Christine Counsell
Christine Counsell is an independent consultant supporting schools in curriculum and teacher development. Following teaching and leadership positions in state schools in Gloucestershire and Bristol, Christine worked as local authority adviser for history in primary and secondary schools. Appointed Senior Lecturer at the University of Cambridge in 1997, she ran the university’s history PGCE for 19 years and led on school-based mentoring of new teachers in all subjects. In 2016, Christine became Director of Education of a MAT serving areas of deprivation in East Anglia. She introduced a new knowledge-rich primary curriculum, set up subject communities in secondary subjects for a collaboratively designed secondary curriculum and founded a new SCITT for the region.
Alongside these roles, Christine has worked at national and international level, as consultant, trainer, drafter and speaker, working with policymakers, regulators, teachers, leaders and scholars all over the world. She has specialised in the teaching of history in post-conflict zones, undertaking extended projects in Cyprus and Lebanon. Christine has regularly advised the DfE and Ofsted, including in 2016 serving on the DfE Workload Solutions group, from 2017-19 on the Ofsted Curriculum Advisory Group that developed the current inspection framework, and subsequently delivering curriculum training for all HMI. She currently serves on an advisory panel for Oak National Academy and has been appointed Lead Drafter for the government’s forthcoming (2024) Model History Curriculum.
In 2021, together with Steve Mastin, Christine founded Opening Worlds Ltd, a company which partners with communities of primary schools to resource a knowledge-rich primary humanities curricula (geography, history and RE) and train teachers in its use. Originally developed in and for primary schools in Haringey, Opening Worlds has now been adopted in over 200 primary schools, with new communities in Birmingham, Brent, Cambridgeshire, Haringey, Kent, Lancashire, Liverpool, Peterborough, Stoke-on-Trent and Surrey.
Christine has published and edited many textbooks, academic books and articles on curriculum. She has a long association with the Historical Association and edits their journal, Teaching History. Her latest writing project is an innovative story-rich Key Stage 3 textbook series with Hodder Education to be published in Spring 2023.
Christine currently serves as trustee on the Board of David Ross Education Trust (11 secondaries, 22 primaries, 1 special school). She is a passionate advocate of this MAT’s ambitious programme known as #DRETreads – a systematic plan to ensure all pupils read a wide range of classic and contemporary novels, in their entirety.
While at the University of Cambridge, Christine was awarded both the university’s Pilkington Prize for outstanding teaching and the university’s student-led award for outstanding lecturing. In 2017, Christine was awarded an honorary doctorate by Anglia Ruskin University.