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Kirsty McMurdo

Trust Head of Teaching and Practitioner Development
Kirsty McMurdo Trust in a team of seasoned teaching professionals

Before being appointed as the Trust Head of Teaching and Practitioner Development Kirsty was employed at Archbishop Holgate School in York and during her time there was a Head of Department, Assistant Headteacher and part of a Teaching and Learning Team. She delivered whole-school training on effective reading strategies, exam techniques, and marking and feedback; implemented a whole-school marking and feedback policy; worked with members of staff to improve their planning and teaching; led ITT training sessions; and mentored both ITTs and NQTs.

As Head of English, she was responsible for curriculum design from Year 7 to Year 13. She developed a cross-phase approach from Key Stage 2 and 3 to effectively manage pupils’ academic transition. She designed a rigorous Key Stage 3 curriculum that built on the principles of Key Stage 2 and worked with the Primary Consultant for York to quality assure individual schemes of work. The department remained high performing throughout her tenure and achieved a Progress 8 of +0.8.

She was involved in delivering whole-school training; meeting with Heads of Department to create bespoke departmental policies; delivering ‘effective marking’ sessions to ITT students, NQTs and staff who were new to the school; and providing teachers with practical strategies to improve marking. She also led on the school’s involvement as a control school for a FLASH marking trial, which explores the effectiveness of coded marking.

During her employment at the Trust Kirsty has led on a whole Trust reading strategy which has resulted in one school ranked as one of the top 5% in the country.

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