Emily Oakes joined Meridian Trust in September as Curriculum Director for History, bringing with her a wealth of knowledge and experience from her studies and work in schools, trusts, exam boards and even archaeological excavations! We caught up with her to find out more about this valuable new addition to our Trust…
Tell us a bit about your career background Emily…
I read archaeology as an undergraduate and went on to read medieval history for my MA, so I originally felt destined for a career in that field (working on digs or in museums). But, after three years of working as an archaeologist and spending a lot of time doing outreach work with students, I realised that I enjoyed working with young people, so I retrained to become a teacher.
Archaeology was great fun, but the reality of excavations in all weather (in the UK) is not as glamorous as it sounds. I lived in fingerless gloves for a few years, so it wasn’t quite ‘Indiana Jones’!
After completing my PGCE at the University of Cambridge, my teaching career began at Ely College (yet to be part of Meridian Trust at that point), before a stint teaching at an international school. After that, I was a Head of History and then an Assistant Head at a school in Essex before working for a Norfolk-based trust. Most recently, I worked at the OCR exam board, as a history subject advisor.
I recently completed a Masters of Education (MEd) degree at Cambridge University. The focus of my MEd was subject leadership and curriculum design. So, it’s been a varied career so far, with a continual focus on studying.
What does your current role entail?
I work closely with the history curriculum leaders across the Trust to steer and advise on curriculum development at KS3, GCSE and A-level. One of my main focus areas this year is to make a more diverse, global and representative KS3 curriculum that is more relevant, exciting and challenging for students. It is important to continually revisit curriculum to ensure it is rigorous and ambitious for all.
What are your impressions of Meridian Trust so far?
I’ve been welcomed by some great people with brilliant ideas, so it’s been a positive start to the year and I know the Trust has faith in me to drive the history curriculum in the direction that I see fit. They are supportive because they see the value in challenging ourselves to be more ambitious.
Attending the recent Trust Masterclasses confirmed what I’d seen at an individual school level; students who want to do well and staff who are passionate about imparting their subject matter in an engaging way. I really picked up on a sense of pride in the Year 10s at the Masterclasses and a sense of community among the schools that took part. We’ve got two more Masterclasses later this year, plus an enrichment day for 120 Year 8 students, which I’m really excited about.
I was also involved in the subject training day for our heads of department and subject teachers recently. It was a fantastic day and we had lots of positive feedback and engagement from the staff, some of whom travelled long distances to attend. We had a talk from an Art Historian, before some practical workshops that provoked some exciting discussions about what an ambitious curriculum looks like. We finished the day with a session from the exam board Edexcel.
What’s striking is the amount of resource and support that the Trust are willing to put into subject-specific training days. The opportunity to bring everyone together is really powerful and I just hope that we can continue to do more of them.
What are your key focus areas in the coming term?
I’ll be continuing to support individual schools but I’m also working on a set of curriculum principles which I’m developing with my ‘history curriculum working group’. The group is made up of history teachers from across the trust who are particularly interested in curriculum design. Longer term, I want to create a model curriculum that demonstrates what ‘good’ looks like. This comes from creating great relationships at school level, which is why it’s so important for me to regularly visit schools and departments to support them with their curriculum delivery.
What do you like to do outside of work?
I really love film and TV drama. Specifically, ‘Nordic Noir’ drama, which I usually have to watch alone because no one else in my house likes it! I’m also a busy mum of two, so a lot of my spare time is spent running around after my children. I belong to my local community choir, which is great fun. We’ve even done a few gigs!