Jennifer is an English teacher.

In November 2012 she joined Twitter as @FunkyPedagogy. She posted her first teaching blog in January 2013.

Why ‘funky’? Well, why not? It all made complete sense at the time. It will suffice to say, she’s delighted that she went with something a bit weird – it seems to have worked out for her.

Now, Jennifer is the Trust Director of English and Literacy at Carlton Academy Trust, working across a number of schools in West Yorkshire. Over the course of her career she has worked at a number of other schools as a Senior Leader in charge of Teaching and Learning, a Head of English, an AST and a Lead Practitioner. She is the author of the best-selling books, ‘How to Teach English Literature: Overcoming Cultural Poverty’ (2019), ‘Teach Like a Writer’ (2020), ‘The Metacognition Handbook’ (2021) and ‘Essential Grammar: The Resource Book Every Secondary English Teacher Will Need‘ (2023).

Gemma is an experienced secondary school teacher and middle leader. She has been transitioning from full time work in school to more flexible working to enable her to: pursue an MA in Education, work in teacher education, gain her coaching accreditation, tutor students, and spend more time with her two young children. She is an invaluable part of the FunkyPedagogy project, supporting Jennifer as an organiser, collaborator and creative contributor.