Mark Hooley

My ethos behind teaching and learning I feel emulates any outstanding educational environment – to create an ​inquiry based, innovative and dynamic learning environment for students so that they progress forward in life to ​be independent, active and responsible members of society. I have been a Humanities faculty teacher now for ten years, always lead teaching Geography; with three years of my career being a Head of Faculty and one year being IB Coordinator. Within this time, I have acquired a great level of knowledge and understanding of how the IGCSE, Cambridge International A Level and IBDP programmes operate. I have on a regular basis during my teaching career facilitated all of my Geography students to progress and succeed at all age ranges. Indeed, through utilising a pragmatic and skills based approach my students have habitually shown excellent progress in both knowledge and understanding and their level of geographical application; with my subject results regularly being above the world average in both IGCSE and IBDP programmes. Inclusion of all learners has huge standing within my values and beliefs, so I regularly try to enable access to the topic understanding through the various differentiating techniques I have learned throughout my teaching career. Certainly, I perceive myself to be a very skills based Geography teacher who likes to not only focus on the practical techniques that students need to develop for their assessments, but to also facilitate students on a holistic level, helping them to develop their all round character and problem solving abilities. Unequivocally, highlighting to my students the transference of skills from their other subjects with Geography and vice-versa is also very important to my teaching, as I firmly believe that if students can ascertain the cross overs in their subjects then they can aspire to achieve and understand more, opening their minds to greater interconnections and links across their learning.