Chris May obituary

In the 1970s, while studying for an MA at the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas), London, my friend Chris May began teaching English to Vietnamese refugees at Isaac Newton school, North Kensington. His lessons were fascinating and funny, and the students adored him because he treated them with respect. When Isaac Newton amalgamated with Holland Park school in the late 70s, Chris continued this work, finding himself running an English as a Second Language department of 18 that taught more than 500 pupils.

Chris, who has died of leukaemia aged 71, led the department through many storms and was never slow to challenge the sometimes misguided orthodoxies that prevailed in the teaching of ESL at the time.