Catherine Goulding

I am currently a second year Early Career Teacher on maternity leave who has recently moved back to Wiltshire. I am excited about the opportunity to work at Kingsdown School and to work at such a good establishment with great facilities. I respect the school embedment of respect in the school's policy as it makes all the difference to staff and students wellbeing. My experience has equipped me with the necessary skills to teach students of all age ranges and contribute to a team in delivering exceptional Drama education. I understand how to create a successful department and how a vibrant and diverse curriculum can nurture and grow students into well rounded individuals. As a teacher I am reflective, caring, and deeply passionate about ensuring each individual student reaches their full potential. My commitment to my training and ongoing professional development, would make me a perfect fit the Drama department at Kingsdown School. I am confident that my blend of my expertise in Performing Arts, alongside my collaborative nature will enable me to make a significant contribution to the school's performing arts and English department.

ECT 1stYear Experience

During my time at The Westgate School, I have successfully motivated students to excel in Drama by including a wide range of activities in the classroom that enable students to work together as a team. For example, at the start of the lesson, I always try to incorporate a physical activity that will enable students to be up and communicating, listening and supporting each other to be prepared for the lesson ahead. Drama is a subject where students are required to work together in all key stages, therefore having the activities in the lesson to support this creates stronger and more detailed performances. As well as teamwork, I am passionate about students becoming independent learners who take responsibility for their own learning. I achieve this by developing students critical thinking. For example, when introducing new play texts, practitioners or themes, I use effective questioning, changing the space to immerse students into the play, articles or statements that relate to the themes and use media, such as videos or music that act as a stimulus. These techniques have enabled students to have a better understanding of the play's history, culture and beliefs and more importantly allows students to develop their own opinion and understanding of the world we live in. Ultimately, supporting them to become more independent learners who are confident in their performances.

Throughout my teaching experience so far, I have gained experience in being able to differentiate the curriculum to support all students in the classroom. Since working in Slough in my current position and during my PGCE, I have worked with a high number of PP, SEN, EAL and LAC. This experience has brought many challenges in the classroom but has enabled me to adapt my lesson plans quickly, to think on my feet and to become very emotionally aware. It is vital to me that I understand each student needs in each class to ensure all students gain from the lesson. I achieve this by, consistent and clear expectations, visuals on learning aids, adaptations to reading materials, scaffolding to answers and effective grouping and pair work. I am passionate about removing all barriers to learning in a classroom, by ensuring I know all students to help them achieve their best, regardless of background or ability. As well as this I have understood when students need to be challenged, I have achieved this by having extensions during tasks on the board, to push students who are confident performers to raise the standard of their work. I have also used challenge as a behaviour for learning technique to establish focus and listening skills.

Personal Development at The Westgate School

During my time at The Westgate School, I have developed a strong subject knowledge. I have learnt about the performance, history and business of theatre. This taught me not just the breakdown and study of plays, but also about the development and the research that goes into creating theatre. This is from industry links in the curriculum and visits from professional companies that have enriched the curriculum in the school and students love for theatre. I have also attended acting classes in my personal time. Throughout my career I have attended many classes in the Meisner technique and at the Identity School of Acting and worked in the industry, so I have been able to pass those skills on to help students to develop detailed performances and characters. I have supported students at The Westgate School who have wanted to gain access into the industry by offering support and advice on the possible routes into theatre, TV, and film.

My ambitions as a Drama teacher are to eventually become a head of department. Currently, I am the only full time Drama teacher at my school so I have spent a lot of time developing resources for the department that is going to create exceptional Drama students. I have achieved this by creating a curriculum map that will best prepare students for their future careers. I created the current curriculum map by acknowledging the skills students need in A level then working backwards to their first lesson in year 7. Retrieval practice is installed in all lessons so students continue to build on their skill sets, making transitions to GCSE and A Level with the knowledge and performance skills needed to achieve their best possible grades. As well as this, I have created an assessment guide for the department for all teachers to use, the guide corresponds with the pillars for learning in Drama, so students are aware of all areas they need to work on. This has enabled the department to be consistent when assessing students to maintain a high standard to the departments data collecting.

As well as Drama I have supported the English department this year by supporting students develop tool kits for their English subject. For example, each lesson students learnt a new writing skill in English to better develop their writing. From this, students understood why they were using tools like metaphors and verbs in their work and why they are effective to use in their writing. I can transfer my skills learnt in teaching Drama at GCSE and A Level to English to determine character motivation and intent as well as sentence structure and text breakdown.

PGCE Experience at the Piggott School and Slough and Eton

At both placements I have spent time with students outside the classroom. For example, working at Slough and Eton on a school production of Johnny and the Dead by Stephen Briggs; this involved directing students and helping them make decisions for their character. Therefore, maintaining the skills learnt in drama lessons to strengthen the development and understanding of performance skills. Another example at Slough and Eton is the Shakespeare Festival with KS3, where I supported students in rehearsals. This involved breaking down the text and discussing the themes of the play so students understood what they were saying and why. This also benefits them in their English studies as Shakespeare is the only author that must be studied at school. Being able to put the words and text into practice deepens students' ability to understand the breakdown of the character and intention of the play. During these rehearsals, I established relationships with students outside the classroom. This has benefited me inside the classroom as students can see the dedication and support, I am willing to give to their learning. During my placement at Slough and Eton, I have worked closely with several students who are EAL and have SEN. I have implemented scaffolding into my lessons to accommodate the needs of these individual students, whilst still making Drama creative and engaging. This can be seen through visual aids in PowerPoints, hand out sheets, modelling examples of work and delivering content in small clear exercises, slowly increasing in challenge, to prepare students for assessments. Giving students the best possible chance to improve and achieve in assessment is essential for their learning journey and I have learnt that no matter the social background or ability of a student, Drama offers fantastic opportunities to allow young people to achieve greatness, explore the world around them and make sense of emotions and feelings in a safe and supported environment.

At the Piggott School I have been involved in a KS3 Drama Club. This has included me helping students strengthen the skills they learnt in the classroom. This can be seen through sessions dedicated to script work, devising, physical theatre and character development in a fun, supported and friendly environment. Currently we are working on a workshop production of an adaptation of Hansel and Gretel, this involves students working on the production and the performing. By putting the students in charge of their production, we promote a love for theatre, responsibility for their own learning and the importance of teamwork. In all these examples I have developed students' skills, passion for performing, and enabled the freedom and expression that Drama can offer students in their academic and personal lives. I am constantly looking for new and interactive ways of combining my knowledge of the subject and relating this to students' interests and to their life experiences. For example, when working with KS5 students at the Piggott School I combined physical theatre with social media. This engaged students as they had an opinion on the work they were creating and enabled them to understand new styles of theatre and to find a new way to communicate this. I have really understood the impact and importance of art in young people's lives, and I aim to continue to use this to inspire students to be creative in Drama.

Drama has been a consistent subject in my life and has always given me a sense of belonging, I strongly believe in theatre you are able to develop a strong sense of trust in others and are able create strong long-lasting friendships without judgement. I have also led Drama club at my current school and I have achieved the same results. I am passionate about bringing extra-curricular clubs and whole school performances to any school I work in to give students and the school a feel of togetherness.

Other Professional Skills

My passion for this subject has enabled me to be supportive and hardworking team player that will always support others in the department and throughout the school. I am committed to being an active member of the school community and I am willing to always collaborate with colleagues to enhance the overall educational experience for students. I believe in everyone helping each other to ensure work is completed to the best possible standard and ensuring everyone's wellbeing is always considered. I am an open, caring and understanding person who has a lot of experience with recognising others' emotions. I strongly believe that my skill sets are perfect to contribute to the departments ongoing growth and success.

I have developed my professional skills with other colleagues and mentors. By developing my professional relationships with members of my department, offering support and advice of the curriculum content and support during other lessons. This has been shown by constant communication with other members of the department. Feedback from my mentor meetings shows that I act on the advice they give me and develop my delivery of lessons and discover new ways for supporting students' development. I always maintain my professionalism by ensuring I attend whole staff meetings, staff CPD training sessions and committing to as many duties I can.

I have strong ICT skills that I have been using within my lessons and on school systems. Ensuring homework is uploaded and completed on online systems in schools, ensuring students behaviour around school have been consistent and making progress. An example of this is when I am supporting my tutor group around the other areas of school ensuring they are behaving in other lessons. This enables me to create a strong behaviour for the learning environment because I am dedicated to students in all aspects of their lives.

I would love the opportunity to work at Kingsdown School and feel that I would be an ideal candidate for your school as I have always been dedicated to the importance of having a warm, open, well- balanced environment where students feel supported to maintain high expectations of themselves to achieve greatness. I will provide you with teaching that supports your school's ethos and values. Thank you for considering my application. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this further with you and look forward to hearing from you.

• Art
• Reading
• Sport
• Walking
• Music
• Dance

PGCE- University of Reading

DfE- 2140002

Jon Gargan

Headteacher

The Westgate School

Cippenham lane, slough, berkshire,

SL1 5AH

JGA@westgate.slough.sch.uk

01753 521320

Katheryn Francis

Performing Arts Lead

The Westgate School 

Cippenham lane, slough, berkshire,

SL1 5AH

KFR@westgate.slough.sch.uk

01753 521320