For general enquiries, please email the School of Education and your enquiry will be passed to the appropriate person.
If you know the person you wish to contact, please use the list below to find their details and contact them directly. As our hybrid working model combines working on campus and at home, please
contact via email instead of telephone.
Helen Toft
Associate Professor (PGCE International), Faculty of Social Sciences
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Biography
Helen Toft began her teaching career as an English and Drama teacher in an innovative secondary school on the outskirts of Sheffield, the 'Steel City'. When she moved to multi-cultural Leicester as the national curriculum was introduced to schools in England, she adapted her cross-curricular theme style of working so suited to primary schools, working in special needs support teaching roles across the key stages. Immersed in inclusive, creative and diversity values she became a specialist drama teacher whilst also freelancing with other creative professionals in schools, social services and community sectors in Nottingham. Working with adults who had previously not been successful in accessing fulltime education (but found themselves teaching trade skills to equally disadvantaged young people at colleges) gave her the opportunity to 'teach teachers' at Nottingham Trent University. From this came experience in 'Education Studies' at Leeds Met along with training refugee and asylum seeking teachers. These experiences culminated in teaching on the PGCEi for the University of Nottingham for the past 8 years. She was a lead author on the team for Being a teacher: Teaching and learning in a global context (2018) as well as Transforming Teaching:Global Responses to Teaching Under the Covid 19 Pandemic (2022) both published with Routledge.