Personal Development, Philosophy and Aspirations...



I would describe myself as dynamic, reflective, resilient and inquisitive. I am a clear and deep thinker. I believe in personal evolution both for myself and the students I teach.  I have a concrete belief in the potential of all young people.

As a teacher I strive to form a space in which deep learning, that meets students varied needs, can occur. I plan, research and hope to facilitate students in their journey to becoming skilfully independent, creative and responsible. I intend to create a context in my lessons in which excitement and wonderment are rife.  The notion of imaginative communities is at the heart of my practice. Through rigorous and informed planning, I endeavour to build a constructivist environment in which student and teacher take on the responsibility for quality.

During my first and second placements, I have developed schemes of work in both Design and Technology and Art, these schemes of work in effect promote autonomy, breed creative thinkers, team workers, investigative and independent enquirers. Whilst on placement as a Design and Technology and Art Teacher and in the role of Form Tutor and Personal Development teacher, I have maintained high expectations of every student. I believe that young people should have the opportunity to make choices with regard to levels of challenge. I thrive on seeing a student invest in knowing, exhaust ideas and think creatively.

Whilst on my second placement I have developed a Textiles Club during ‘Wider Curriculum Time’. During my first placement I worked in partnership with the Design and Technology department delivering two STEM days. This enrichment demonstrated to me the value of collaboration and cohesion of students, staff and subject areas. I have implemented dedicated after school and lunchtime gatherings in which students can develop ideas and refine their work. I also regularly work alongside the English department as I am inherently interested in words and literacy, I see it as imperative that literacy skills are applied in other areas of the curriculum.  Recently I have developed a series of creative starter activities to be used throughout school in other subject areas.  These are having interesting and in most cases great results in terms of progress within whole lessons.  

I have experience of teaching KS2, 3 and 4 Art and Design. I am currently working on an intervention project with my Year 9 Art class in which I am attempting to use craft to overcome creative reluctance. This has been of particular interest to me as I have been able to implement my own knowledge and passion for body adornment and jewellery design, combined with my experiences of teaching Textiles and Art.  I am seeing some wonderful results with these students; I found that introducing textiles and ‘making’ through a series of starter activities gave students higher levels of self-belief and motivation.  I have seen these students gradually transfer the skills used in a snapshot at the beginning of a lesson into whole lessons and furthermore through to coursework.


I see great value in displaying student work and exhibiting it in exciting ways for the whole school to share in.  I encourage and expect students to take on the role of curator or fashion show organiser.  During both placements I have facilitated students in producing innovative, high quality coursework. I have tracked student progress, shared assessment criteria and taken part in communicating this to parents and carers during both placements at Parents’ Evenings and Options Evenings. I place great importance in students knowing what they need to do to achieve their goals and in helping them to visualise and reach ‘outstanding’.

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