Paul Jones

As part of my role as a teacher I have been responsible for the creation, execution and assessment of the ICT curriculum from year 6 to year 13 students and this has involved working with other members of my department, most of whom are non-specialist teachers, training them on the software and systems used for the course as well as providing hands on support and guidance where necessary. I have been able to create and run the GCSE Computer Science qualification through numerous changes involving a removal of the coursework requirement and overhaul of the subject areas taught on the course and have been responsible for handling the fallout of the exam board’s decision to remove said coursework part way through its completion.
In addition to the above, I have needed to have knowledge of ICT security and effectively demonstrate and teach these aspects of security to pupils. This has required me to think about how non-specialists approach security of ICT systems and tailor my teaching to support that facet of educating youngsters.

During my time as an ICT technician I was responsible for 1st Line technical support of both staff and pupils at the school. This included maintaining the schools Active Directory domain including diagnosing and repairing faults and maintaining user profiles and policies for different areas of the school, as well as troubleshoot, maintain and upgrade computer hardware and the school network. Jobs logged suing the schools helpdesk system had to be prioritised and any SLA’s met in a timely manner. I have been required to deal with upset or confrontational members of staff and have been able to resolve all areas of conflict quickly and calmly, achieving the requirement outcome to mutually satisfactory level. Fifteen years of working at Sainsbury’s interacting with customers and new staff has also allowed me to develop very positive skills in communication, both formally and informally.

Being in a classroom environment has been challenging at times, I have had to manage classes as large as 32 pupils in rooms designed for 28 people, including limited access to equipment and facilities. There have been occasions at school where I have been required to teach a computer science lesson with no ICT facilities available due to a system fault.

As part of my teaching standards I was responsible for investigating and launching a VLE for use with pupils at GCSE and A-Level year groups. The chosen platform was Google Classrooms and Google Drive and I was required to investigate, trial and evaluate the use of the VLE for the school and have successfully launched the use of Google Classroom for the 6th Form in a variety of different subject areas including PE, Geography, Science, History and a large number of BTEC qualifications such as Child Development and Public Services.