Meet Ayesha.

Ayesha believes every child has potential, and her role is to help them discover it. She makes learning meaningful by connecting it to real life, so children stay curious and motivated.

Her purpose is deliberately simple: to help children grow in confidence, communication and character. The reading, the writing and the results follow from there.

What that looks like

• Learning tied to something a child recognises from their own life
• Effort named and celebrated, not just the right answer
• Confidence treated as the starting point of progress, not the reward for it

Children learn best when they feel safe, valued and capable. For Ayesha, relationships come first: when a child feels understood, they take the risks that learning asks of them.

A quiet child is never assumed to be a finished one. In her experience the confidence usually arrives before the skill does, so that is where she starts.

What that looks like

• Rapport built from the first week, before the pressure of expectations
• Room to be wrong out loud, then try again
• Talk before writing, so children who freeze on the page still have a voice

Every child can access the lesson once the way in is found for them. Ayesha plans from where each learner actually is and works alongside inclusion colleagues and learning support assistants, so no child is left on the edge of their own classroom.

How the way in is found

• EAL: pre-taught vocabulary, visual word banks and sentence starters
• SEND: concrete resources, modified objectives and personalised targets
• Visual impairment: enlarged, bold materials and an accessible layout
• High-attaining pupils: open-ended tasks that ask them to explain and justify

A safe, inclusive and language-rich space where every child is valued and feels confident to take part. She builds rapport from day one, sets clear routines and celebrates effort as much as achievement.

The best classrooms, in her view, are not the quietest. They are the ones filled with questions, laughter, and children who are not afraid to make mistakes.

What that looks like

• Clear routines set early, so the lesson time belongs to the learning
• Modelled writing, word banks and sentence stems always within reach
• A calm, purposeful room where every child knows what they are doing and why

She approaches every conversation with empathy, active listening and professionalism: understanding concerns, sharing evidence and working together in the best interest of the child.

Parents are told what she is seeing while there is still time to act on it, not at the point where a report makes it official.

What that looks like

• Concerns heard in full before any advice is offered
• Progress shared with the evidence behind it, not just a grade
• Next steps a family can actually support at home

Assessment is for asking better questions, not for labelling children. Ayesha reads screening, reading levels and writing side by side to see who is genuinely progressing and who is quietly stalling, then plans the next week around what they show.

On their own, each measure can flatter or mislead. Read together they tell the truth, and they let her reach a child early rather than at the point of failure.

What she reads together

• Phonics screening and diagnostic assessment to find the gap
• Level Up reading data, with reading level and quiz accuracy read together
• Book scrutiny, because the writing shows what the numbers cannot

Ayesha enjoys mentoring and learning alongside colleagues, sharing resources and practical routines a teacher can use the next morning rather than theory they forget by lunch.

She planned and delivered CPD for around 30 to 35 colleagues, and has led teacher development beyond her own classroom. That work taught her to listen first: the best ideas usually already exist in the room.

What that looks like

• CPD on the Happy Schools and Rigor/Relevance frameworks
• Resources and routines shared in a form colleagues can use immediately
• Consistency built across a year group, not imposed on it

She stays curious. She reflects. She keeps improving through ongoing training and everyday classroom experience, and is not afraid to try an approach she once thought was beyond her.

Moving to the UAE meant meeting a new country’s requirements from the inside: earning her UAE MOE teaching licence (KG to Grade 2) and settling into a new school, while teaching the UK curriculum she has taught since the start of her career.

What that looks like

• UAE MOE licence (KG to Grade 2), earned in post
• Continuing professional development kept current, not collected
• New tools tested against one question: does this deepen the learning?

I teach reading as something you can see, not something you assume. In Year 1 I run weekly systematic phonics (mainly Jolly Phonics, with some Read Write Inc.) alongside guided and shared reading, and I track every child through phonics screening and our Level Up reading data.

• Small-group interventions for the children who need decoding practice most
• Guided reading that builds decoding, fluency and comprehension together
• Reading levels and quiz accuracy read side by side, so engagement is never mistaken for understanding

When a reader dips, I treat it as an early signal and step in before they disengage.

I start with talk. Many children who freeze on the page can say far more than they think they can write, so I grow a plain sentence one step at a time and have children rehearse it aloud before they write.

• Sentence stretching with who, what, where, when, why and how prompts
• Modelled writing every lesson, plus word banks and sentence stems
• Immediate verbal feedback and the chance to edit straight away

With one Year 1 class, 9 of 27 pupils were writing below expectations. After around 10 to 11 weeks, 5 of those 9 were writing expanded, independent sentences. The confidence usually arrives before the skill does.

I use data to ask better questions, not to label children. For Year 1 that means diagnostic assessment, phonics screening, Level Up reading data and book scrutiny, read together rather than in isolation.

On their own, each measure can flatter or mislead. Read together they tell the truth, and they let me reach a child early rather than at the point of failure. I plan the next week around what they actually show.

I plan from where each child actually is, and I work closely with the inclusion team and learning support assistants so no child is left on the edge of the lesson.

• SEND: a pupil on a modified Foundation Stage curriculum, supported with concrete resources and personalised targets; for a pupil with autism, a bespoke story booklet that revisited nouns, verbs and adjectives in a familiar format
• EAL: pre-taught vocabulary, visual word banks, picture prompts and sentence starters, using a child’s home language strategically to unlock a concept
• Visual impairment: enlarged, bold materials, close positioning and an accessible layout
• High-attaining pupils: higher-order questioning and open-ended tasks that ask them to explain and justify

The aim is simple: every child is stretched, and every child can access the lesson.

Technology earns its place only when it does something a worksheet cannot. The test is always the same: does it deepen the learning or just decorate it?

• Wordwall sequencing activities so children retell and predict a story independently
• Wayground (Quizizz) for instant formative feedback that surfaces misconceptions in the moment
• Padlet so every child contributes, including the quieter ones whose voices are easy to miss

If it only decorates, I leave it out.

I lead the way I teach: by making good practice concrete and shareable. I planned and delivered CPD for around 30 to 35 colleagues on the Happy Schools Framework and the Rigor/Relevance Framework, focused on routines they could use the next morning.

Coordinating across a phase in my previous school also taught me to listen first. The best ideas usually already exist in the room; my job is often to surface them, build consistency and help them spread.

A calm, purposeful room where every child knows what they are doing and why, and where I can see the learning move within the lesson, not just at the end of a unit.

My formal observations were graded Outstanding overall, and the feedback I hold on to was about voice, expression and questioning: keeping children thinking and talking. That, to me, is the real measure. Not a quiet room, but a thinking one.

Because getting it right in a new country mattered more to me than protecting a title. At Beaconhouse I had grown from classroom teacher to Subject Lead and then School Coordinator, supporting Lower Primary teachers across Years 1 and 2. Then I relocated to the UAE, and I made a deliberate choice.

• Get into a UAE classroom and earn my UAE MOE teaching licence (KG to Grade 2)
• Rebuild deep, current classroom credibility in a new country before leading within it

That groundwork is now done. I am ready to step back into the leadership and teacher-development work I already love, this time with UAE classroom experience behind it.

I teach because I believe every child has potential and deserves to be seen. My purpose is simple: to help children grow in confidence, communication and character.

Next, I am looking for a school that values evidence and warmth in equal measure, where I can keep lifting literacy results and take on more of the leadership and teacher-development work I already love.