Victoria Stutt

Victoria is an experienced science teacher, specialising in Chemistry. She has taught all ability levels, from KS3 up to A-Level, in secondary schools and a sixth form college, in the state and independent sector.She has authored and edited several titles, including the Key Skills and Knowledge Boosters for A-Level sciences and BTEC science, and electronic science resources.

Q&A with Victoria Stutt

What inspired you to write resources for teachers?

I initially started to write resources that I myself would want to use, to help with delivery of homework, or to help students who were struggling with key principles in Science. Being a teacher myself, I like to put resources together that are easy to use and actually help in the day-to-day delivery of lessons, and can provide evidence of progress or generate data or key pointers for assessments or feedback.

What do you think is the most important thing when trying to engage students with work?

Students need to be able to relate to what they are learning and to not be put off by complex wordings or high level language. Although scientific principles are vital to the learning of science, the language of science can be incredibly hard for many students to access or engage with. It's therefore important that work can be adapted to a students' level, without losing its meaning. Above all, it ideally needs to be fun!

Can you give us any teasers of what to expect from your new KS3 ACE Science titles?

Easy to use, accessible and extremely useful tasks - covering all aspects of the new KS3 curriculum. They will be enjoyable for students to complete and very useful for busy teachers; with all the assessment details teachers need in the absence of levels. The tasks can be fitted into existing schemes of work or can often be used as homeworks, or even VLE based tasks.

What are the major themes of your work?

One major theme is introducing the ACE model of assessment, developed by Dr Chandler-Grevatt, that can be used in the absence of levels. It will be an extremely useful assessment tool for teachers, that will generate useful feedback on student performance, and hence help teachers embed assessment for learning. The titles are also all written to help support the less able student and stretch the more able student, with support and extension sheets included with many tasks. We have also placed a strong focus on the use of models in the new titles, with a new title available this year, called Scientific Concepts Through Models and Analogies. This will help teachers use models and analogies with students across the curriculum, and stretch the abstract thinking skills of students at all levels.

What initially made you first interested in Science?

I was first interested in Science as I wanted to know how things worked, and why things happened. I was forever taking things apart, or mixing things together to find out what happened. I have always enjoyed the logical processes that underpin science, and the problem solving needed to find answers to questions or to carry out investigations.

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers/authors?

Try putting something together and approaching a publisher - explain why you have written it, and who you think it will help and how. The process of writing can be long, and be prepared to re-read your work over and over with a fine-tooth comb, but it is really enjoyable and it's really rewarding to see your work in print.