In September 2014, after a discussion about twitter edchats, Gaz Needle (@gazneedle) and Rob Smith (@redgierob) of LiteracyShed.com, decided to start a new edchat focusing on primary education as many of the chats we had participated in were very secondary focused.  The inaugural #PrimaryRocks chat was held on 29th September and @gazneedle has been hosting it each Monday between 8-9pm UK time. To reflect our feelings about teaching in primary schools, we named it #PrimaryRocks - because it does!

What started as a few teachers sharing ideas has garnered a substantial following regularly trending on twitter!  We deal with the whole spectrum of issues that affect primary practitioners and have created a hashtag and chat where people can be supportive of each other and share their ideas.

Meet Our Team

Find out more about the people behind PrimaryRocks

Gaz Needle

​Gaz Needle is undoubtedly the best head teacher who runs a primary focused edchat each Monday from 8pm. He has taught since the last century and is now a head after managing to get away with  holding all sorts of other roles in schools. His favourite colour is blue; his favourite number is 7; he supports Manchester City and his favourite video game is Metal Gear Solid on PS1. Oh... he is also the co-founder of #PrimaryRocks 
​@gazneedle

Rob Smith

Rob Smith was a primary school teacher for over 10 years. In that time, he developed a love for using film in the classroom to enhance the teaching of English. Rob now travels the world sharing his love for film with teachers and students. Demonstrating how films, such as those on his Literacy Shed website, can be used to scaffold the reading and writing processes.
 @redgierob

Jenna Lucas

Jenna is passionate about all aspects of Teaching and Learning, but especially her most favourite subject: English. Reading, writing (including SPaG), drama, and Philosophy for Children, really float her boat. Jenna is a strong advocate of promoting teacher and pupil wellbeing, genuinely believing that a school will thrive when the wellbeing of all is a priority. When not teaching, Jenna can be found exploring the south coast and beyond in the family campervan.
​@JennaLucas81

Sophie Merrill

Sophie has taught for 12 years mostly in KS2. She is an art specialist, delivering cpd to schools and trainee teachers. She is currently phase leader and curriculum leader. Sophie has a passion for creativity and believes this should drive learning forward in the classroom. ​
​ @MissSMerrill

Richard Farrow

Rich Farrow would rather be a postman than a teacher but this job pays more hence his late 20's career change. Since then he has been successfully boring, sorry, teaching children by using traditional methods; although rumours abound that he once allowed his class 20 minutes on an iPad. In his spare time he likes fighting people at the boxing gym and being grumpy. And beer. 
​@FarrowMr

Angela Goodman

Angela started teaching at a boarding school in Zambia 20 years ago. She has taught Nursery to Year 6, and is now Headteacher of a two form primary in Tameside, East Manchester. She is keen to broaden pupil experiences, and has gained numerous British Council grants to enable staff and students to travel globally.​
 @goodman_ang

Graham Andre

Graham Andre’ has worked in Education for over two decades, with roles ranging from school cleaner and secretary to teaching assistant and most recently class teacher. After several years of indecision and fear of paperwork Graham finally bit the bullet, completing a part time degree in Education and Training Studies and became qualified through the GTP route. Graham has experience in teaching all year groups from Reception to Year 6 and is currently ‘Progression Team Leader’ for Year 3 and 4 at Lanesend Primary School (Isle of Wight). His work on the http://www.numeracyshed.com and through Genius Hour, plus his increasing presence on Twitter (@grahamandre) has seen many opportunities to share his creative Maths ideas and resources, with a variety of educators.
​@grahamandre

Leah Sharp

Leah entertains Year 4 and can be found down in the glorious, seagull-infested Brighton, so often finds herself more popular in summer. Often found (legally) punching, skipping and running around the beach in the wee early hours or on the search for decent beer at the weekend, which provides distraction from chasing cows to stroke. She loves all things writing, geography, computing and forging interesting curricular links by mixing them all together to see what comes out. One last thing, life is too short for bad coffee, especially during the school day. 
​@Leah_Moo

Bryn Goodman

Bryn has been teaching for 18 years across both key stages. He has worked in a variety of schools and is currently teaching in Oldham. He is a contributor to the Literacy Shed website and has written content for a range of apps for Alan Peat. He is currently a computing coordinator. 
​@Bryngoodman

Tim Head

Tim is an Assistant HEad in a large Primary School.  He leads computing within the school and heads up a computing cluster across the family of schools.  A fan of films, he curates the Newark Film and Animation awards. 
​Tim Loves to innovate.  New tech/Old methods.  Learning is the key.
​The #PrimaryRocks resident Geek, he loves to blog and play playstation games. 
​ @MrHeadComputing