John Taylor

Biography

I taught for twenty-odd years in several socio-economically deprived schools in the West Midlands (of the UK); working across the age range from early years to year 6. Then I moved into local authority support teams, firstly as a Behaviour and Reintegration advisory teacher, and then supporting Looked After Children. In September 2011 yet another cost-cutting inspired "restructuring" gave me the opportunity to early retire to spend more time with my first grandchild.

I cut my ICT teeth on a Tandy TRS 80 - green screen, 8 KB memory, no mouse, no hard drive, no floppy drive, saving crudely written BASIC programs on audio cassette tape!
When they became available I progressed on to BBC "Model B" and "Master" machines - up to a staggering 64 KB, a 5¼ inch floppy drive and a colour monitor - still no mouse.

Getting my hands on a PC with MS Office was a giant leap. What took an hour to program in BASIC could be achieved in a couple of minutes in Excel. I began sharing my files with others via floppy disk then on other people's websites.

It soon became apparent that I had too much stuff to share this way, and needed my own site, : www.johnandgwyn.co.uk

In 1999 I was commissioned to write my first maths books (Ginn's "Maths Express") which were published in January 2000. This proved to be the start of a new, part-time career strand. I welcome feedback and suggestions, and try to answer queries by return of email. Although I no longer teach it's great to be one of the many who freely share their resources with teachers in the UK and beyond.

Education

Cert Ed., B.Ed

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

Teaching Primary age range range (5 to 11),
working with children with behaviour problems
supporting the learning of children in local authority care

Personal Interests

formula 1 racing (as a spectator!)
classic cars
walking
family

Books