Mrs Lorna Hughes

I currently hold the positions of School Lead for Internationalisation and Course Director for masters level courses. My work is mainly focused around special educational needs and inclusion, but I also have a passion for international opportunities and the transformative aspect this can provide for leaerners. Previous to working at CCCU, I taught in a mainstream secondary school as an English Teacher and held the role of SENCO. 

Currently, I teach on the National Award for SEN Coordination and I am the Course Director for the Postgraduate Certificate in Specialist Teaching & Assessment for Dyslexia. I network with the Training Providers for both of these courses nationally to ensure that the programmes are current and aligned to the statutory and regulatory bodies' guidance.

I hold the professional status of Associate Member of the British Dyslexia Association and I am a member of the British Psychological Society: Register of Qualifications in Test Use. I also hold Qualified Teacher Status and I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

My PhD studies focus on legislative reforms in special education and the role of parents and schools in collaborative practice to provide equitable, inclusive education opportunities.

I currently lead on an international project focused on developing research capacity for teacher educators in Palestine funded by the Global Challenge Research Fund. In the past I led a work package for an Erasmus+ project entitled ‘Raising the Quality of Teacher Education Programmes in Palestine’. This focused on designing accredited undergraduate programmes and course materials with three Palestinian universities on teacher preparation courses for basic education (primary phase).

I recently led on an application to the Department for Education (DfE) to pilot the new International Qualified Teacher Status (iQTS). Canterbury Christ Church University were successful in being selected as just one of six providers in England to lead on this new initiative from September 2022.

Through consultancy projects, I worked with the Commonwealth Education Trust on the revision and development of their Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) materials to engage a wider audience. I also co-designed and delivered a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) module that enabled students at the university to directly collaborate on activities with students in The Coastal College of Georgia in America.

I have wider experience of supporting teachers’ professional development through consultancy work for Cambridge Assessment International Education. This involved working with Primary Teacher Educators across the world and providing in-country support in Mumbai and Dubai. Working with and assessing teachers’ qualifications has provided a comprehensive understanding of teaching practices and challenges in a wide range of contexts.