Active on Twitter @HughesHailiProud to be Director of Education at Iris Connect and a Principal Lecturer at The University of Sunderland, strategically planning and implementing teacher mentoring across partnership schools. I also deliver the ECF and the NPQLTD. In June 2023, I began an 18 month secondment with the DfE as an ITT Quality Associate.I am a former HoD and SLT and taught English for 15 years. I've just submitted my thesis for a Doctorate in Education after completing three Masters degrees. I've written three books: 'Preserving Positivity' with John Catt, 'Mentoring in Schools' with Crown House and 'Humans in the Classroom' with McNidder and Grace. Book due out with Routledge on using critical theory in GCSE English lessons and one on mentoring new English teachers with Crown House imminently. I peer review for the Chartered College’s journal, ‘Impact' and run three YouTube channels - one aimed at connecting university academics and able GCSE students and a CPD channel for boosting English teachers’ subject knowledge, as well as a mentoring sharing good practice channel. I'm passionate about bridging the gap between research and practice and my Twitter pinned posts on both my personal page and GCSE Literature Boost page contain critical postcards where I've summarised academic papers and the implications for teacher's practice for both mentoring and English academic theory.In addition to this I host a monthly podcast, available on Spotify, called 'Making Mentoring Matter' and am the Editor of monthly online 'Mentoring Magazine.' I moderate a Twitter community of 1000+ mentors and a Google community of over 100 academics/leaders who strategically lead mentoring and teacher development at scale. Every Monday, from 6 till 7pm, I host a drop in for mentors on Teams. I speak at conferences and provide keynotes - I have spoken at over 150 schools, colleges and universities since 2021. I also deliver CPD around the world independently and as part of Independent Thinking Limited, on mentoring, staff well being, social justice themes, challenging all learners, literacy, coaching and teacher retention and provide consultancy and workshops to English departments and students on challenging the most able and subject specific CPD. My work at Sunderland is contributing to building a national centre of mentoring excellence and I facilitate fortnightly free mentor training sessions hosted by some of the most brilliant voices in education.I also run the national mentoring conference 'MentorEd' which takes place every year.Read more about this authorRead less about this author