Edward Beechey
MA (Hons), Med, PGCSE
Edward graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2009 with a Master's Degree in Modern History. After a year spent making his way across Russia, Mongolia, China, Nepal and India by train, he embarked on a teaching career in East London. Through the Teach First programme, Edward completed a PGCE at Canterbury Christchurch University whilst teaching History and Government and Politics. His three years in London gave him a strong grounding in teaching EAL students, an appreciation of internationalism in education and the belief that all students - regardless of circumstance - have the ability flourish academically.
Edward’s main area of historical interest is the construction and preservation of historical memory within nation states. This led him to the study of modern Chinese History at degree level and beyond. This, coupled with a number of long summer holidays spent in the Middle Kingdom, eventually led to a move to China as the Head of History at Harrow International School in Beijing in 2012. Since then, Edward has served as a Head of Department, Advanced Skills Teacher, Assistant Head Teacher and now Deputy Head Teacher. In these roles, he has developed an interest in Assessment as Learning and Metacognition. He recently completed the Nord Anglia Senior Leadership Programme, researching and writing a professional enquiry on the psychology of predicted grades in secondary education, and is currently completing the National Professional Qualification of Headship (NPQH).
Predictably, Edward is an avid consumer of modern historiography. He enjoys reading works on modern China, and holds a keen interest in the history of memory – particularly in East Germany and the former Soviet Union. These two fields of interest saw Edward co-author a collection of oral histories of the Beijing Hutong with two friends. Away from the books, he is an avid traveller and has recently begun exploring Latin America. Finally, Edward is also a keen sportsman, having played both basketball and rugby to a representative level in his younger years. This included the dubious pleasure of being the first Englishman to captain Scotland Students RFC to a season of straight defeats against the home nations. Although an increasingly wobbly knee has recently dampened his sporting endeavours, Edward has not quite retired from rugby.