English Assessment – An In-Person EMC Teacher Conference

Barbara Bleiman

Barbara Bleiman is an education consultant at EMC, co-editor of emagazine and the author of What Matters in English Teaching. She writes blogs and articles about education and has written or co-written many EMC publications for the classroom, including several resources on poetry, novels and language study. Among these are Doing Close Reading, Studying The Handmaid’s Tale, Sight/Unseen Poetry, KS3 Poetry Plus, as well as Curriculum Conversations: Going on an Odyssey. She takes the lead on EMC’s project on group work, ‘It’s Good to Talk’ and has a strong interest in ideas about the curriculum, developing the idea of ‘cultural conversations’ as a challenge to the notion of cultural capital. In 2019 she was awarded the NATE Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Teaching of English. She is also a Fellow of the English Association. Barbara is the author of two novels, Off the Voortrekker Road and Accidents of Love, and has recently published a collection of short stories, Kremlinology of Kisses.

Anmika Salter

Anmika works part time at the English and Media Centre in the Research and Projects team and is Head of Department in a large comprehensive school in North London the rest of the week. 

Katie Kibbler

Katie is a joint Head of Department in an 11-16 community school in East London. She is currently on secondment with the EMC in the Research and Projects team for two days a week. 

Andrew McCallum

Andrew McCallum is Director of the English and Media Centre. Prior to that he ran a PGCE course in secondary English, and previously he taught for 15 years in London schools, spending most of that time at Acland Burghley School in Camden. He holds a doctorate in education, is author of Creativity and Learning in Secondary English (Routledge) and writes regularly for NATE's Teaching English magazine. If asked to name the EMC publication he's most proud of having worked on, it would be a three-way contest between Iridescent Adolescent, Diverse Shorts and Write On.

Lucy Hinchliffe

Lucy Hinchliffe is EMC’s Research & Projects Lead consultant. Her work is focused on exploring how English is taught in schools and how EMC can best support this through publications and CPD. She also specialises in KS3 and KS4 courses at the Centre, and has contributed to several publications, including the EMC Teaching novels pack for The Bone Sparrow, and EMC KS3 Poetry Plus. Lucy was an English teacher, KS3 Coordinator and whole school CPD leader in an outer London school prior to joining EMC full time.

Josh Beal

Josh is a new Head of English at a school in Derbyshire, having previously been second in department in Nottingham for five years. He enjoys teaching poetry and all the power it has in communicating big ideas and he is particularly interested in the power of talk in the classroom.

Stephanie Keenan

Head of Secondary English, English Mastery, Ark Curriculum Plus

Stephanie joined English Mastery in 2022 as Principal Development Lead, supporting schools to implement the curriculum, before becoming Head of Programme. Prior to working for English Mastery, Stephanie was Head of English and Curriculum Development Lead and Literacy Lead at an outer London comprehensive, where she taught English from KS3 to A-level Literature and Language for ten years. She changed career from television production to teaching in 2010. Stephanie recently completed an MA in Expert Teaching with Ambition Institute/Plymouth Marjon, taught undergraduates for the BA (Hons) Education Studies at the University of West London, focusing on Assessment Theory and Practice, and worked as an Evidence Lead in Education with Greenshaw Research School.

Dr Bethan Marshall

Senior Lecturer in English Education, King’s College London

Dr Bethan Marshall is a leading figure in research into English and assessment, with multiple publications including English Inside the Black Box (2006), Assessment for Learning: Putting it into Practice (2003) and Testing English: Formative and Summative Approaches to English Assessment (2011).

One of Dr Bethan Marshall's areas of interest is in the competing philosophies or models of English as a subject and how these impact on policy. She is currently researching the way in which English teachers' philosophies of their subject change over time. 

Dr Anurag Jain

Dr Anurag Jain is the Director of Learning for English and Jo Richardson Community School, leading one of the departments who took part in EMC’s assessment project. He is a passionate advocate for formative assessment as being the key lever for improving student learning. 

Vinita Byrne

Vinita Byrne is KS3 Coordinator at Furze Platt Senior School in Maidenhead, one of EMC’s assessment project schools.. She had careers before teaching in the corporate sector in the UK and India in Public Relations and Communication. She draws on her experience of working and learning in different parts of the world in her practice, bringing an awareness of the richness and challenges offered by both. Her interests as a teacher include creating a dialogic classroom culture and allowing room for students to learn from each other through effective peer and formative feedback.

Charlotte Meehan

Charlotte Meehan is Key Stage 3 Coordinator at Jo Richardson Community School. She led one of the departments who took part in EMC’s assessment project, and continues to work on transforming their teaching and learning and assessment practices. She is particularly invested in imparting passion, excitement and engagement within teaching and learning in English, for both students and staff.