LINDA DITCHFIELD

I have spent almost the last twenty years working across mixed key stage classes and abilities in a small primary school in West Cumbria. I can teach across the full primary range though I do prefer teaching from year one through to year four, with the majority of my experience in KS1.

That said I am familiar with the three key stages of the primary National Curriculum that includes planning, assessment and using analysis to inform next steps in Early Years, both KS1 and KS2.

During my time at Lowca I have held various curriculum responsibilities and taken the lead in these subjects to train and develop colleagues, trainee teachers and trainee teaching assistants. Taking the lead with subjects helped me to supervise and mentor 'our' Teaching Assistants and to build their confidence and in turn cultivate effective learning environments.

Over the years I became a trusted member of the community, not just a classroom teacher but a person who valued parent relationships as I was always approachable if they needed advice, help with their child's homework or even to explain how some things worked, for example phonics.

With small schools and mixed age teaching, the ability to differentiate planning is important as on occasions I have taught across two key stages. My experience has enabled me to evaluate my lessons as they progress and having the confidence to adapt and be flexible if I feel the lesson will benefit from this. For instance teaching percentages to a group of children who have no or little knowledge of times tables, I would then change to teaching times tables to assess their knowledge before moving on.