I took on the role of English Subject Leader in 2017 has always been a Mathematician at heart, and I can truly say that having worked with Maddy has transformed both mine and my schools teaching of English. Our English results were on a downward spiral with Reading being a particular concern. As a school we accessed Maddy’s year group training and, along with fantastic Subject Leader Days, we began to transform the way we taught reading. Maddy introduced us to picture books as a tool that allowed every child to access our Literacy lessons. We looked at what makes a good reader and we realized that the teaching of reading was so much more than a weekly comprehension. We then began to focus on the skills required. Our reading as a school has improved beyond recognition and it is all down to the training and support we have received from Maddy.
On a personal level I accessed the Excellent English Training in 2019 run by Maddy and, as a result, we now have half termly whole school book weeks, often with texts recommended by Maddy.We have much more interaction with authors and publishers. Meeting and working with Maddy has made me a much stronger Literacy teacher but also much more interested in how Literacy is taught. She is supportive, knowledgeable, kind and a fountain of everything to do with English. I feel very lucky to continue working with her and cannot recommend her highly enough.