Professor Mick Waters

Introduction

Professor Mick Waters has a range of career experiences that inform his work. Currently, he works with the schools in the Black Country Challenge in raising standards in the West Midlands. He works with schools in Sheffield in innovative approaches to learning and on several other initiatives to push the boundaries for making learning better. He is also president of the Curriculum Foundation, which seeks to promote a voice for the power and potential of the whole curriculum. He is chair of 360 People, a company working to encourage young people to be involved in assessing their progress in the development of skills for adult life and employment. Mick is a patron of Heads, Teachers and Industry (HTI), which seeks ways to build reciprocal understanding between sectors.

Previously, he worked at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority as Director of Curriculum taking a leading role in helping schools to rethink their approach to curriculum design and influencing national policy on aspects of the national curriculum.

Mick believes that learning should be treasured and valued and that it needs to be shaped to fit with children’s lives. People in schools need to set understandings of their children alongside the learning they should meet to create learning that is irresistible.

Before joining QCA, Mick was Chief Education Officer for the City of Manchester. In a challenging education environment schools worked hard to break the cycle of urban deprivation, promoting a wide and rich curriculum and encouraging all learners to achieve as much as possible. Key agendas included the development of joint children’s services, the 14-19 strategy, the employment and skills dimension and configuring all this around Building Schools for the Future.

Previously Mick worked in Birmingham Local Education Authority. He drove forward a school improvement agenda which saw increasing achievements and increasingly successful schools seeking new horizons in educational development.

Mick has experience of headship in two schools and of working in teacher training. He was also part of an Education Development Unit which worked on a contract basis with LEAs and other agencies across the UK and worldwide.

Mick believes in being close to teachers, children and schools, and is often to be found in the classroom working with children. He has written books on the curriculum, teaching and learning, and management, as well as making presentations at numerous national and international conferences. He is passionate about the role of education in improving life chances for pupils. He enjoys asking adults to look at learning through the eyes of a pupil.