Lucy Wawrzyniak

1. Tell us a little about your current job. What do you enjoy most?

I am currently Deputy Head teacher at a special needs school for children aged 2 to 19 with profound and multiple learning difficulties and severe learning difficulties. It is an area of education that has suffered from lack of aspiration and a day care culture. More recently there have been significant moves to change this and discovering just what our students are capable of is the most exciting aspect of the role for me. Most of our students have a 'spikey profie' so, where they may find some aspects of education extremely challenging, you can find they are incredible artists, dancers, mathematicians etc and we are able to personalise their curriculum and plan for their needs in the way that mainstream education is not. For us, the curriculum is led by asking where our students need to be in adult life, what essential skills (reading, numeracy, independence, resilience, work ready, challenged, fulfilled etc) and this to me is what education should be, an opportunity to develop as a whole person experience as much as possible and have choices in life with the skills to carry them out.

2. I see you have come some way from doing the MTeach, what would you say are the key things about the MTeach that have stayed with you ?

I did the MTeach straight after my PGCE when I was an English teacher in a large mainstream secondary school in London. I think the strongest influences have been to reflect and review. What worked? How do I know? What will I do differently? I am also a strong believer in evidence based practice, so where we are now increasingly in a culture of blogging and quick fix interventions, I believe the MTeach taught me to question context, sources, relevance etc.

A couple of years ago, I was fortunate to be offered a day a week visiting practitioner fellowship at Oxford University, taking the research from the Rees Centre (set up to research outcomes of children in care in the UK) and applying it to practice in schools. I used action research to explore the questions we had, and very much followed the format of a practice based enquiry (PBE) to design and carry out my research. The aim was to encourage schools to question their practice, use evidence, rather than interventions just because somebody says they work, and to think about what is relevant for their students in their context. The result has deepened the understanding of the needs of Looked After children in Oxfordshire and has provided a toolkit for support, it has also contributed to a national toolkit to support the educational outcomes for this group of learners and I feel the skills learned on the MTeach are what enabled me to carry out this project.

3. What did your dissertation/ practice based enquiry (PBE) explore? What did you find out and how did it influence you?

I looked at mastery of challenge in 2004 (before Dweck introduced growth mindset.) I was interested in whether we could teach mastery of challenge and applied this to students coming up from primary to secondary. Do some of them perceive the work, environment etc as harder and what is their response if they do? I was interested in whether this could contribute to the perceived attainment dip between the two key stages and whether it was relevant to build self-concept and self-perception as a learner into transition support.

This was sparked by a very high attaining sixth form student who had a meltdown at every exam. I couldn't understand why and on reading Dweck, was intrigued by the idea that this student may define herself solely through her academic achievement and what we may have done through the education system to contribute to this. On reading Dweck and literature on assessment, I arrived at the focus of my study and am still interested in resilience, motivation and self-concept.

I did find quite a helpless culture but concluded this was more to do with lack of motivation than fear. I asked more questions than I found answers but these were well informed questions and I continue to ask them.

4. How was the MTeach work different from School or other professional development courses (e.g. INSET)?

The work on the MTeach is much more in depth than an inset which can be anything from an hour to a day. It is researcher led, whereas inset still seems to be about an 'expert' sharing their expertise (be in a member of staff or bought in.) Providing the time and teaching the skill of reflection, questioning and how to research are what make the difference. It is cheesy to say it but it creates ownership of the learning if you are able to reflect and consolidate for yourself (the basics of what we are trying to do in school, yet don't seem to apply this to insets).

5. The MTeach is for teachers only. It often uses the sharing of participants classroom experiences/practice as a starting point. How did this work for you?

This provided initial questions and opened up classrooms. A teacher's classroom can be an isolated place and to share other experiences, practices leads to questions about your own practice.

6. What is your next career move?

I have now been appointed as a Headteacher of Special School in the centre of Oxford. It is for students with profound and multiple learning difficulties and severe learning difficulties between the ages of 2 to 19 and I am very much looking forward to starting in September. I also continue to teach as an associate tutor on the MTeach, which I have done since 2004 and this keeps me reflecting and learning every year and I hope to continue to have the opportunity to do this.