Talk, Drama and English: An EMC Teacher Conference

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.

Professor Robin Alexander

Robin Alexander is Fellow of Wolfson College at Cambridge University, former Professor of Education at the universities of Leeds, Warwick and York, and a Fellow of the British Academy. During a long career he has taught in schools, colleges and universities and has served on various public bodies and enquiries. His widely-used framework for dialogic teaching led to its successful trial by the Education Endowment Foundation (2014-17) and the book  A Dialogic Teaching Companion (2020). From 2006-12 he directed the Cambridge Primary Review, England’s most comprehensive primary education enquiry since the 1960s (Children, their World, their Education, 2010). He has worked in many other countries, and his five-nation comparative study Culture and Pedagogy (2001) won the 2002 American Educational Research Association Outstanding Book Award. Other books include Learning from Comparing (two volumes, 1999 and 2000), Essays on Pedagogy (2007), Education in Spite of Policy (2022), and – diverging from education – Rhondda Portraits (2024). https://robinalexander.org.uk/

Peter Kahn

Peter Kahn has taught poetry in over 70 schools from Hackney to Lambeth to Walthamstow to Chicago to North and South Carolina and currently in Columbus, Ohio. He created the Spoken Word program at Oak Park and River Forest High School, where he taught for 28 years, with work showcased in Respect the Mic: Celebrating 20 Years of Poetry from a Chicagoland High School (Penguin Young Readers). His students have gone on to be named National Youth Poet Laureate, star on TV and even win an NBA championship. He has appeared on PBS NewsHour, NPR, BBC radio and the docu-series, America to Me. 

A founding member of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen, he has twice been a commended poet in the Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition and was runner-up in the 2019 NCTE and Penguin Random House Maya Angelou Teacher Award for Poetry. His debut collection, Little Kings, is published by Nine Arches Press, with poems in the Guardian and Forward Book of Poetry and on The Slowdown.

Peter co-founded the London Teenage Poetry Slam and, as a Visiting Fellow at Goldsmiths, founded the Spoken Word Education Training Programme, teaching Raymond Antrobus and Dean Atta, among others.

Along with Patricia Smith and Ravi Shankar, he edited The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks. 

He just concluded his fourth year of his creation Schooled on Poetry which has featured Tracy K. Smith, Hanif Abdurraqib, Kwame Alexander, Tim Seibles and Jacqueline Woodson as special guests joining students and teachers.

National Book Award winner Terrance Hayes writes, 'Peter Kahn is the kind of reader of poetry, teacher of poetry, and poet who makes the world easier for other readers, teachers and poets.' 

Peter is the 2024 recipient of the American Writers Museum’s Inspiring Teacher Award.

https://www.poet-educatorpeterkahn.org/

Jane Coles

Dr Jane Coles, a former Head of English and Deputy Headteacher, is also an experienced teacher educator and educational researcher. She has published widely on creative literacies, teaching Shakespeare and the relationship between drama and English.

Maggie Pitfield

Dr Maggie Pitfield taught English and Drama for many years and held leadership positions in both school and Higher Education settings. Her recent research and publication interests include the contribution that educational drama practices make to the reading of literary texts.

Theo Bryer

Dr Theo Bryer leads the English with Drama PGCE at UCL's IOE and contributes to the MA English Education. Previously, she taught Drama and other subjects in schools and colleges in Birmingham and London for over twenty years. Her research interests include the affordances of role and role-play in relation to cross-curricular learning,

Lauren Cowan

Lauren is an English teacher and KS5 Coordinator at the lead school in a multi-academy trust in north London. Lauren has previously worked as 2iC and KS3 Coordinator. She has taken a lead role in shaping curriculum, assessment and other department policy, as well as leading school-wide reading and literacy initiatives. 

Lucy Strike

Lucy Strike is a School Development Leader at Alexandra Park School in North London, leading on Teaching and Learning initiatives such as Formative Assessment, Lesson Study and whole school oracy. She has been an English teacher for over 18 years and worked as a Head of English and an Assistant Head Teacher in three different London state comprehensive schools. She has always been passionate about oracy and also worked on a project with School 21 in 2016 and with Voice Camden in 2018.

Tom Davey

Tom Davey is the Founder and Artistic Director of Bright Torches, a theatre-based organisation working in partnership with schools and teacher training programmes to support the teaching of English and primary literacy. A RADA-trained actor, Tom spent two years with the Royal Shakespeare Company playing leading roles before turning his focus to the classroom. Through Bright Torches he has worked with thousands of young people, teachers and trainee teachers across primary, secondary and PGCE contexts in the UK and internationally, bringing rehearsal-room practice directly into English lessons. Bright Torches translates professional actor training into practical, adaptable classroom approaches that deepen textual understanding, sharpen analysis and build confident, articulate readers and speakers. Tom is passionate about enabling pupils and teachers to experience Shakespeare as living drama — active, intellectually demanding and grounded in close attention to words, rhythm and meaning.

Maddie Lynes

Maddie is a writer and English teacher at Waldegrave School in Twickenham. She is passionate about teaching creative writing and encouraging reading for pleasure. This year, she will be running the New Views playwriting programme in association with the National Theatre at her school and is looking forward to seeing the work that her students will produce.