Welcome to my website
I am a freelance qualified professional librarian with teaching experience. I have worked in many spheres of education both in the independent and maintained sectors, primary and secondary and more recently for higher education too.
I am passionate about developing information literacy skills, digital and media literacy skills, critical thinking skills and independent learning skills throughout all key stages and having been employed as a teacher librarian. I spent considerable amounts of time in the classroom as well as the library. If by 2025 there will be 25 Zettabytes of information on the internet and we will interact with technology 8K times daily then surely learning to handle and evaluate information becomes akin to learning to speak another language. If technology exists to aid this process and to help encourage creativity in writing then we have to teach these digital media skills ideally through practical or game based learning.
Equally, I am interested in how we communicate and work with others and run courses on people management and student behaviour. This also encompasses areas such as assertiveness, resilience, metacognition and self esteem.
My training style is very practical and you certainly will be actively involved in the sessions that I run. I like to use problem solving, critical thinking and games to help participants understand concepts in preference to just delivering "how to" content.
I can help with consultancy and recruitment for a new school library or development project, training for all members of a school community in digital and information literacy including writing and presentation. I have worked with key stages 2 - 4 and with sixth form EPQ, International Baccalaureate Diploma Extended Essays and Cambridge Pre-U as well as with graduates and postgraduates and professional staff.
My first degree is in Biochemistry and my master's degree is in Information Science. I have a post 16 teaching qualification too. Although I have spent most of the last 20 years of my career in schools, I also have experience of the Pharmaceutical and Financial information sectors and have worked for some time in Qualitative Market Research. I have experience as a Business Development Manager for a library software company.
When I am not being a consultant I play in professional traditional folk music ceilidh bands and singing groups ....but that's another story and another website!
