Elaine Morgan

I am a considerate, enthusiastic trainee, who cares about her pupils and wants the very best for them. I recognise and value pupils whilst teaching them that the route to success is through trying hard, being positive and not giving up.   

I strongly believe that all children are individuals, and all should be given the opportunity to feel like a valued member of the school family, to be able to contribute and be heard, and to develop and enjoy their learning and achieve in life

I believe children should always feel safe around school and able to learn in a safe environment. By having a safe environment and high expectations of myself and my pupils it helps to ensure that everyone can aim high, flourish, and achieve. Within my school, I have received excellent feedback on my behaviour, attitudes, and relationships in which I will continue to develop in the future.

As a Mathematics specialist I have benefited from high quality teaching delivered by North West Learning Partnership (NWLP) and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). I am a firm advocate of the Mastery approach and very early on started to use the techniques and appropriate manipulatives in my maths lessons to great effect.

I have the same passion for teaching English, encouraging the practice of reading for pleasure at every opportunity. I have used reading aloud, role play and story-telling to engage and motivate my class and to create exciting writing opportunities.

I also plan and practice my questions and questioning techniques in all my subjects, recognising the benefits of using questions to activate prior knowledge, prompt to practice language, build up competency and fluency, and develop problem solving skills.

Pupils have made progress during my time at the school as determined by summative assessment and positive feedback in my observations from my mentor and our maths lead in school.

I believe outstanding teaching is achieved when the whole class is catered for in terms of meeting their learning needs and in relation to acquiring and embedding new learning. Also of importance is the need to keep all students motivated and on task. Learning should be highly engaging and there is also a need to tailor teaching to cater for all, and provide scaffolding to aid in accessing learning and support all learners. Also key to success is teacher modelling, asking questions, generating discussion, encouraging, and valuing pupil contribution and guiding independent learning, with achievement and effort recognised and celebrated in every instance.

Drawing on my analysis skills from my previous career, has also enabled me to develop good assessment skills in my teaching to optimise planning and intervention to ensure that pupils are on track to progress. I was also able to enhance school performance monitoring and make reporting easier using business intelligence best practice. More recently, I was able to support the school in setting up an effective tailored accessible online learning platform during the recent remote learning phase.

Many thanks for taking the time to read my personal statement.