About

I am a Senior Lecturer in Initial Teacher Education (Primary) and Partnership Manager for School Direct (Primary and Secondary).

Teaching responsibilities

I coordinate the Physical Education for the BEd. and PGCE (Core and School Direct) programmes. As well as this role, I am module leader for the following modules: Subject Pathway – Creative Arts (level 6); An Introduction to Reflective Teaching (PGCE  School Direct, level 6) and Reflective Practice in Action (PGCE School Direct, level 6).

I also teach PE on the Wider Curriculum modules, (level 6) and lead the PE stand of the Subject Specialist Enhancement Module (level 7) for both PGCE Core and School Direct.

I am a PGCE level 7 tutor, supervising students through their Master’s modules: Understand the Child as Learner, and Understanding the School as a Learning Community.  

 I am an Independent Studies tutor on the BEd. programme, supervising final year student dissertations (level 6).

My aim is to motivate and inspire new teachers to be confident and understand how to ‘physically educate’ pupils through becoming physically literate practitioners themselves.

As well as this teaching onsite at the University, I teach across a variety of programmes in our School Direct (PGCE) Teaching School Alliances, with particular responsibility for Fairfields TSA (Northampton), Forest Way TSA (Leicestershire) and Ashmount Encompass TSA (Leicestershire). I also coordinate all of the Mentor training across our growing partnership with TSAs.

Professional interests

Following graduation, I worked as a Primary School Teacher for 12 years, coordinating physical education, art and ICT before becoming part of the Senior Leadership Team for the last five years of my time in primary education. I started working as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Derby in 2008. I completed my MA Education in 2013, researching the confidence and competence of trainee teachers to teach PE in their NQT year.

I have been involved in PE projects with external agencies and other universities, e.g. BUPA ‘Start to Move’ which was collaborative research with the Head of the HEA and 5 other universities nationwide, looking at enhancement of current provision for PE for EYFS and KS1 through university programmes.

Through our Subject Pathway – Creative Arts 2 module, I have worked with a number of primary and secondary schools within our partnership providing workshops for pupils, and also for teachers.

I have offered CPD opportunities (PE) for schools, through Derby County Community Trust (DCCT) at the Ipro Stadium, as well as bespoke INSET for schools who have requested it. I am currently working closely with DCCT to produce, deliver and assess level 5/6 training for subject specialist leaders in physical education in Derby City this year, branching out to schools in Derbyshire and beyond, next academic year.

I am a member of the Association for Physical Education, involved in the promotion of physical education both in schools and universities.

Through my work with schools in partnership, I am currently Chair of Governors at one of our academies within the Derby Teaching School Alliance and I am also Vice-Chair of Governors at one of our Core partnership schools.

I also work with the University of Brighton as the External Examiner for their School Direct salaried route.

Research interests

My Masters research considered the impact of a post course intervention strategy to ‘upskill’ primary non-specialist teachers, in order to enhance their confidence and perceived competence to teach physical education in their NQT year.

As a result of this research, I developed a physical education module within our BEd programme, which incorporated the essential features of the intervention strategy, in order to deliver an effective programme of study for PE.

Other research has been based in the area of SEND. Research focused on support for trainee teachers both at university and within their school placement settings, the impact of school-based mentor development in the area of SEN was also extensively researched. Aspects of this were presented at the TEAN conference in Glasgow in May 2010 and further developments were presented at the TEAN conference in Birmingham in May 2012.

Membership of professional bodies

• British Dyslexia Association
• Association for Physical Education
• Youth Sports Trust

Qualifications

• MA Education
• Bachelor of Education (Hons)

Recent conferences

Presentation at Primary PE Conference – Ipro Stadium Derby – October 2014

Teaching High Quality Physical Education

Presentation at PE ITTE conference, Wolverhampton, March 2013:

Towards a unified approach to teaching PE in primary initial teacher training and education (ITTE)

Presentation at TEAN annual conference, Birmingham, May 2012:

Using ICT to support dyslexic learners in HE

Presentation at TEAN annual conference, Glasgow, May 2010

Using ICT to support dyslexic learners in HE