Uzma Kausar – Director of English

Uzma is a Head of English who thrives on improving teaching and learning at KS3-5. She has a passion for her subject and her personal experience shows that young people are dynamic, full of energy and in need of nurturing through the form of knowledge and support, which they can obtain from a teacher who is an ambassador for what they believe in. She adopts a variety of techniques and strategies to ensure students are successful but gain a positive insight or enjoyment of English throughout their school journey.  She is innovative with new ideas to promote reading, literacy and ultimately accessibility to GCSE and A level exams. Uzma believes by closing the GAP in reading and literacy you can ultimately close the attainment GAP.

A leader’s aim is to ensure that all students have the best possible experience of teaching and learning. Within Uzma’s various roles, there have been the key aspects of monitoring the quality of teaching and learning across the school, and within the faculty.  At her current school, as part of the monitoring and review process, she regularly observes lessons, conducts book trawls and collates pupil voice to further ensure teaching and learning is Outstanding.  Uzma also performance manages a number of English teaching staff and conducts lesson observations regularly to review performance.

Managing curriculum change is an important aspect of he current role; she’s working with colleagues to review and update schemes of work and assessments in light of the new KS3-4 curriculum which is to be rolled out in September. Uzma always aims to keep abreast of government changes and initiatives; regularly reviewing the DfE website for recent announcements and changes.

Having high quality enrichment opportunities is a necessity in schools to ensure students’ whole school experience goes beyond their academic needs and meets their personal development needs. Uzma provides enrichment activities to support students and help to take their learning beyond the classroom. 

Tracking pupil progress and analysing data is an essential part of her present role at Waverley School and has been for several years.  Uzma has sound knowledge of the range of performance data that schools can use to monitor pupils.  She always strives to raise standards and narrow any gaps in learning through the use of data. As a Head of Faculty, she has to challenge members of her team to ensure each student is making at least 3 levels of progress over Ks2-4 and are meeting or exceeding national standards.  

Uzma adopts a range of pro-active strategies, such as communicating clear expectations of behaviour standards and establishing effective routines, developing positive relationships and being a strong role model. Paramount to this is the need for teachers to design engaging and stimulating lessons that are personalised to meet the needs of all students in a class. In order to ensure this takes place she oversees all lesson planning and schemes of work. She often conducts learning walks which enable her to ensure that lessons remain stimulating and effective and provide learning opportunities that are inspirational, engaging and allow all students to make progress. Uzma is always looking for new ways to develop and share good practice both within her department and across the school.