Thomas Hunt
Teacher - English, History & Media Studies
After attending Leicester University, where I gained a BA Honours degree in English, I lived and worked in Australia for a year. The experience of travelling enabled me to experience a wide and diverse range of cultures and take up activities such as kayaking and skydiving. Upon my return to the United Kingdom I studied for a further MA degree in Literature, Culture and Modernity at the University of Southampton and graduated with a Distinction; postgraduate study deepened my knowledge and understanding of a wide range of authors, genres and schools of critical theory beyond the confines of the traditional English canon.
I decided to teach in order to pass on my passion for reading, writing and creative expression. Once I had completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at Oxford University I took up a position at the Cooper School, a state comprehensive school in North Oxfordshire; the broad range of abilities and backgrounds of the students there gave me a strong sense of the need to make learning engaging, challenging and differentiated to meet each child’s unique needs.
Prior to taking up a post with the British School of Chicago I returned to my home county of Lincolnshire in the East Midlands region of England to teach; my recent role and responsibilities there saw me actively lead, along the Subject Leader for English, initiatives for positive change in teaching and learning. I have delivered departmental training in the use of ICT, formative assessment and differentiation and I led a review of the Key Stage Three curriculum to embed these initiatives and ensure that students’ learning reflects the knowledge and skills taught in subsequent key stages.
Enrichment provision was also a key feature of my role and among other clubs and activities I coordinated whole-school involvement with the Young Journalist Academy programme, giving students the opportunity to learn about all aspects of broadcast media from professional journalists.
The prospect of teaching at the British School of Chicago is immensely exciting and I look forward to meeting all the students and parents here!