Ian Taylor
Curriculum - Teaching and learning - Assessment
Although Ian Taylor has been doing amazing work around the country helping primary and secondary schools embrace a genuinely transformational curriculum, it is his work as a maths teacher that brought him to national attention.
And we are not talking any ordinary maths teacher either which, when you spend time working with Ian, you will soon come to understand.
Ian enjoyed a meteoric rise from his first teaching job in one of Middlesbrough’s – ergo one of the UK’s – toughest schools to leading a team of 22 maths departments across a cluster of challenging schools via AST status and a growing reputation nationally for helping all teachers be even better at what they do.
He is an energetic, charismatic speaker, eminently practical not only with a clear understanding of the processes and structures all schools deal with - and how to get them right - but also a point blank refusal to let those structures inhibit teachers from creating innovative, engaging and highly effective lessons to bring the best out of all children.
And by all children, we mean all children - from the disaffected underachiever to the academic high flyer in search of a challenge to the child who just finds it all too hard.
"Make it relevant, make it engaging and make the data work for you relentlessly."
Ian Taylor
Recent titles include:
- Becoming Fluent With the Unfamiliar - Preparing Students for What Really Counts
- Maths Mastery in EYFS
- Leading from the Middle as a Head of Department
Ian’s philosophy has three clear foundations:
- To develop inspiring and effective lessons using a model of outstanding practice that is mapped to whatever relevant framework is in play at the time
- To ensure that children don’t just learn a subject but also develop lifelong transferable skills including such career-enhancing attributes as leadership, communication and effective thinking
- To ensure that the department, year team or whole-school develop as outstanding and innovative organisations in their own right, sustaining the ideas and input Ian shares with them and then moving on to grow and progress under their own steam
On top of his highly innovative and successful work with primary and secondary schools across the UK, he has also found time to write maths software and work nationally to share the four pillars of his work with colleagues from all sorts of schools and backgrounds.
So, if you are looking for new approaches to teaching and learning, a richer curriculum that doesn't just stop at knowledge rich, and even inspirational ideas to improve numeracy and maths in your school, then have a chat with a man who has come long way from the back streets of Middlesborough.
By the way, we once asked Ian what the secret of his transformational maths teaching was.
‘Many young people find maths boring, irrelevant and hard,’ he said. ‘My lessons aren’t like that. At all.’
To make an enquiry about booking Ian please give us a call on +44 (0)1267 211432 or fill in the Booking Enquiry form.
If you have a date in mind that will help too.
We'll then get back to you reassuringly quickly for a free, no-obligation chat to explore your needs in more detail.
We look forward to hearing from you.
- Ian has been with Independent Thinking since 2010
- Throwing furniture off the balcony was a feature of the first school he worked at
- You'll find him in our Leadership and Teaching and Learning topic areas
- You might also want to consider Crista Hazell
Enjoy a free no-obligation chat.
Make a booking. Haggle a bit.
Give us a call on +44 (0)1267 211432 or drop us a line at learn@independentthinking.co.uk.
We promise to get back to you reassuringly quickly.