About the Author
Sean Boyle joined North Halifax Grammar School in September 2000 after starting his teaching career at St Catherine’s Catholic High School in 1995. In his time at NHGS Sean has had responsibility for ICT within Mathematics, and in January of 2003 was appointed as Gifted & Talented Coordinator for the school. Sean’s interest in ICT within Mathematics has led him into teacher training and he has delivered a number of courses in school, for the local authority and for the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. Following recent staff changes at NHGS Sean has been appointed to the post of Joint Head of Mathematics, where he has responsibility for KS3 and KS4.
The Mathematics department at NHGS has worked very closely with the SSAT since the school was designated as a Specialist Science and Mathematics College. Sean has had the opportunity to undertake training with the SSAT, and as a result has delivered a number of training sessions at NHGS for schools throughout West Yorkshire. The courses have included work on Omnigraph, Autograph, Excel and Geometer’s Sketchpad. The Specialist Schools funding has also given the school the opportunity to deliver training sessions in other schools which obviously increases the impact.
After gaining Specialist Schools status NHGS has taken a full and active part in the development of the CPD toolkits offered by the SSAT. Sean has regularly contributed to discussions as to the future direction of the CPD programme. With the support of two other teachers he delivered a full training day for the SSAT on Data Handling in November 2005. The toolkit received very good evaluations and ranks amongst one of the best offered by the SSAT. Sean and his colleague, Will Seddon, are set to deliver a further toolkit for the SSAT on the use of video capture software following its successful use in supporting GCSE coursework.
As part of the work undertaken by NHGS to support the local community Sean Boyle has spent time at the local Pupil Referral Unit. The main focus has been to ensure that all students in KS4 meet the coursework criteria for GCSE Mathematics. The support has been very well received by the staff, and the students are beginning to value our input. The remainder of the time has been spent plugging the gaps in the students’ knowledge that have arisen through their fragmented school attendance. Every student that sat both papers in the summer of 2006 attained a pass grade at GCSE and two students managed to attain a grade D. NHGS is now entering its second year of support at the pupil referral unit, and it is widely felt that the school is building positive relationships with the staff and students.
Sean has two young children but still manages to find time to enjoy cycling and running, and he has a keen interest in politics and current affairs.