Brief biography:
Alison Margaret Mann was born in 1959 in London to Leslie and Patricia Mann, and educated at Oakthorpe and Hunsdon primary schools. She attended Hadham Hall School and the University of London, earning a BA degree in 1981. She attended the University of Warwick where she gained a PGCE in primary education in 1982. In 1996 she was awarded a MEd from Queens' College, Cambridge
- Teaching career
Alison started her teaching career in secondary schools, then worked in Hertfordshire Teachers' Centres before moving into primary school education where she remained until the beginning of 2017. Her first teaching post was at Passmores Comprehensive, Harlow, Essex in 1992, which some years later featured in a fly-on-the-wall documentary, Educating Essex, for Channel 4.
She taught in one other secondary school, two Teachers' Centres and three primary schools before her last teaching appointment. In 2003 she was appointed Headteacher of The Wroxham School, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, a single form primary school in 'special measures'. The school emerged from 'special measures' ten months later and within two and a half years was rated as 'outstanding' by Ofsted. Subsequently, when re-inspected in both 2009 and 2013 it was judged to be 'outstanding' in all categories
In 2012, The Wroxham Foundation was established. The school generated international interest in its "Learning without Limits" inclusive, creative approach to school improvement and has hosted delegations from around the world. The school annually accepts students, as part of their teacher training, from Appalachian State University (USA) and Paderborn University (Germany)
-
Publications
In addition to her books, Assessment for Learning without Limits and Creating Learning without Limits she has written several contributions to other books and numerous articles, some of these publications include:
- Working as a team. Children and Teachers at Wheatcroft Primary School Learning from Each other, FORUM (2001).
- Listening to Children FORUM (2001)
- Raising standards. What do we really want? FORUM (2005)
- Escaping from the bottom set. Finding a voice for school improvement, School Improvement Journal (2006)
- If you go down to the woods today, FORUM (2007)
- Exploring the art of the possible, an irresistible invitation to all learners, NASEN (2009)
- The Cambridge Primary Review: a voice for the future, FORUM (2010)
- Beyond assessment levels: Reaching for new heights in primary education, NUT (2011)
- Developing outward facing schools where citizenship is a lived experience, The Gordon Cook Foundation (2012)
- Circles of Influence, Sanders, E (Ed) (2012); Moving beyond “What’s in it for me?”
