About me
Career in Brief
I have been a primary and early years teacher and teacher educator for 33 years; 15 years as a class teacher in Lancashire schools followed by 17 years at Edge Hill University as a teacher educator. In 2023, I joined REAch2 Academy Trust as Regional ITT Lead in the North West and Midlands. During my time in schools, I taught in EYFS and Key Stage 1 and I subject led both English and music. I was a Primary National Strategy Leading Literacy Teacher for Lancashire Education Authority between 2002 and 2005, welcoming teachers from across the county to observe, discuss and learn from my practice.
I joined Edge Hill University in 2005 as a senior lecturer in primary and early years education with a particular focus on the English and music curricula. In 2015, I was appointed to a senior leadership role as Associate Head of Department with strategic responsibility for the quality of learning, teaching, assessment and student experience across the early years (3-7) and primary (5-11) Initial Teacher Education programmes, both the undergraduate BA (Hons) degrees and the PGCEs. In that role I was closely involved in curriculum development, evaluation and improvement, ensuring that our ITE provision met the requirements of the DfE's ITT Core Content Framework and the Ofsted Inspection Framework for ITE. I continued to teach, taking the lead on Systematic Synthetic Phonics with a positive improvement in student evaluations and confidence.
My current role with REAch2 Academy Trust involves strategic curriculum planning and development, and producing training materials for the launch of the Trust's REAchTeach Partnership SCITT (School Centred Initial Teacher Training) programme for 2024-25 academic year. This part time role leaves me plenty of time for my independent consultancy work with schools across the North West and Midlands.
Driven by Story
I'm fortunate to come from a family where stories, rhymes and songs are a part of life; both my parents love language and my childhood home was filled with books, comics, magazines and newspapers. Here I am aged two with my mum having my bedtime story.
The important role of story in the human experience is key in my approach to children's communication, language and literacy development. We tell stories about ourselves and our lives to build and secure relationships, to experience events and emotions from a 'safe' distance, and to help us understand what it is to be a human person. Every child has their own stories to tell; our job (and privilege) as adults is to support them in telling those stories with beautiful and efficient language, and in their own, authentic voices.
I'm currently studying for a doctorate in education with Oxford Brookes University, and my research project takes this interest in story a step further with a focus on the connections between 'lived' and 'read' experiences and how we use them in primary classrooms.
Phonics and Early Reading
I have extensive experience in providing training in all aspects of systematic synthetic phonics (SSP). I very successfully worked with this approach in my own KS1 teaching as a Leading Literacy Teacher for Lancashire Education Authority until 2005, before the DfES commissioned Rose Review of Early Reading of 2006 brought SSP into statutory expectations. Between 2005 and 2022 I worked with hundreds of student teachers across Early Years and Primary ITE programmes at Edge Hill University, developing and delivering effective and very positively evaluated training sessions, online materials and observation prompts and self-auditing tools. I developed a coherent curriculum for SSP training which provided student teachers with a comprehensive programme of knowledge, understanding and skills which integrated with their school-based experiences.
In 2010, writing as Nichola Callander, I co-authored an academic book 'Communication, Language and Literacy' with Lindy Nahmad-Williams. This was an opportunity to really focus my thinking, particularly in relation to the connection between secure phonics teaching and children's early development as confident writers.
Classroom Practice
The children in these photographs are well into their thirties now (!) but I think these photos give a sense of the kind of teacher I am and the kinds of experiences I believe to be important in children's language and literacy education. I have always drawn on my early years background with children's independence and agency and the value of play as key in their learning.
This drawing is from my wonderful 'leaving' album of photos, drawings and written messages from the children in my last class of Year 2 children - I'm playing the guitar. Lots of the messages mentioned 'crazy dancing' and 'beautiful singing'. I composed the songs for several KS1 'shows', including songs for Julia Donaldson's The Gruffalo before she had published her own!
In the next photo, I'm reading a story about a toy dog that falls into a stream and gets carried away: 'You're Safe Now Waterdog' by Richard Edwards. The children, from Deepdale Infant School in inner-city Preston, and I are sitting by the lovely stream in Worden Park, Leyland. Many of those children had not experienced woodland or meandering streams or waterfalls or wooden foot bridges and so stories with those as the setting didn't connect with any of their schemas; reading one of those stories while in the setting gave the children an enriching and memory-making experience. And yes, I did get into the stream with my wellies on and tell the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff with the children on the wooden footbridge! And yes, we did read 'The Secret Path' from Nick Butterworth's Percy the Parkkeeper series in the middle of the maze!
Immersive story experiences
Practical science starters
Here, we're launching a Year 1 science focus on 'forces' we pulled and pushed each other around the playground on the wheeled toys and the breadbaskets and did lots of talking about the difference in effort when pedalling the trike when I was sitting on the back and how much harder it is to move your friend by dragging them in a breadbasket than by pushing them on the trike. The floor book we produced with the photographs and the children's writing and drawing about the experience provided an excellent starting and reference point for what can be a tricky focus to make meaningful.
The Natural Environment
I've had an affinity for the natural environment since I was a small child helping my dad in his greenhouse and garden. I love trees and flowers, water and rocks, birds, butterflies, bees and animals. I like to know the particular names of all of these, so Robert Mcfarlane and Jackie Morris's beautiful book of spell-like poems 'The Lost Words' captured my heart instantly.
I believe that a connection with the natural environment plays a crucial role in children's emotional, cultural and social development and in positive mental health and well-being for all of us throughout our lives. The more we can bring this into the whole curriculum the better - I might look crazy with my hair blowing wild in the south coast wind, but I would love for every child to experience that exhilaration!
Cultural Capital; Social Justice
Between 2018 and 2021, I was a member of the research team on the 'Schools in Residence' project which was a collaboration between Tate Liverpool and Edge Hill University. Through this project, I was able to explore the concept of and theories associated with 'cultural capital' and the fascinating difference between teachers' and children's responses to gallery and museum spaces.
We published a number of articles associated with this project, including one in the Chartered College of Teaching's 'Impact' journal.