Sarah is the Headteacher of a lovely 2 form entry school in the south of Coventry called Finham Primary School. 27 years of teaching experience, has seen her teach across the entire school spectrum, from Nursery to Year 6.

Sarah is an Early Years specialist. From time to time, this does make her smile as shenever imagined when she first started teaching, that Early Years would become her home and her passion…

She completed a post-graduate study in Classroom Based Enquiry based in the Early Years, focusing on creative approaches to learning. This involved encouraging children to take risks, and looking at using a variety of stimuli and provocations for learning.

Often overlooked and undervalued, Early Years is where we lay the foundations for children to discover their own learning, make links between different areas of learning and applying their knowledge to different situations.

A colleague of Sarah recently asked her what was her ‘why’. Why did Sarah want to become a teacher in the first place? Sarah’s answer was simply this: she had never enjoyed her time as school. Her school years were hard and difficult – and as she got older, she realised how wrong this was. She never wanted another child to ever go through what she did – and that is why she does, what she does.

Sarah’s ethos is this – teaching should leave a memory that lasts forever. These memories that can then be used and applied to different situations in life. From a schooling point of view, this begins in the Early Years, which why she has an extra special fondness for this area of school.