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.