Helen Harper
Director of teaching · Process Design Certificate lead
Helen spent fourteen years in fine chemicals manufacturing before building Cedarfield’s studio curriculum. She still marks every final design package personally.
About the school
Cedarfield Chemical Engineering School Ltd is the official registered business name of our teaching practice. We opened in 2011 to give chemists, technicians, and early-career engineers a place to learn process work with real equipment, not only lecture slides.
Origin
The school began when two chartered process engineers, tired of seeing capable laboratory chemists freeze in front of a blank flowsheet, hired a small teaching bay near Stratford. Early cohorts were evening groups of eight. Demand for daytime studio time and pilot-plant access led us to our present rooms at 2 Glasshouse Gardens in 2016.
How we teach
Sessions mix short technical briefings with supervised calculation, drawing, or apparatus work. Faculty stay in the room while learners struggle with a recycle loop or a sticky distillation start-up. Visiting plant engineers join design critiques so feedback reflects operating reality as well as textbook method.
Values we keep visible
- Small cohorts so every learner presents work aloud
- Safety language that matches UK plant practice
- Honest fee and refund terms published before enrolment
- Laboratories maintained for teaching, not for show tours alone
People you will meet
Course leads combine industrial plant time with teaching hours on campus.
Marcus Owen
Laboratory tutor · Plant Operations Workshop
Marcus ran shift teams on a solvents plant before joining the school. He designs the pilot-plant scenarios used in the four-day operations workshop.