Jude Brigley
Jude is a Consultant in Learning and Teaching, having taught for over forty years and always wanting to improve, hone and adapt practice. She has led learning and teaching in a variety of schools. In that time, she has edited and written various books and articles on education and contributed talks, workshops and guidance at a national level. She is an experienced coach and mentor.
Earlier in her career, she ran two performance poetry groups, Connect and Poetry Unlimited, which both worked in schools. She is also the editor of two poetry anthologies, The Poet’s House (Pont, 1998) and Exchanges: Poems by Women in Wales (Honno, 1990), which were created with students in mind. Her latest book of poems is called Labours (Thynks, 2014).
She believes that poetry should be at the heart of the English curriculum and that it can play an important role in everybody’s life. She has spoken on the subject at various places including N.A.T.E., the Library Association and various conferences. While being an experienced examiner, inset provider and research student, she still retains her enthusiasm for the classroom. In 2009, she was named as a teaching trailblazer by the Poetry Society (UK).
In January 2011 she was awarded a Doctorate for her work on Poetic Intelligence. Her thesis presents groundbreaking evidence to suggest that students can be trained in poetic thinking and that this can have a significant impact on the quality and outcomes of their learning. Her PhD research also looked at creative thinking and she continues to champion the role of action research in developing pedagogy in the classroom. Jude is an experienced CPD provider and has held many posts of responsibility including Chief Examiner for Media Studies and the chair of NACE Cymru.
