Caroline Huntley

Membership Grade: Associate
Length of IfL Membership: Not supplied
Current Position: Teacher/Deputy Olass Manager
Reserved Seats: Offender Learning/South West England

My name is Caroline Huntley. I have been a Skill for Life teacher in prisons in the South West for the past 2 years. I have taught in category B and D prisons and in a women’s prison. Prior to this I was working in further education with young people from the age of 16-19 who had not achieved within the school system and wanted to progress into apprenticeship schemes.

I would welcome the opportunity to sit on the IfL Advisory Council as I feel I have a wide range of knowledge of teaching within offender learning and could make a worthwhile and valuable contribution to the teaching sector as a whole.

Working in prison education presents its own unique challenge. Access to resources is limited for most, with the majority of learners and teachers having no or very restricted access to the World Wide Web and rely on limited library resources, teacher and tutor advice, and others to assist them. Learning takes place in an environment where the overriding concern is for the secure custody of prisoners and not their ability to learn.

The IfL represents the whole range of learning experiences and as such would represent a valuable resource for the improvement of learning within the prison system and across all sectors, and I feel that I would make a sound and sensible contribution to that process.

I feel that the development and quality of learning within prisons can only be improved by input from other educational establishments and the staff that work within them.

If I am successful in this election I would hope that I would use my time on the IfL Advisory Council to broaden the remit of the IfL and forge closer ties with the wider educational world outside of prison education.