Judy Leigh Email and Phone Number

My blog can be found at judyleigh.com. It is about writing, reading, film, music and occasionally football and politics. Blogging has taught me a number of new skills I had not previously fostered. I am now proficient at using WordPress and I have learned how to manage an audience. My former blog on Vegan food had a strong reader-base.

I wrote a column each month for the community newspaper the Torbay Times. My columns have touched on such issues as homelessness, the NHS, education, lifestyle and social justice. These columns have provoked interest and have been described by readers as informative, topical and humorous. I produced well-edited, thoroughly researched and thought-provoking copy and my work for the Torbay Times has helped me hone and develop my journalistic skills and my ability to tailor my writing to a broad, diverse readership.

Writing music journalism has enabled me to apply my skills with WordPress in a more professional setting with greater reach than my vegan blog. I developed my skill at writing accessibly for a broad in an engaging and positive way. I developed circumspection about approaching people's art in a way that is critical, humorous and respectful.My work can be found here: http://www.neverenoughnotes.co.uk/author/judyleigh/

I became an Advanced Skills Teacher (AST) in 2003 and this role gave me the opportunity to promote high standards in teaching and learning throughout Devon. My work included helping teachers in schools across Devon with primary to sixth form age pupils to improve standards in literacy; to improve exam results at SATs, GCSE and A-Level; and to use Drama effectively as a learning medium to access learning across the curriculum. As part of my AST work, I wrote a book, published in 2005, entitled 'Improving Drama Focused Speaking And Listening For GCSE English'. It included strategies for improving results and schemes of learning.

I worked at Newton Abbot College (known as Knowles Hill School until 2008) for 25 years as a Drama Teacher. My results in teaching at KS4 and KS5 were consistently in the top 10% - often in the top 5% - in the country. My teaching was rated as 'Outstanding' by Ofsted including in the most recent Ofsted inspection of Newton Abbot College in 2014.I began as Head of Department and was promoted to Head of Faculty, which enabled me to further develop strong team and leadership skills. Having instructed trainee drama teachers for fifteen years to become Outstanding teachers, I have delivered further education sessions to Devon SCITT, focusing on classroom practice and organisation. This remains the case as of 2015.In 2010, I instigated workshops at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, which enabled students from a breadth of disciplines to access rigorous, academic Drama practice. For ten years, I organised the School Shakespeare Festival in Newton Abbot in which I directed excerpts from and edited versions of Shakespeare plays in a variety of primary and secondary schools, bringing them together for an annual public performance. These festivals were highly acclaimed, both on educational and artistic levels.As a sixth form teacher and tutor, I gained huge experience in mentoring students towards university, including supporting them with personal statements and liaising with subject teachers and institutes of further education. As part of my role as a teacher, I have written, directed and conceptualised a variety of plays from Shakespeare and Brecht to musicals and innovative examination performances.