David Waugh

David is Professor of Education at Durham University School of Education.

He has extensive teaching experience in schools and universities. Having taught in four schools in East Yorkshire for fourteen years, latterly as a deputy headteacher, he took up a post as lecturer in English for ITT at University of Hull in 1990. He went on to lead the PGCE course, which achieved successive "outstanding" grades from Ofsted in 2004 and 2007, and became Head of Department of the Centre for Educational Studies in 2005.

In 2008, he became one of two advisers for primary ITT for the National Strategies, working with universities and school-based training providers throughout England. His role included professional development for tutors and teachers; working with trainee teachers; organising and presenting at conferences; producing e-learning resources; leading projects on literacy, inclusion, and mathematics; and liaising with other agencies, including TDA, UCET and DCSF.

In 2013, David was awarded a faculty prize for his outreach work in Primary English, which includes delivering lectures to students in schools, followed by students working one-to-one with pupils putting theory into practice.

David has published extensively on primary English and on management of educational change, the subject for his doctoral thesis. His publications include sixteen books for Scholastic designed to support teachers and trainees in planning for teaching. English 3-11 (2008, Routledge), written with Jolliffe, W, was a core text for many ITT providers. Its successor, English 5-11, published in October 2012 and again in 2016, is also a core text in ITT. Teaching Systematic Synthetic Phonics in Primary Schools (Jolliffe, W and Waugh, D with Carss, A) was published in June 2012 and again in 2015 and has also become a core text for ITT programmes.

He has also co-written e-learning resources, including Developing Literacy in ITT, Secondary Developing Literacy in ITT, Progressing Learning in Literacy, Developing Mathematics in ITT, and Mentoring and Coaching.

He has also written an app. Spelling Punctuation and Grammar for Children Count, together with English, E, Bulman, E, Allott, K and Waugh, R. (2014).

This is designed to provide ready access to subject knowledge on spelling, grammar and punctuation for teachers via mobile phones and tablet computers.

David also wrote, with Jonathan Pye, a former postgraduate student, resources for the Teach It website on teaching spelling (published 2014). His recent publications include:

Waugh, D, Jolliffe, W and Allott, K (eds) (2017) Primary English for Trainee Teachers (2nd edition). London: Sage.

Jolliffe, W and Waugh, D with Carss, A (2019) Teaching Systematic Synthetic Phonics in Primary Schools. (2nd edition) London: Sage.

Waugh, D, Warner, C and Waugh, R (2019) Teaching Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling in Primary Schools (2nd edition) London: Sage.

Waugh, D, Neaum, S and Waugh, R (2016) Children’s Literature in Primary Schools (2nd edition). London: Sage.

Waugh, D and Harrison-Palmer, R (2013) Auditing Phonic Knowledge and Understanding. London: Sage

Waugh, D, Carter, J and Desmond, C (2015) Lessons in Teaching Phonics. London: Sage.

Jolliffe, W and Waugh, D (2017) NQT: London: Sage

Allott, K and Waugh, D (2016) Language and Communication in Primary Schools. London: Sage.

Bushnell, A and Waugh, D (eds) (2017) Inviting Writing Across the Curriculum. London: Sage.

Jolliffe, W, Waugh, D and Beverton, S with Stead, J (2014) Supporting Secondary Readers. London: Sage.

A key feature of several of the books is the case studies of classroom practice provided by local teachers and Durham students, some of whom have been acknowledged in the text.

He has also written chapters in several books, including:

Waugh, D (2015) 'Primary Education in England' in Brock, C (2015) (ed.) Education in the United Kingdom: A Regional Overview. London: Bloomsbury.

David is often asked to contribute articles to news websites (e.g. BBC) and newspapers (e.g. The Guardian)

David also enjoys writing stories for children. He has written six novels for children aged 8 and above. Lottie's Run tells the story of the England football captain's daughter's escape from kidnappers. His second novel, "Girls Can't Play Football!", tells of Lauren Morris's battle to be accepted as a member of her school football team, while trying to save her school from closure. His third, Jessica's Other World, was published in February, 2016 and tells of Jessica Chambers' adventures when she discovers a trapdoor under her bed which leads to a different house and a very different lifestyle.

In 2017, The Wishroom was published - a novel David wrote with 45 children from 15 East Durham primary schools. In 2019, Twins?, written with 12 children from Our Lady and St Joseph's, Brooms appeared.