Ms Barnard, Teacher

“I have developed my skills as a classroom teacher and a leader at Harris Lowe Academy Willesden. I have formed life-long friendships with colleagues and had the pleasure of watching eight years of students flourish and succeed. It is a transformative place to work.”

My first leadership opportunity came in my second year as Lead for More Able pupils where I also completed the SSAT Leadership accreditation and introduced an ‘asset’ group programme for our most able students, alongside a variety of other initiatives.

As More Able Lead, I was able to provide students with a different experience of school life through super-curricular activities, allowing me to also form strong relationships with these students beyond the classroom and help them to achieve their full potential. I felt it particularly important to work on developing student oracy and independent learning skills, invaluable life skills, through debate and discussion, and many of these students are now aspiring to, or already, studying at top universities.

Following this, I worked as assistant head of Year 11, a role which helped me gain crucial pastoral experience and gave me a holistic view of the external examination preparation and process from a non-subject specific lens. Again, this role provided the opportunity to form stronger relationships with students as you guide them through both their academic and personal development, with a real highlight being the end of year celebrations of graduation and prom, which we planned as a Year 11 team each year.

Alongside this, I joined the English leadership team as KS5 Lead and then 2nd in charge. The English team are now and have always been undeniably the most wonderful part of my job at the academy. Even with changing staffing over my eight years at the academy, the team has always worked as a cohesive unit, with curriculum at the heart of everything we do.

I became Head of English three years ago, and hugely benefitted from coming into this role in a school where I was so familiar with our students and their contexts, our curriculum and as part of a Federation where I had the unique benefit of invaluable consultant support through the early months in my new role. The English consultant support provided by the Federation is undeniably one of the biggest benefits of being part of the Harris fFederation, and I continue to learn and develop through their network meetings and CPD sessions.

Through each of these roles, I have been able to explore the landscape of education through different lenses and continue to develop my skills as a classroom teacher and a leader. I have also formed life-long friendships with colleagues and had the pleasure of watching eight years of students flourish and succeed. HLAW has really been a transformative place for me to work and progress in my professional career.