Dr Niamh McGrogan

Personal statement

Dr Niamh McGrogan is a Programme Director for the Primary PGCE in the School of Education at Bath Spa University. Her career began in children's social care services and counselling before progressing into education. During her teaching career in Kent, she obtained her Master's degree with the Open University and progressed to an academic career at Bath Spa University.

Niamh is enthusiastic about supporting future teachers in their training and development, contributing to a high quality training programme that provides not only the minimum entitlement for teacher education but goes beyond this to offer an ambitious curriculum which promotes highly effective and inspirational practitioners.

Niamh understands the challenges of adapting practice across the breadth of the primary national curriculum to meet the needs of children, and enjoys exploring this with colleagues, students and school partners. She is passionate about supporting Bath Spa Teachers (BSTs) to develop their approaches to teaching to ensure that their skills, knowledge and understanding are developed at every opportunity to the benefit of all the children they teach.

She is also passionate about supporting teachers in engaging with and in research, and collaborates with both Bath Spa Teachers and school teachers to conduct research in the classroom to draw conclusions that can enhance development and understanding of practice. Her doctoral research investigated teachers' engagement in research in primary schools through such collaborative research activity, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to understand teacher's lived experiences of engaging in Collaborative Close-to-Practice Inquiry.

Academic qualifications

• PhD Bath Spa University
• MEd Open University
• BSc Queen's University, Belfast

Professional qualifications

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• QTS Canterbury Christchurch University

Professional memberships

• Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Other external roles

• External Examiner for the University of Roehampton
• Peer Reviewer for the Chartered College journal Impact
• School Governor

Teaching specialism

• Initial Teacher Education