Ian McCollum

'Big Writing' Consultant

Ian has more than twenty years' experience in teaching, including as headteacher of two primary schools. During this time Ian taught every age group from Foundation to Adult. He is highly experienced in working to motivate children from unstimulated backgrounds to read and write.

In 2000, Ian was seconded to the highly-regarded Derbyshire & Derby City Literacy Initiative, 'Read On - Write Away!' As Training & Development Manager of ROWA!, Ian wrote, piloted and developed several successful training strategies to motivate boys as writers. Thousands [yes - literally thousands] of Teachers, T.A.s and Volunteers have benefited from Ian's training. His most recent project, All Write Now!, developed with the active support of Ros Wilson, has helped teachers to improve writing standards across 13 Local Authorities.

Ian's training includes stories from his teaching career that involve children, teachers and parents. [If teaching is supposed to be relevant, useful and fun - so should training courses!] One memorable evaluation stated, "I didn't realize it was possible to learn so much while you're dying with laughing."

Ian is now an independent Education Consultant but he has committed much of his recent energy to working with Andrell Education to develop 'Big Ideas for Better Writing'.