Sam Payne

Director of Learning for Numeracy

Brentwood County High School, Brentwood

About Me

I have been teaching for 7 years and have experience in teaching maths from year 7-13. I am currently the Director of Learning for Numeracy at Brentwood County High School.  I have overall responsibility for maths, business, economics, computing and ICT.  Since starting at Brentwood County High School I have held the role of KS5 coordinator and head of maths before taking up my current role.

During this time I have also acted frequently as a mentor for PGCE students and NQTs which has given me experience of working with staff with varying degrees of experience.

I have been one of the staff governors at my school for the past 3 years.

During my time as KS5 coordinator I oversaw our maths and further maths results move from below national average to the top 10% and 25% in the country respectively.

I am currently focussed on the challenge of ensuring that staff and students are adapting to all of the changes to the mathematics curriculums at KS3, 4 & 5. I regularly organise and deliver CPD to my department on various areas such as marking and feedback, stretch and challenge and behaviour management.  For the last couple of years I have ran CPD to help teachers develop their subject knowledge to teach the new GCSE content and also maths and further maths at A-level.  I believe that organising high quality CPD focussing on the specific needs of individuals is the most effective way of improving a department.

I am a qualified coach after taking part in a year long program delivered by “Coaching in Schools”. The skills I learned during this time allow me to work with staff and students and help them bring about sustainable improvements on what they do.