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SLE Support

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SLE Support
  • Our Pool of SLEs
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All schools within Forest Learning Alliance have access to our pool of Specialist Leaders of Education.

Typically, SLEs will work with middle and/or senior leaders to undertake the following:

  • Carry out diagnostic visits.
  • Develop action plans, identifying key priorities and SMART targets.
  • Provide one-to-one or group support.
  • Offer coaching and mentoring support.
  • Provide access to resources and training.

The ultimate aim of SLEs will always be to contribute significantly to improving the outcomes for children through developing the capacity of peer leaders in other schools. To find our more about our SLEs, please read the biographies available on this website. If you would like to utilise the support of any of our SLEs, please contact us to discuss your requirements through the normal contact information.

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David Page

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School Jennett's Park Primary School
SpecialismMaths
Support PhasePrimary
PositionDeputy Head Teacher
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Someone asked me, “what is my 5 year plan for mathematics?” and I responded with, “I’m not sure, I don’t have 20:20 vision !! but, it will be exciting mapping it out together.”

Prior to becoming an SLE I have been lucky enough to be a lead teacher within Bracknell Forest. Through this role I have worked with a number of different schools in different circumstances, but all showed an increase year on year in their attainment in end of Year 6 SATs results with one school making improvements of 12%.

I have worked with subject leaders to empower them to drive mathematics in their school.We have looked on quick wins through number fitness and longer term foundations through setting calculation policies. “Dave was inspirational, challenging and provided thought provoking questions throughout our sessions.” “We learnt so much together!”

I worked for 9 years in a double outstanding school where the maths journey was vast, we started in a position where results flirted with the floor standard and when I left, the school was regarded as one of the top 150 schools in the country.

I currently work at a school in special measures and I can honestly say that I completely appreciate and understand the challenges and actions that are expected in these circumstances.
I am an affiliated numicon trainer and have a real passion for the models and images behind mathematics.

Finally, I am hugely excited by our new curriculum and hope that it will finally provide the vehicle for us to get the right balance of reasoning and problem solving within our lessons. I look forward to helping to bring mathematics alive.

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Mark Hamilton

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School The Piggott School
SpecialismMaths
Support PhaseKS1 & KS2
PositionKS2 Leader & Year 4 Teacher
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I have been teaching for 11 years and have worked in a variety of settings including private schools, inner town schools in Reading and Wokingham and I am currently working in a 1 form entry Church of England School in the village of Charvil. I have lead maths in my current setting for 4 years, implementing a mastery approach to the teaching of maths. This has had an impact on the attainment (shown through our school’s data) and enjoyment (shown through pupil voice questionnaires). I also have recent experience of marking Year 6 maths SATs.

I believe that all children should be given the chance to achieve their full potential through a mastery approach of high quality maths teaching. I enjoy sharing my experiences of mathematics teaching and practice with other professionals and enabling them to maintain and improve standards of mathematics teaching within schools. This is achieved through a mixture of supportive observations, learning walks, coaching, sharing of successful practice and frank discussion regarding strengths and weaknesses of mathematics teaching.

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Zoe Ayers

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School Harmans Water Primary School
SpecialismMaths
Support PhasePrimary
PositionAssistant Head Teacher
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Since becoming a teacher in 2008, I have worked in 2 large primary schools, each having different focuses and areas of improvement. Both of the schools I have worked in have been on the improvement journey to get to ‘Good’. This has been a valuable learning experience for me and I understand the hard work and commitment that has to go into turning a school around. From working in the two schools it has also given me teaching experience in all primary phases, which has proved to be valuable in the many roles and responsibilities I have had.

I currently work at Harmans Water Primary School as an Assistant Head Teacher. I have many roles that come into this including CPD for teaching staff, mentoring NQT’s and students, Whole Education Champion and Maths Co-ordinator. As part of our school improvement, I have had to transform the maths curriculum in my school. This involved creating medium term plans that ensured the curriculum was covered for each year group and gave teachers detailed notes to support their weekly planning. I have run staff CPD to improve subject knowledge and looked at the progression of Maths through the school. A big part of changing the curriculum was ensuring manipulatives and pictorial representations were used throughout the school and that everyone understood the smaller steps needed to master a skill. Over the last 3 years this work has changed how Maths is taught in our school and we are seeing the rewards in our data.

The journey of developing the Maths curriculum was a challenge I really enjoyed and it was this work that made me want to become an SLE. I am really passionate about the work and the improvements we have made in our school and to have the opportunity to work with other maths co-ordinators is really exciting. We are all here for the children and ensuring that we can offer a high quality curriculum that develops their skills and understanding is something that is really important to me. I look forward in sharing my experience and working alongside you to support the Maths improvements in your school.

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Alexander Peaple

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School
SpecialismEnglish
Support PhaseKey Stages 1 & 2
PositionDeputy Head Teacher
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Since graduating from the University of Brighton in 2008, I have been fortunate enough to work in a variety of schools, each with its own very different profile, challenges, opportunities and priorities. In the last few years, my roles have included Literacy Co-ordinator, lead teacher for Rights Respecting Schools and Assistant Head Teacher. While I have enjoyed aspects of all of these roles, it is in my new position as Specialist Leader in Education for English where I feel I have found the right balance between leadership and classroom practice.

As teachers and school leaders, we are working in a time of some uncertainty and constant change, though I also believe we are in a very exciting phase where we, the teachers and educators, are leading the way and exploring the best methods to inspire our pupils to be life-long learners.

I have worked in my current school, Wildmoor Heath in Crowthorne, for three and a half years. I joined in January 2012 when the school had just been placed in Special Measures. It is through the hard work and positive attitude of every staff member and the appointment of a dedicated and inspirational Head Teacher that we have, in a relatively short space of time, become a ‘good’ school. Some of the key changes I have initiated in the school include the introduction of individual Reading Target Cards, a new approach to writing (which mainly draws upon the work of the fantastic Pie Corbett) and individualised Writing Target Cards. At this time, we are exploring these strategies and working as a team to find out what works, what requires adaptation and what needs a total re-think!

With the introduction of the new curriculum and the life after levels initiative, it is vital that we share best practice and support each other to improve the outcomes of the children in our schools.

I am extremely passionate about all aspects of English and am very excited about working with other schools and having professional conversations about teaching and learning. I look forward to meeting with you and hope our partnership can bring about a positive outcome for both parties.

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Elizabeth Riley

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School Meadow Vale Primary
SpecialismEnglish & Assessment
Support PhaseKey Stages 1 & 2
PositionEnglish Co-ordinator & Year 6 Class teacher
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Ruth Deacon

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School Uplands Primary School and Nursery
SpecialismEnglish & Grammar
Support PhaseKey Stages 1 & 2
PositionDeputy Head
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Since graduating with a degree in French and German in 1992, I have been interested in language: morphology, etymology, phonetics, syntax and semantics. Learning two foreign languages gave me an insight into the workings of the English language and thus fuelled my interest in English language and grammar.

As English Subject Leader and Year 6 teacher, I have made a significant contribution to improving the quality and consistency of the teaching of spelling across the school by creating and implementing a school-wide scheme of work for spelling, punctuation and grammar that has now been embedded across all Key Stage 1 and 2 classes. This has ensured that children of all abilities have exposure to the statutory spellings and the content of the Spelling Appendix in the National Curriculum. In order to improve standards in the teaching of grammar, I also collaboratively devised a glossary of grammatical terminology that shows the progression of learning through the school. This has enabled all staff at Uplands, including support staff, to be able to teach grammar to a high level and to have high expectations of all pupils. Standards in literacy have improved across the school and pupils performed significantly better than the national average in GPS and writing in the End of Key Stage 2 assessments in 2016.

In 2015-16, I was appointed as an external writing moderator for the borough of Bracknell Forest, celebrating the success of schools’ writing as well as offering practical advice to local schools on how to improve standards. Following this, I took a lead role in in-school moderation, and have subsequently designed and implemented a system of moderation that is robust and rigorous.

My outreach work to date has included conducting a writing review for a local school by analysing data and suggesting improvements, and planning and leading training on the teaching of grammar, punctuation and spelling.

As a teacher, I share a common goal with others in the same profession: to provide the pupils in the school in which I teach with the best possible education. I believe that, as an SLE, I have a duty and a responsibility to work collaboratively with colleagues in other schools to work towards the collective goal of enhancing and enriching the education of all children, rather just those in my immediate school environment.

I understand that teachers’ and leaders’ strengths lie in different areas, and that giving and receiving professional expertise and coaching in a particular area in which one is less confident is an invaluable tool to help upskill others and improve standards in teaching and learning.

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Sian Karamalegkos

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School Holly Spring Primary School
SpecialismEarly Years Foundation Stage & Phonics
Support PhaseEarly Years & Key Stage 1
PositionDeputy Head Teacher
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I have been working in Foundation Stage for 6 years now and in that time I have seen many changes in the Early Years Foundation Stage and the expectations of children when they leave Early Years. These changes, I believe, have caused a lot of practitioners to return to more formal methods to ensure, in their minds, that children progress at an acceptable pace. Through my role as a moderator, for the Local Authority, I have met with Early Years teams that feel this way and I have tried to help them see that these new Early Learning Goals can still be achieved through following a true Early Years ethos. I believe that this can be done by promoting independent learning, developing child led planning, creating quality provisions and nurturing creativity and high levels of motivation. I would like to participate in system leadership as I would like to support schools and Early Years teams to recognise that they can support children and ensure they progress through the Early Learning Goals while maintaining a creative, fun and child led practice as I believe that it is only when we harness learning to the children’s interests that we truly see them flourish and develop to create a well-rounded learner.

I also believe that with these changes in the Early Years Profile, Early Years teams are feeling pressured to generate data and she progress in line with the systems that are used across the other Key Stages. This is predominately a pressure that is put on Early Years teams by Head teachers and assessment coordinators in schools who, themselves, do not understand the Profile completely and how it can be used to show progress and attainment for Ofsted and be used as a tool for creating a baseline in Year 1. I would like to support these leaders in understanding what it possible within Early Years so that they can support their teams rather than adding pressure.

Personally, I am interested in system leadership as I feel that a great way to develop ourselves is to support others. I have been a leader for some years now and I am looking at my next steps in my own professional journey and I feel that this experience would provide me with a wider knowledge and breadth of experience.

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Emma Britton

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School College Town Primary School
SpecialismEarly Years Foundation Stage & Phonics
Support PhaseEarly Years
PositionAssistant Head for Standards & Outcomes
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I graduated from Bath Spa University in 2009 and started my teaching career in Bracknell Forest. My passion has always been working in the Early Years as I believe they are the most important years, providing a foundation for future learning.

During my teaching career I have been very fortunate to complete various training opportunities.I have completed my Forest School Level 3 Practitioner training and enjoy running this programme at my school. I have also completed a coaching course and have found this skill incredibly useful when working in a team or mentoring students or NQTs.

I am currently the Assistant Headteacher for Standards and Outcomes at College Town Primary School. I am also a EYFS Moderator and EYFS Lead Practitioner for Bracknell Forest. I find it very rewarding to visit other schools and share ideas with others. I am really looking forward to working alongside other schools within Bracknell Forest to ensure that the children that we teach have a rich and varied educational experience.

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Alex Powley

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School The Coombes C of E Primary School & Keys Academy Trust
SpecialismCurriculum
Support PhasePrimary
PositionDeputy Head of The Coombes C of E Primary
Director of Learning for the Keys Academy Trust
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I currently work at The Coombes CofE Primary School as Deputy Head Teacher with a responsibility for improving the quality of teaching and learning as part of the school’s journey to getting to ‘Good’. As part of this role, I am responsible for the development of CPD for teaching staff, mentoring NQT’s and students, diagnosing the quality of teaching and learning and developing the whole school’s curriculum. As part of our school improvement, I worked with the teaching staff to ensure that our curriculum breadth supports the school’s vision and that sequences of learning build upon prior learning. As a result of this, I led CPD on teaching approaches that work well across the curriculum, including planning for cognitive load and introducing retrieval practice as an element of our curriculum design.

I also work as Director of Learning for the Keys Academy Trust, in which I fully involve myself in the research and planning of curriculum frameworks, in readiness for the new Ofsted requirements, and have developed materials for schools across the trust in preparation for this. I have a deep interest in theories of learning and memory and seek to implement research on these areas to sharpen a school’s focus on the subject content they prioritise. My current projec in this role is developing a vocabulary framework in a collaborative project with schools inside and outside of the trust.

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