I have over 20 years of teaching experience in post-16 education. I have taught on literacy projects in Canvey island; A-levels, Access, Pre-Access, GNVQ, NVQ, GCSE English in London, Buckinghamshire, Sussex, Greater Manchester and currently in Cheshire, where I have been since 2015. My work has been in adult community education, F.E. and Sixth Form College contexts. The common thread running through my life has been reading and its power. When I first left university I worked in bookselling, then publishing, before deciding to throw my hat in the ring to become a teacher. I have been course leader for a variety of English courses; Equality & Diversity Coordinator, enthusiastically involved in Student Voice/ Student Action Research working closely with Sussex University (Michael Fielding and team) and the IOE. I was Head of English at Ashton Sixth Form College for 7 years until 2015. Currently I am working as Director of English at Warrington & Vale Royal College (a new £23m further education college for Cheshire, delivering qualifications to around 10,000 learners) where I am coordinating and managing the English provision across sites; overseeing our reading campaign and the embedding of English skills in all curriculum areas.
A recent blog includes: https://theenglishcuriosityshop.wordpress.com/
My blog reflects many different aspects of my teaching experience and expertise, as well as my experience of being a ‘manager’, across many courses and different types of post-16 provision. Here is an example of one of my blogs that is particularly about the essential provision that the FE sector provides and yet it does not appear to be as valued as it could be /needs to be in terms of status, profile, priorities re ‘ Education’ and funding mechanisms – from Government and ‘all that’ entails…
Post-16 education #FE sector #Cinderella and all that….why teach there?
twitter: @draperel