We are delighted to welcome Jessica Wallace as an ambassador for Teach Us Too.

Jessica brings a thoughtful and values-driven approach to her work, alongside a strong commitment to ensuring that all children have access to meaningful literacy opportunities. We feel incredibly fortunate to have her insight and expertise as part of our growing ambassador community.

I have worked across a variety of specialist settings, and I am lucky enough to now be assistant principal and English curriculum lead at a wonderful special school in Leeds. When I joined the school 4 years ago as a class teacher, my previous experience was in SEMH specialist settings and as I started to work with our non or minimally speaking pupils, I sought out stories of young people’s lived experience and discovered Jonathan’s story and the work of Teach us Too. 

This gave me a passion for inclusive literacy, and we worked firstly on our reading provision, ensuring that we were giving all our pupils across school the access to appropriate texts and that our school was a text rich environment to support emergent literacy. Last year, I was given the freedom to create a bespoke writing curriculum, organised by adapted strands of the writing rope, with the aim of it being aspirational and accessible for all our pupils, no matter their preferred communication style. Proven methods for effective literacy instruction for pupils with complex needs, such as colourful semantics and predictable chart writing, are embedded within the framework. The new framework is being implemented this year and we are carefully monitoring the impact on our young people. 

English is so much more than a school subject. The power of being able to tell our own story, to advocate for ourselves and share our hopes and dreams, is fundamental to our human experience. I am thrilled to work more closely with Teach us Too and support the mission to ensure that all children are taught to read and write.