Meet our Facilitators: Jacqui Jenkinson

Inspire Learning Teaching School Hub is honoured to have many expert facilitators working
across its NPQ programmes.

In this blog, we speak to Jacqui Jenkinson, who is a facilitator with over 26 years’ experience
in the teaching profession. We find out what inspired Jacqui to take on this role and why she
finds it rewarding, as well as beneficial for her own professional development.

Jacqui started her teaching journey in 1996 as teacher of German with French, within two
years she was promoted to head of year.

She explained: “I then took on the role as head of languages. This led to a communications
faculty lead with some added whole school responsibility. In 2010, I was appointed as an
assistant headteacher leading on KS4 and whole school data, then teaching and learning in
2013.

“I took a year out of teaching in 2015 when I completed my master’s in education at Edge
Hill University and retrained as a maths teacher, completing my PGCE in maths education at
Liverpool Hope University.”

Following this, Jacqui completed a NPQ for Senior Leadership and now currently works as
part of a senior leadership team at a school in Warrington where her focus is on personal
development.

Her decision to become a facilitator was simple.

Jacqui said: “After 26 years in education, I know that I have a lot of experiences to share
with those teachers beginning their leadership journey and the new NPQ for Leading
Behaviour and Culture qualification is the area in which I have most of my expertise.

“In 2015 alongside completing my qualifications, I worked for a behaviour team in a local
authority. This gave me a pastoral experience that not many teachers see and enabled me
to return to the school environment with a new set of skills and ways to support students and
their families.”

The role of a facilitator has many different aspects and mainly focuses on coaching teachers
as they embark on developing their teaching career. When delivering the required content,
Jacqui will supplement this with examples of her own experiences in order to demonstrate
the different challenges participants may come across.

She said: “During the peer learning group sessions, I feel it is important to set the right tone
and make the team feel comfortable so co-coaching can take place and you can just
‘facilitate!’”

One thing that Jacqui recognises is the positive impact it has had on her own professional
development as it has given her the opportunity to share own experiences.

She added: “After teaching for so long, you do things naturally and your experience enables
you to be able to deal with the challenging and changing days. However, it is beneficial for
your own professional development to have to explain how you ended up like that. Being a
facilitator enables you to reflect on your own journey to leadership, what challenges and
obstacles you had to overcome on the way and support new teachers making the very same
journey.”

Finally, would Jacqui recommend becoming a facilitator to an experienced and
knowledgeable senior leader looking to support the next generation of teachers and
leaders?

Jacqui concluded: “Definitely. It has helped me to realise my strengths and has given me a
boost as sometimes as teachers and leaders, the weeks and terms go by so quickly and you
don’t have the time to sit back and reflect properly on the work that you do. Being a facilitator
has enabled me to do this, reflect on my role in school and it has definitely enhanced the
work that I do.”

If you would like to find out how you can become a facilitator with Inspire Learning Teaching
School Hub, please contact us as we are currently recruiting!

Find out more and apply here or call the team on 0151 245 3186.