I joined the University of Glasgow as a Teaching Associate for the Centre for Teaching Excellence in October 2025 in a seconded post.  I am currently working as part of the Rural and Learning for Sustainability hub which is located on the Dumfries Campus of the University of Glasgow and I am privileged to have been given the opportunity to be part of this transformational agenda from its infancy.  

I graduated from Moray House, University of Edinburgh as a Bachelor of Education in Primary Education in 2006, thereafter I began working in my local authority of Dumfries and Galloway as a Primary Teacher.  After 16 years of teaching, I moved into a local authority role as Principal Teacher of Inclusive Practice.  This role allows me to develop resources in line with national priorities and to support practitioners right across the authority, in over 100 schools, to enact these priorities. 

As well as having a keen interest in Inclusive Pedagogy at a whole class level, over many years I have developed a firm interest in Numeracy and Maths.  Through this interest, I have been given the opportunity to develop and pilot resources for the region, working closely with Education Scotland to align with the National vision, and now being part of the core group for the Maths and Numeracy Curriculum Improvement Cycle.  I became a member of the Scottish Mathematical Council committee in 2023, and I am actively involved in the upkeep of the SMC website and social media channels along with submitting articles for the SMC journal and presenting at the annual conference.   

In 2024 I was accepted onto Education Scotland's Connected and Collaborative Systems Leadership course which allowed me to work with colleagues from across Scotland to enhance my understanding of enquiry and research further.  

As can be seen from my biography, maths and numeracy is a keen interest and will continue to be a main focus for my research, especially research associated with approaches to enhancing conceptual understanding in all learners. My recent article in the Scottish Mathematical Council journal showcases a recent project with a local secondary school   In addition to this, as I work within a local authority with a large proportion of rurality, and with my allocation to the Rural and LfS hub in the Centre, rural education and the perceived deficit as opposed to the positives, has emerged as an area of research interest for myself.

The Think Piece which was generated by my group through the Education Scotland Connected and Collaborative Leadership course was around the theme of Belonging in Education  and focussed on the idea that in order for inclusion to take place, children and young people had to first have a sense that they belonged. This is an area of interest I would like to continue through my work with the Centre.