Email: sarah.brooks@stmarys.ac.uk
Tel: 020 8240 4288
Biography
Sarah is the head of department for all Primary routes into teaching at St Mary’s.
Sarah joined St Mary’s fourteen years ago as a Visiting Lecturer, working on both the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Education, Early Years and Numeracy, and subsequently made the transition to become a full time member of staff. After a period teaching primary history, across the department, she joined the team delivering the Education in Context foundation degree. Her work on this programme, which not only offers HLTAs the opportunity to study alongside their employment, but to top up their foundation degree via the work-based route, to gain a BA Hons with QTS, has helped to make this a distinctive, and widely respected cluster of programmes, for which she subsequently became programme director. After this Sarah was appointed Academic Director for Primary Education.
Sarah’s own route into teaching began as a student on the BA(QTS) with History at St Mary’s, and continued with a highly successful period as a class teacher in a primary school. During this period Sarah took on a range of roles and responsibilities including Key Stage Two coordinator and assistant Head Teacher.
In addition to these duties within the school community, Sarah has held a variety of external roles including working alongside OFSTED inspection teams, and acting as a leading mathematics teacher for her local education authority. It was in this latter position that Sarah was asked to contribute ideas for the Edexcel examination board and to model best practice for effective maths teaching as a local authority advisor. She was also able to contribute her passion for each individual child to reach their potential within a community as part of the Healthy Schools programme, which was devised to examine ways to promote a healthy lifestyle.