Hywel has been a teacher for over twenty-five years. He has found an incredible and innovative niche in the world of model teaching contributing to and advising curriculum designers and innovators from Barnsley to Brussels, from Cairo to Cleethorpes. Hywel is as at home in front of hundreds of Headteachers on the conference circuit as he is when working with EAL children on the carpets of their classrooms. Hywel contributes to the national conversation around education at school and university level. He is an experienced teacher in Special, Primary and Secondary settings, nationally and internationally. He is also a well- respected author and contributes regularly to a variety of publications. Hywel contributes to the Masters programme in Drama and Creative Writing at Leeds Beckett University. As well as contributing to University Education programmes in Sheffield, Huddersfield, Liverpool, Durham and Wolverhampton, Hywel still works with children, keeping his insight fresh, current and useful. His work deals with curriculum liberation, creative practice, engagement, leadership, literacy, teacher development and Imagineering – the liberation of the art of teaching.
In addition to working in schools, Hywel is a regular contributor to conferences including The Sunday Telegraph Festival of Education, Northern Rocks, Practical Pedagogies in France, and The University of Belfast Thinking Conference. He is also in demand as a conference keynote speaker working alongside colleagues such as Mick Waters, Karen Ardley, The Real David Cameron and Estelle Morris as well as associates of Ian Gilbert’s Independent Thinking Ltd, an organisation he is very passionate about. Hywel has recently worked for the National Galleries in Edinburgh, The Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield and the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds as a visiting teacher.
His award-winning book ‘Oops! Getting Children to Learn Accidentally’ is published by Crown House Publishing. He writes a regular column for the Times Educational Supplement about his encounters as a ‘travelling teacher’. His new book ‘Uncharted Territories’, written with Dr Debra Kidd, was published in 2018. Hywel’s number one Bestseller on Amazon, ‘Botheredness’ was published in 2023. He has also contributed fiction to a prison-based literacy reading programme developed by The Shannon Trust. Hywel is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Charted College of Teaching.
He was recently described as ‘..a world leader in enthusiasm’.