After achieving a BA(Hons) in History I completed my Post Graduate Certificate in Education in Secondary History at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1997. I began my educational career in a large Secondary School in the North East of England as an NQT and remained a committed member of the community until our move to Houston in 2015. Over the past 25 Years I have taught History and the Humanities across all of the age ranges including IB and A Level and remain a committed and dedicated advocate for the study of people and their world.
Over my career I have been fortunate to have experienced a wide range of leadership roles. In my early years I developed a love of helping others succeed in education and held several coaching roles and played a role in developing new teachers. In 2012 I was Appointed Specialist Leader in Education (SLE). Designated a specialist in History teaching and Initial Teacher Training I was deployed on a number of school-to-school support projects, helping develop several academic departments and supporting the establishment of teacher training courses and recruitment practices. In 2013, following recognition of Teaching School Status, I was appointed as the Training Manager tasked with developing the School Direct initiative – School based Teacher Training – across an alliance of schools. I was the strategic lead for this programme and in 3 years built a successful 16 school partnership, responsible for training up to 52 trainee teachers in both Primary and Secondary phases. Through the success of this work I was thrilled to be recognized by the Department for Education (UK) and given the opportunity to represent the national teaching community at government level, working with ministers and national organizations to write a set of Head Teacher standards.
In 2015 I made the exciting move to Houston to begin my Bulldog journey and have been a part of the BIS Houston journey over the past 7 years. This is an inspirational school that provides staff and students with a host of opportunities to learn, grow and to serve others. In my time here I have held a number of Leadership Roles. In 2017 I was appointed as the Accreditation Chair, leading the school through the NEASC ACE accreditation process. As part of this role, I completed the NEASC School Visitors training and over the past 3 years I have taken part in 4 NEASC Evaluation visits in Cuba, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and most recently as Lead Chair for a joint CIS/NEASC external visit in Colombia. This has been a valuable learning experience and a huge privilege to be selected to act as a critical friend to other international schools. In 2021 I added Quality Assurance Lead to my leadership role, appointed to establish and embed a community led definition of High-Quality Learning and a process of evaluating the quality of teaching and learning.
As a leader in education, I am a team player and a strong advocate for contributive leadership and the power of effective coaching to empower others to solve problems, self-reflect and realise their potential. I love nothing more than watching others grow and develop and to fulfill their potential.
When I am not at school, I love to spend time with my family. I am lucky to share this journey with my husband Nick and two sons, Sam and Lucas who are both students at the school and committed Bulldogs. We have all grown so much since our move to Houston and are proud members of the BIS Houston community.