JOYA

BEDFORDSHIRE

Since leaving The Central School of Speech and Drama, I have a successful track record with over 27 years of working continuously within the field of Drama and Theatre Education, working with students from Year 5 to Postgraduate level. In my current role as Head of Performing Arts; I currently teach Drama at KS3 and Performing Arts at KS4. I manage a Drama department as a one-woman department and I also have responsibility for coordinating large-scale Performing Arts productions.

I have also managed 3 thriving Drama departments in 3 counties delivering KS3, 4 and 5 Drama. I am relentless in my pursuit to ensure that compassion and kindness is explicitly taught and role-modelled as essential, building excellence in attitudes both in and outside the classroom. I am a Specialist Leader in Education and Advanced Skills Teacher. I also have the pleasure of collaborating with the Arts Advisors and CEOs in supporting school improvement in Drama.

I share my MA research: Towards an Intercultural Drama Education Model, I encourage teachers to experiment with Drama techniques from different countries to expand praxis and performance repertoire. I have successfully led ArtsMark bids at two schools, achieving Gold ArtsMark Status and am currently working towards Platinum. I have also worked at The University of Northampton as an Associate Lecturer in Education, delivering the pedagogy elements of the GTP and PGCE courses and mentoring new trainees in Drama SCITT, demonstrating a commitment to recruiting and keeping the best teachers in the profession.

I encourage the use of Rosenshine’s Ten Principles of Instruction to inform my own and other’s pedagogy. From my personal experience (with a Bengali Father and Mother from Yorkshire), I recognise that all students are entitled to a rich cultural rucksack and this can be achieved by being introduced to playing with various forms of artistic, and other cultural expressions, to help develop more familiarity with culture and a positive attitude towards it.