Liz Pyne

Liz Pyne - Honorary Teaching Fellow

Liz is passionate about teaching and learning and therefore her post at Princethorpe College as Assistant Head (Teaching and Learning) has become her perfect job! Liz has been a history teacher for the past 23 years and most of her experience was gained at Finham Park School in Coventry. Here she held numerous positions including Head of History, Head of Humanities, Literacy Co-ordinator, Director of Research and Development and Assistant Head in charge of the training school. These varied responsibilities have provided a wealth of experience in the research of pedagogical changes and developments. Liz is a firm believer in creating a mutual learning experience in the classroom for both the pupil and the teacher. In fact, learning only happens when all members of the teaching community have common goals; to provide the best possible experience for young people.

For the past 10 years, Liz has been a Professional Mentor for trainees either on the University of Warwick PGCE Core course or the School Direct route. This has provided great satisfaction in developing the next generation of teachers, and many of them now are colleagues around Coventry. There is a delight in seeing trainees ‘grow’ over time and she enjoys professional mentoring sessions which provide support alongside the university taught course. As part of the Lion Alliance, Princethorpe College now welcomes a growing number of new trainees each year. She is also the Induction Mentor for NQTs/RQTs. Her skills from the Improving Teacher Programme and Outstanding Teacher Programme has also been invaluable when supporting young teachers.

Liz has also been involved with the Embedding Formative Assessment project which has been led by Dylan Wiliam. (SSAT) This has allowed her to work with other schools and provide support for a variety of different formative assessment methods. Continuing her understanding of assessment, cognitive load and metacognition is a key part of her school leadership work, following the work of Harry Fletcher Wood and ‘Responsive Teaching’. The CPD programme at the college revolves around this principle that all teachers need to respond to every child and provide opportunities to develop their learning. The sessions follow a number of pathways to ensure that all staff are catered for; one of the pathways is ‘research’ and this involves delivering up-to-the minute ideas and theories from the world of education. Liz enjoys creating discussion and is a frequent deliverer of TeachMeet sessions.

Liz is keen to expand her work with the University and has already contributed to the Collaborative Development Group on curriculum integration between CTE and schools. Sharing approaches used at Princethorpe and developing use of the partners' intranet to upload resources from sessions for mentors to access and sharing more information about sessions. Exploring the potential for CTE staff to contribute to staff CPD sessions via video links/ pre-recorded presentations, perhaps sharing some of the research used with the trainees.

Liz’s other areas of interest working in partnership with Warwick colleagues include:

contribution to the Collaborative Development Group on assessment;
supporting a review of PGCE assessment processes to reflect practices more closely with those in schools;
a proposed joint project looking at developing integration with the ECF period and the development of a subject mentor network;
continuing support as a long-standing professional mentor;
providing expert advice and guidance on developing school based mentoring and training as part of the Warwick Secondary PGCE program.