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About Mary

Mary Hopper is an Independent Literacy Consultant committed to furthering children’s mastery and love of the English language.   She brings her experience of teaching in Early Years, Key Stage One and Key Stage Two directly into her training and in-school support, believing that the best professional development feeds straight into classroom practice, and into the minds and words of children.

Until June 2011, Mary worked as the Lead Adviser for Primary English at Northamptonshire County Council, co-ordinating and providing training and support to over 250 schools.  Prior to that, she was a National Strategy Primary Literacy Consultant, and implements many and varied effective school improvement strategies.  Mary has worked intensively in a range of contexts, supporting schools to be removed from Ofsted categories as well as facilitating their journey from Good to Outstanding.

One of Mary’s most powerful tools is her skill in coaching to effect changes in individuals and groups.  As a Fast Track Teacher Mary specialised in developing her leadership skills in school, as well as becoming a certified NLP Practitioner.  She continues to draw on her enthusiasm for leadership and personal development in her work, which ensures the schools and individuals she works with sustain their own solutions to developing Literacy practice.

Working on a Drama for Writing Project first inspired Mary to become a Literacy Consultant, and she worked for some time as a Leading Drama Teacher.  However Mary freely admits she’s been an ‘English Language Geek’ for a long while before that - she even gets excited about grammar!  At university Mary studied Classical Civilisation and English, specialising in the development of language from Viking and Anglo-Saxon runes through Old and Middle English, all the way to the analysis of modern children’s literature.

Writing for children continues to inspire Mary, and she can often be found scribbling away at her own novels (as yet to be published!) or lost in a world of character development.  She’s a member of the Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and through this has deepened her understanding of the writing process, which she passes on to children and teachers at every opportunity!

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