychology and Italian as majors, at Wits University. A further Honours Degree in Psychology followed, from the University of Johannesburg; in addition, as part of her training for a Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology, Natalie completed a Psychometrics internship at Tara Children’s Clinic.  Prior to starting a Master’s Degree, she was also required to complete a teaching diploma, which she did at the University of Johannesburg; it was while she was on her Teaching Practical at Redhill High School (her alma mater) that the teaching bug bit and Psychology was abandoned.

Natalie has been teaching English at Redhill School for twenty-three years; she is passionate about her subject, her school and her three sons - currently in Grades 7, 10 and first year at UCT.

Tino Pinheiro has been teaching for 37 years and has 26 years’ experience of IEB Matric English Home Language. He has been on the IEB marking panel for PAPER I for 16 years and has also been a PAPER I Senior Sub-Examiner for 15 years. In addition, Tino worked for the IEB as Oral Moderator for 11 years.Tino has been invited and presented at numerous IEB Subject Conferences, both regional and National. At Redhill School, he was Head of Department – English Home Language from 2004 to 2007, when he was appointed Deputy. Tino’s personal philosophy i.r.o. English teaching – “The secret lies in teaching students to fall in love with words and to invent their own personal ways of arranging them. When a student grows appreciative of words, and writing, he or she begins to engage with writing and to identify as a potential ‘writer’, and resultantly all other areas of English begin to benefit greatly. So let’s teach writing, and more writing, and even more writing.”

Vaughan Carlisle began teaching, as so many do, in a large government school, Northcliff High, in 1993. After bouncing in and out of teaching for a number of years, editing a magazine and running a corporate training and educational development company, he settled at Crawford College Sandton before relocating to the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal. Kearsney College was Vaughan’s introduction to the IEB and he has been flying ever since. Desiring to be at a more innovative school, and being a city boy by heart, he returned to Johannesburg in 2017, having accepted a position at Redhill School, as Head of Department: English Home Language.

Micaela Browde completed a BA in Psychology and English Literature at Wits University in 2014. Between 2015 and 2018, Micaela led an informal-education focused youth movement, completed her PGCE with distinction at UCT, directed an education-based upliftment programme in rural Kwazulu Natal and completed her first formal teaching stint at Reddam College Constantia. In 2019, Micaela returned to Johannesburg and took up a position as English teacher at Redhill School.

Digby Ricci completed his B.A. Honours at the University of the Witwatersrand and his M.A. at the University of Toronto. He went on to lecture at Wits University and at  RAU (as the University of Johannesburg was known in the 1980s); later, he accepted a teaching position at King David High School, Linksfield, where he also acted as Head of the Department of English; before his current appointment at Redhill School, Digby was Head of the Department of English at Roedean (South Africa) for no fewer than seventeen years. In addition to his lecturing and teaching, Digby also edited an anthology of writing about Johannesburg, “Reef of Time” (Ad Donker:1986), and he co-authored, with Mrs Jennifer Addleson, a guide to correct language usage, “Writing Wrongs”  (Academica: 1989). In partnership with Hilary Semple, he has co-edited two Bankside editions of Shakespeare texts (“Romeo and Juliet” and “Othello”). He is a popular guest lecturer on literature and cinema and presents “Brush Up the Bard” lectures on You Tube. Currently, Digby is employed at Redhill School, as a subject expert in English.