Who are the NRF Floor Targets Project Team?

Project Manager

Karen Ainley is the NRF Floor Targets Project Manager, moving from two years at CEA as the Gifted and Talented Strand Co-ordinator. (She will only take on roles with peculiar titles.)

She has spent 25 years in secondary education, with a passion for the business of learning, spending time as a Senior Manager focusing on classroom practice and student academic monitoring.

She believes in empowering teams of educationalists to work together to better the experience of students.

Teacher Coaches

Shelagh Kelly holds BA in Economics and a M.Ed in Curriculum Instruction and Administration with professional public and private experience possessing project and management skills in organizational design and training. She developed and delivered internal training of a global Internet consulting company going through significant organizational change and development. Shelagh has travelled extensively studying diverse educational perspectives and methodologies. She currently administers all aspects of the English secondary educational system as a Teacher Coach assigned to EGA and Holloway School. 

Jeff Cole is a Teacher Coach in English and EAL at KS3. He has been a mainstream teacher since 1990 and previous to that taught English as a Foreign Language in Greece and the UK. Before coming to Islington he was in charge of Ethnic Minority Achievement in a large Tottenham secondary school. He is particularly interested in formative assessment and good food.

Kate Maidment works for the NRF floor Targets Project as a Teacher Coach for Key Stage 3 English. Prior to working in Islington she lived and worked in Tokyo and later taught in Newham. She has a particular interest in EAL and Accelerated Learning.

Marie Evans formerly taught in a South-East London comprehensive. She loves the English Language and enjoys writing a great deal. She has had poetry and short stories published by The Woman’s Press, Canongate and Penguin amongst others. She has recently completed her first novel. Nothing satisfies her more than a great piece of student creative writing.

Richard Bramley has been teaching since 1983 and has had a number of roles within schools up to senior leadership level. He is a Teacher Coach for Key Stage 3 Science working with teachers in Islington schools to improve pupils’ examination results. He knows that working as a coach can help improve classroom practice and make a sustainable difference to the quality of teaching and learning. As a teacher coach, he sees himself learning alongside colleagues in the classroom, being able to share ideas and prepare innovative and exciting lessons geared towards enhancing pupils’ understanding of science. 

Steven Downes is the KS3 mathematics teacher coach for the NRF team. He has been teaching for 10 years the last 6 of which he has been head of department in a range of secondary schools both in and out of London. At his last school they achieved the best KS3 results for Islington for the three years that he was head of maths. He is currently working at Islington Green School and Holloway School where his current focus is raising achievement in year 9 ready for the SATS by working with teachers of key groups and providing booster lessons for targeted pupils.

Bridget Learmouth is a KS2 teacher coach, focussing on writing, and work with children in two primary schools in Islington. Before joining the team, she taught in a primary school in Hackney for nine years, where she was deputy head and then acting head for the last year. She has also been deputy head and acting head of a primary school in Islington.

Suzanne Fretwell is a Key Stage 2 Teacher Coach for EAL. She has worked as a class teacher in schools in Haringey, Waltham Forest and Newham.  She was also a Literacy Co-ordinator, and worked as a Minority Ethnic Achievement teacher in Redbridge.

Doris Law works as an NRF Teacher Coach, concentrating on English & Maths at KS2. Previous to this she was a teaching deputy at an Islington primary school. Next year she has been asked to teach full time at Rotherfield School. Her love and expertise is teaching in the classroom - that's where the rush comes from. Her aspiration is to become a part-time teaching head somewhere inner city.

Farakh Akram works for the NRF team as a teacher coach for Maths, key stage 2. She has 11 years of teaching experience, working across the primary age range. She has also worked for the CEA maths and Numeracy team as a maths consultant. She has lived in Islington for the past 17 years and has been working in Islington schools for around 3 years.

Learning Coaches

Jenny Hewitt works as a Learning Coach for the NRF Floor Targets Project at CEA. Her experience in publishing and three years of intensive pupil support in schools have led her to focus on student literacy and in particular, patterns in boys' reading. Jenny is currently developing 'The Book Trail', a project at Highbury Grove School, working in conjunction with the Schools' Library Service.

Nina Rosenzweig works in the NRF team as a learning coach for KS3 mainly based in English. She used to work as a secondary English teacher and also has experience in learning support and EMA. Her areas of interest are EMA and creative teaching and learning.

Project Co-ordinator

Kate Smith has been working for the NRF Project since October 2004. She is responsible for organising the day-to-day running of the project and supporting the team and Project Manager. Having spent three years abroad she has returned home to Islington where she grew up and went to school.

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