Ruth Callaghan

Ruth teaches A-level Biology, and her lessons lean on the written answer. Words earn marks. She has seen plenty of students who know the content and still drop marks on the longer explain questions, so she works through exam questions line by line, checking what the command word is asking for and how many separate points the mark scheme wants before a sentence gets written.

Students send her drafts between lessons, whether that is a full exam answer or a required practical write-up, and she reads every one and returns it with comments in the margin. That habit tends to do more for a grade than another hour of teaching, because it makes the student write under their own steam and then find out exactly where the logic slipped.

She is direct without being discouraging. A vague response comes back with a question rather than a correction, and Ruth waits while the student works out what was missing. Her teaching runs from biological molecules and transport across membranes through to genetics and the synoptic questions at the end of the papers, where joining ideas from different parts of the course earns real marks.

Each progress report includes a page of the student's own written work with her comments on it, so parents can see the change in the answers rather than taking a grade on trust.