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So what do you want to know about me?  I’m a science teacher (another biologist!) who has been working in schools with students for 16 years.  I started off in a mainstream science department (and I have dabbled in ICT teaching as well) where I started to learn my skills and develop my own ideas of what education should look like.  Whilst working in my first school I started to pursue my interest in special needs, developing strategies and resources for students who were left to sink or swim and learning strategies that might help these students make progress.

As I looked for a permanent job I wondered if primary teaching might allow me to follow my interest in special needs, and I was keen to adopt a more holistic approach rather than focusing on a very narrow curriculum subject.  I retrained as a primary teacher, but I realised as the course progressed that although I enjoyed teaching, I was passionate about science education and didn’t want to dilute my focus with all the other curriculum subjects.

I accepted a job in a secondary age special school teaching science (mostly) to children with special needs.  Having never even stepped foot in a special school before, the first few weeks were challenging but I soon found my feet.  I enjoy the mixture of students we get – it’s like teaching hybrid primary and secondary pupils, and I get to focus on both the child and my subject.  I’ve been there over 12 years now and I’ve passed up countless opportunities to move on because I love what I do, and because of the more intimate relationship we have with both students and their parents/carers.

Professional Stuff:

I’m an Advanced Skills Teacher (AST) and have been in post for 6 years.  (For my foreign readers, to be an Advanced Skills Teacher you have to pass an external assessment that looks for excellence across all aspects of your planning, teaching and results and you are assessed by observations, portfolio evidence, results, interviews with you, other staff, parents, students and your head).  My post receives funding from my local authority which allows me to go out of school for a day a week on outreach.  I have been fortunate to meet and work with many departments and teachers across the authority doing a variety of things such as:

• Working across the county to provide science specific training for teaching assistants
• Writing SATs booster programmes
• Providing training for NQTs
• Providing SEN guidance for Science leaders
• Collaborative planning and writing schemes of work
• Sharing resources and strategies for teaching students with SEN
• Carrying out lesson observations and coaching work
• Working to support individual teachers in under-performing departments or individual teachers experiencing difficulties
• Briefing science leaders on new BTEC 2010
• Leading CPD across the local authority’s special schools consortium
• Providing advice/consultancy

I’m passionate about science education and being an AST gave me a chance to focus on both my subject and on teaching and learning in general.  I have my NPQH (the mandatory qualification you need in the UK to be a head teacher) but thought following this path would take me away from the classroom – hence the AST pathway.

I’m also a member of the Association of Science Education (ASE) and sit on the regional committee for the East Midlands.  I’d recommend ASE membership to science teachers of all phases regardless of experience or length of service.

On this site you’ll find ideas, information, advice and photographs relating mostly to science education (and a slight technology focus) taken from my day to day classroom practice.  I also share all of the resources I can – feel free to use these in your own lessons but do read the copyright information first.

Lastly if you have come here for a nosey and want to know more about me as a person – follow the link at the top to the personal blog where I post everything from pictures of my dog to ideas about repurposing old computer hardware you might have at home.  I’m active in a number of places on the internet and you can check out my lifestream (a summary of my activity across the internet) by clicking the link at the top.

Feel free to Contact Me if you have any questions or just simply want to say hi – it’s always good to hear from people who visit my site.