CV? You've come here because you want to know more about me. Click on any of the following to find out more:

If you want me to give you some money, click here.


Mission statement

  1. I set myself high standards and aim to be an excellent teacher.
  2. I hope to motivate children to want to learn and find things out for themselves.
  3. I want children to find science exciting!
  4. I wish ICT to feature strongly in my teaching but not just for the sake of it: providing children with the skills necessary to be involved in todays world, while also encouraging them to recognise the limitations of ICT and when it is better to use more traditional methods.
  5. I would like to do as much teaching outside the classroom as possible.

Academic Qualifications

Academic Awards

Work experience

  • Class teacher, Brookland Junior School, Herts (present): Teaching everything but music
  • Temporary lecturer, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich (2003): Lecturing and organising part of a course on plate tectonics
  • Demonstrator, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich (2000-2003): Assisting lecturer in laboratory work and on field trips within the UK and Greece
  • Labourer, DKT Group, Ashbourne (1998-1999): General industrial labouring, including site work
  • Combat Engineer, 73 Royal Engineers (TA) (1993-1998): Soldiering, engineering skills, demolitions, bridge-building
  • Assistant Manager, Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries, Wolverhampton (1995-1997): Book-keeping, cellar management, health & safety, customer service, management, relief-work

Transferable Skills

Mental skills

  • Motivated and enthusiastic
  • Good sense of humour, sociable and likeable (so I'm told...)
  • Enjoys a challenge and problem solving

Physical skills

  • Very hands-on and resourceful
  • Physically fit, active and hard-working

IT Skills

  • Pretty good: Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint; Adobe Illustrator; email and internet
  • Not bad: Microsoft Windows XP and Frontpage; Adobe Photoshop and GoLive; databases

Interests

Physical

  • I love outdoor sports, and have tried many. I prefer rock climbing, mountain biking and power-kiting. I once broke my collar bone when a large kite lifted me off the ground and dumped me 20m down the beach!
  • I enjoy road running and cross-country and occasionally take part in races.
  • I also enjoy both watching and playing football.

Non-physical

  • Photography, especially landscapes and close-ups of objects.
  • I like working with computers and learning new programs. I sometimes manipulate my photographs using digital techniques. It was this that first got me interested in creating my own website to show off some of these pictures.

Websites

This website is the third version of cliveportman.co.uk. It's significant in that I have coded the whole site by hand (rather than using programs such as Frontpage or Dreamweaver) and the site uses a full CSS layout. This required learning XHTML, CSS, some JavaScript and even a little PHP. As a result, I think the site looks cleaner and more professional than previous versions and I feel I've really worked to create something myself.

I have also built a website for my school, which can be viewed here.