Cara has authored learner books for Cambridge Primary Science 0097.
I have been involved in the development of learner materials from the start of my teaching career in 2000.
My first teaching job saw me facing 35, eleven-year-old children in rural Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. I had a classroom, a chalkboard, the curriculum and not a single textbook. It was a sink or swim moment, and I chose to swim. Armed with a computer, a dial up internet connection and a set of World Book, encyclopaedias, I set about making learning material for my students.
In 2003 I moved to Pretoria, South Africa having accepted a teaching position at Courtney House International School. In an environment rich in resources, I found a passion for making notes for my students – continuously looking for ways to find the key point of an objective and present this in a way that everyone would find interesting and understandable.
During this time, I developed first, materials for British National Curriculum for Key Stages 1, 2 and 3. Then, the Cambridge International curriculum, for use in my own classroom.
Later, as head of the Science department, I assisted teachers with resource selection, material development and curriculum implementation.
On the sale of our school, I seized the opportunity to develop a series of primary school science learner books. My goal has been to create material that is both scientifically accurate and accessible to young learners. I have enjoyed incorporating different opportunities for teachers to apply active learning within the books as well as experiments and other forms of scientific enquiry.
I believe that primary school science should be fun and evoke a child’s innate curiosity. To this end, I have endeavoured to author books that present the Cambridge Primary science curriculum as a series of interesting facts and explanations accompanied by age-appropriate activities.
