A HUGE thanks to all of our contributions from the following teachers and schools. Get in touch at inspire@sjc.ox.ac.uk if you want to join them!
Liz Rayment is a chemistry teacher and Deputy Head of Sixth Form at Cheney School, Oxford, with particular responsibility for supporting students in the Sixth Form facing financial difficulty. With help from local agencies and the 16-19 Bursary fund she has been working to raise aspirations of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and reduce any barriers to learning she observes. Her “go-to” source of stretch and challenge for Chemists is the Cambridge Chemistry Challenge. These problems are brilliantly written and even though they are aimed at students at the end of Year 12 study, she tries to use them as soon as possible during the course as they give even the brightest students a chance to really apply themselves, develop their logical thinking, and also get a feel of what further study might be like.
Rosalind Jack is a Physics teacher at Woodkirk Academy, a member of Leodis Academies Tust. She has worked with Oxford University to support students in researching the electrochemistry of chillies for a number of years and currently runs Key Stage 4 Physics courses and the Tutoring programme at Woodkirk.
Woodkirk Academy is a high performing 11-18 comprehensive with over 1800 students in Leeds. It is a popular, successful and oversubscribed school with a very strong record in academic, intellectual, social, musical, sporting and community developments. Woodkirk has an enviable reputation for being a happy, well ordered community offering a wide variety of educational experiences for all students.
Barrie Hall is the Physics Course Manager and an A Level Physics teacher at Richard Huish College, a Sixth Form College in Taunton, Somerset. He teaches A Level Physics and oversees a course with 200 students across two years of study. He tries to make physics as fun and engaging as possible and many students choose to continue their study of physics and engineering at university.
Sammy Wright is the Vice Principal at Southmoor MAT. He has taught at Southmoor Academy for five years, with a heavy involvement in sixth form throughout his time there. He also delivers Further Maths AS and A Level as a series of lectures at Newcastle University to student from across the region. Within Mathematics he enjoys algebra or problem solving type questions, and also likes seeing the applications of maths to the real world in areas such as mechanics. Outside of the classroom he is a keen runner (he is currently training for the London and Paris marathon) and also enjoys travelling the world and spending time with his family.