Formerly a primary school teacher and now a teacher educator specialising in literacy, Petula has worked in education for over 20 years. Her passion is engaging children in rich digital and paper texts to develop literacy activities in and beyond the classroom. She has developed this interest from an extensive range of teaching experience in close partnership with universities, local authorities, senior leaders and teachers. Her roles across the Midlands have included literacy coordinator, consultant and Regional Advisor for the Primary National Strategies.
Moving into higher education, she was Senior Lecturer in Primary English at Birmingham City University and taught post graduate students at the University of Nottingham where she also completed her MA in Children’s Literature and PhD in multimodal literacy. Petula specialises in developing approaches to engage children and raise boys’ attainment, and has published school-based research, teaching materials and resources on multimodality. She is sub-editor for the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA) newsletter and a regional representative.
Petula continues to support primary and secondary schools as an independent literacy consultant. She is based in Nottinghamshire where she also works as an Associate Advisor for the Local Authority.