Catherine Sharples

Personal attributes and technical knowledge

I work equally effectively as a team member, sharing professional discourse and exchanging ideas and resources, or autonomously using my initiative and regulation to produce optimum results and am passionate about working in an environment where the pursuit of excellence, quality, and support, are central I have had extensive experience across different educational organisations and aligned with teaching have had to carry out general administration and record keeping duties and become proficient in the use of different Microsoft packages and databases I use SIMS, Teams, Promonitor and EduLink on a daily basis to keep student records and monitor performance and attendance

I am looking to embrace a new challenge so that my professional capabilities continue to grow as I am extremely passionate about making a difference to young people’s lives and feed off the positive energy they give when they realise that they, are capable of, reaching their full potential The Covid pandemic, sadly had a significant impact on our young adults, in terms of mental health, motivation and gaps in learning, and required me to analyse data as a catalyst for action and produce a 'Gaps and Recovery Plan’ to help facilitate emotional resilience and provide the building blocks for my students, to make progress and fulfil their individual potential regardless of starting point This required perseverance and continual monitoring and reviewing in order to improve outcomes and enable me to target support more effectively In my previous roles I have also been accountable for the in-depth analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data and the production of honest and reflective Self-Assessment Reports (SARs) and Quality Improvement Plans (QIPs)

In terms of safeguarding, I continue to have full DBS clearance and recognise the need to maintain professional boundaries with all young people I work with I adhere to my duty to report any concerns relating to safeguarding and know that I have a duty to inform students who are making a disclosure to me, that I need to share their information In adherence to the school’s code of conduct, I challenge inappropriate behaviour in a calm and professional manner and report all serious issues to my line manager and where appropriate, our designated safeguarding lead This knowledge is refreshed annually as it is essential that teachers are aware of any new or developing safeguarding issues

Interpersonal Skills and Communication:

Although I do consider myself to be quite a quiet and gentle person, with strong integrity, I am appropriately assertive and have good interpersonal skills and a sense of humour These enable me to build constructive, open, and honest collaborative working relationships with colleagues across different departments and at different levels and with my learners Student voice and lesson observations for appraisal purposes, highlight that I am an authentically open and approachable professional “who shows the desire to go the extra mile for her students” and one who promotes a “warm and positive atmosphere in the class” I believe in adopting a holistic approach when facilitating educational engagement so that both hearts and minds are nourished and young people feel that they are being nurtured and supported on their journey Even when the workload is demanding, and I feel under pressure, I still maintain an authentic enthusiasm for my role and relentless drive to ensure that I always do my very best

Essentially, I hold a profound conviction, to nurture young people to believe in themselves and develop morally, culturally, and spiritually, into well rounded, confident citizens of the world, by maintaining a culture of high expectations, mutual respect, and positive encouragement