Having worked in 3 different secondary schools for over 15 years I still believe that teaching is the best job in the world.
At heart I am a History teacher, but my first role beyond working in the classroom was when I became an Advanced Skills Teacher. This involved developing the expertise of teachers across my school, and in schools across the Local Authority of Barnsley. With this came exciting professional development opportunities which broadened my horizons to influencing positive change at whole school level. Beyond this initial role, I became involved in Senior Leadership roles as an Assistant Headteacher at Campsmount in Doncaster, only to return to Barnsley as Vice Principal of Darton College. Such roles have been challenging, yet extremely rewarding in terms of affecting the educational outcomes and experiences of students – this is still a job that I love.
My interests revolve around pedagogy, leadership and new technologies in the classroom, and using these to redefine what we think is possible in schools. Developments in technology are helping us to rethink the relationship between the traditional notion of a teacher being the font of all knowledge, and I believe that exciting times lie ahead with regards to this evolving paradigm.
I feel really privileged to be associated with the XP Trust – they are people that I believe in, and I believe in the aspirations that we are setting for ourselves at XP East. None of the above has come easy to me, but I believe that hard work and determination can help you to achieve beyond what even your inner self thought was possible.
I can’t wait for XP East to begin the adventure on August 29th 2017.
The culminating event to our staff induction is an Educator-Led Conference, where staff prepare speeches, critiqued by their peers, which answer the guiding questions:
“How have my ideas about teaching and learning changed during this induction process and have I changed as a person during this induction process?”
Below is Mr Portman’s speech: