Lower Secondary
Art and Design

Creative Arts, working with colleagues and pupils to build engaging curricula across creative subjects.

As well as supporting young people in gaining accredited qualifications, I have always loved designing bespoke courses for adults and young people in digital arts, including photography, filmmaking and digital graphics and illustration.

I was lucky enough to work with a herd of 17 Reindeer and 3 Alpacas on a local farm alongside my teaching. We took the reindeer to local schools and public events during the winter months, where we educated young people and adults about these wonderful animals.

In 2019 I took up Bee Keeping. Along with my husband, I now run our fledgling small business making handcrafted products using beeswax. Our recent move to a smallholding in Scotland will allow us to develop our passion for animals and the environment further.

In my spare time, I practice yoga, Tai Chi and meditation and really value the benefits these bring.

After 17 years of teaching Art and Design in a Primary school, I still get excited by a blank page and sharpened colouring pencils. It has been a privilege to introduce new techniques and materials to children and watch them experiment, develop their own ideas and have a lot of fun doing it.

I studied in Bristol and achieved a 1st class honors degree in Fashion and Textile Design. Maths is another subject that I have enjoyed teaching. What I have enjoyed about this subject is the link between method and creativity. I can appreciate that we see and learn new things in different ways and I often found that my visual approach was more effective when children couldn’t ‘see’ a way to work out a problem, it is a wonderful moment when it all becomes clear.

Currently I host foreign students aged 12 and upwards, they stay with my family in our home and I tutor them English. I also organise cultural visits and activities that interest them, I have particularly enjoyed kayaking and tennis matches played with the students this summer.

I love being outdoors and I take most of my inspiration from nature, so it’s not surprising that I enjoy tennis, skiing, swimming, walking and a gentle jog now and then.

I am looking forward to supporting parents and their children in Art and Maths and to encourage a fun, learning experience here at Wolsey Hall Oxford.

My career as an educator spans 29 years, and has enabled me to teach in an extensive range of schools and cultural environments. I began my career as a Secondary Specialist Teacher of Art and Design and transitioned into becoming a Primary Teacher, Online Tutor and Course Writer. I left the UK in 2001 and have lived in seven countries since then, including France, Italy and Malaysia.

As a child, I had a huge passion towards anything creative. Scraps of fabric, cardboard boxes or other found materials, anything that was discarded in my home was never safe. Cardboard, fabrics, beads, paper, anything that I could create with. I was always excited by these simple things and as a Primary teacher I recognise the thrill that children experience when they make and create their own inventions.

I am an avid reader of children’s literature, especially authors such as Philip Pullman and Michael Morpurgo, and have collected many traditional stories and tales on my travels and enjoy sharing my enthusiasm for reading with my pupils. I enjoy teaching all of the Primary subjects, especially now that there is so much information and resourcing available online to enhance the learning.

Today, children can explore space in three dimensions, research ancient cultures, view microscopic images and read any source of information instantly! My teaching career has allowed me to work with children and young people from very diverse cultures and environments.

I continue to be inspired by these children, and I hope I have helped to show them that the world is a wonderful place that needs young curious minds and innovators. I endeavour to make each learning interaction exciting and interesting for children, and often bring many of my own experiences into that learning environment. For example, my time in Borneo gave me a great insight into living in a tropical climate, and experiencing Jungles and Mangroves first hand.

As an online Tutor, it is possible to focus the learning towards individual needs and interests of the pupil. I really enjoy my ‘one to one’ contact with children and they continue to be my greatest source of inspiration to be a better and more relevant educator.

I live in a small town in Catalonia, Spain, called La Garriga, just 40 minutes from Barcelona, with my husband and our 16 year daughter. My husband, Spencer Byles, is a Wild Forest Artist and works on artistic residencies in various parts of the world.

I have been teaching for 22 years now, all subjects and ages in the Primary curriculum. I trained in Cheshire for four years gaining a BEd (Hons) degree. I live and work in the county of Norfolk.

Art and Design has always been my passion. I feel privileged to teach children this subject and love to see Art transform young people’s lives. When children experiment with materials, they are using Art as a form of communication and expression, which in turn helps them develop their imagination and creativity. Most importantly perhaps, children are able to feel good while they are creating, they can boost their confidence, self-esteem, and have a lot of fun doing it.

Maths, Science, History and Geography are other subjects I enjoy teaching. There is so much to learn about the incredible world we live in. Visual learning interests me. We all see and learn new things in different ways. Visual learning helps children see information to learn it, and this “seeing” can take many creative forms.

When I am not teaching, I work creatively with both traditional art and craft skills and exciting new technologies. I love to draw, paint and work with ceramics. I also work with CAD (Computer aided Design) building 3D designs on computer-based software. I love the great outdoors and I take most of my creative inspiration from nature. At the moment, I am focusing on canvas paintings, abstract coastal scenes.

When I’m not being creative, I like to go hiking and paddle in my kayak. I am looking forward to supporting parents and their children at Wolsey Hall.