Curriculum Vitae

Claire Heathcote
87 Real De Los Reyes
Depto D1
Coyoacan
Mexico DF
CP 04330
Mexico
Email: happyclaire@hotmail.com
Tel: 0052 1 5517302501

Education
Southampton University, University Road, Southampton SO17 1BJ:
PGCE (Primary) with French Specialism
BA (Hons) Music 2:1

Colchester County High School:
A-Level
B French, Music, Practical Music
C General Studies
GCSE
A* Spanish (2006)
A* Music
A Mathematics, English Literature, English Language, French
B Biology, Chemistry, Physics, German, Religious Studies


Current School

El Colegio Britannico (The Edron Academy) Calz.Desierto De Los Leones 5578, Col Olivar de Los Padres, Mexico DF 01740

• Bicultural school teaching children according to both the English and Mexican education systems.
• Majority of Mexican children learning English as a Second Language
• Nursery, Kinder, Primary and Secondary school accepting children from the age of one to eighteen (International Baccalaureate)

Current Position

Head of Music (Primary and Kinder)
• Teaching music to 15 classes from year 2 to 6 once a week, supporting the use of music in the primary classroom, overseeing the teaching of music in the Kinder and conducting whole-school singing assemblies
• Producing shows at Christmas and Mother’s Day

Secondary music teacher (years 7 and 8)
• Teaching 6 classes of year 7 and 8 children music twice weekly.
• Co-Producing Christmas Concerts and an annual School Musical

Tutor of Year 7
• Pastoral role helping children with the transition from primary into secondary and supporting them through Year 7

Previous School
Eveline Lowe Primary School
• Inner-city London school with some very challenging behavioural problems.
• Excellent Ofsted report with a particular focus on the school emphasis on teaching emotional intelligence
• Large proportion of EAL children and very wide cultural diversity within the school

Previous Positions held
Music co-ordinator
Year 5 and 6 class teacher
Experience
The two years I have spent teaching music in Mexico have been incredible. It has been a fantastic opportunity to develop my skills as a music teacher and also to learn to speak a new language.
In my role as Head of Primary music I have taught twenty five classes of children from the age of three to eleven. I relished the challenge of teaching the tiny Kinder children as I had previously only taught Years five and six. It was an excellent opportunity to develop my EAL teaching skills as most of the children are unable to speak English at all when they first start school. Music proved a very valuable tool for developing their basic language skills. To help their class teachers, I invented a number of songs for basic instructions so that we could learn them together and the teachers could use these songs in class.

Teaching Secondary music was also a new experience for me and it has been very valuable to see the transition that children experience from Primary to Secondary and to help them through it as a tutor of Year 7. It has greatly developed my confidence in teaching music to a higher level and I have gained a great deal of experience through conducting workshops in African Music, Calypso and Blues amongst others. It is in Secondary that I began to be more adventurous in my use of ICT and I am now using ICT confidently in all areas of the school. It has been a great teaching aid both when composing, listening and when learning about music from other cultures.

During my time here I have been lucky enough to have the chance to develop my passion for drama and dance through the numerous shows we have put on in Kinder, Primary and Secondary. The pride and excitement on the faces of the children when their audiences applauded them was inspirational for me.

So far, we have produced six shows in Kinder, eight shows in Primary and three in Secondary and we are now gearing up for the Mother’s Day shows! The most exciting of these productions for me has to be Chicago, which we produced in February of last year. It included a huge cast and I was able to pursue my passion for music, drama and dance to my heart’s content! The children were fantastic and there is an equal amount of enthusiasm for this year’s show, Seussical which we are now rehearsing frantically!

Another aspect of my role as head of Music has been to train other teachers in teaching music and to encourage the use of music as a teaching tool across the curriculum. In my opinion, 35 minutes of music is nowhere near enough, but teachers often lack self-confidence when teaching the Arts. To this end, I have run a number of staff development sessions and have also gone into classes and given example lessons. On top of this, the teachers are always encouraged to come to my lessons and join in the fun!

I have always been very interested in the teaching of Special Needs and would value an opportunity to explore this interest further. In my previous school I had a high percentage of SEN children in my class as well as one child with autism and one child with ADHD. This gave me a positive experience of teaching children with SEN and showed me just how much difference a structured school day and an organised class room can make – as well as a great deal of patience and care.

I am aware that teaching in a tough Inner-city school greatly developed my behaviour management skills and feel far more confident in my ability to manage difficult behaviour as well as inspiring deprived children to have a love of learning and a wish to succeed in all areas of education.


Professional Development
Courses delivered:
Bringing Music into the Primary Classroom
Let‘s Get Singing! (Kinder)
Courses attended:
Using Critical Skills in the Classroom (Edron)
Using ICT Creatively (Edron)
Drama as a teaching tool (Edron)
Brain Gym (Edron)
Digital video in the classroom (Southwark LEA)
Arrangements for SATs course (Southwark LEA)
Helping your children to achieve their best in Yr 6 (Edexcel)
Music Co-ordinator Singing Schools 5 day (Voices Foundation)

Other Interests
My A-Level in French encouraged me to take part in a pilot project during my PGCE which involved teaching in a school in France for a month and teaching French lessons during my placements. This resulted in a specialism in French and a responsibility for the introduction of French in Year 6 in my last school.

Having now spent two years in Mexico I am able to speak Spanish confidently and have completed two intensive courses in reading and writing, passing both with 90%. I would love to find a school now in which I could teach Spanish, either as part of the curriculum or as an extra-curricular club.

Having always been a keen reader, literature is another passion of mine, and I enjoy encouraging my pupils to become equally passionate about books.

References
Mike Spooner
Head teacher
El Colegio Britannico
(The Edron Academy)
Calz.Desierto De Los Leones 5578
Col. Olivar De Los Padres
01740 Mexico DF
00 52 55 55851920
information@edron.edu.mx
(Current Headteacher)

Gary Foskett
Head teacher
Eveline Lowe Primary School
Marlborough Grove
London
SE1 5JT
020 72373207
(Previous Headteacher)

Alison Griffiths
Senior Lecturer PGCE
University of East London
Romford Road
Stratford
E16 4LZ
020 82236301
A.Griffiths@uel.ac.uk
(Previous Head of Upper School, Eveline Lowe)