EPeeps Melissa Musgrove | Teacher Consultant UAE

We have another new addition to the EP international team and we would like to welcome the very positive, enthusiastic and super organised, Melissa Musgrove! With a background and passion for teaching, we are excited for the impact Melissa can have on UAE schools and learning.

“Exploring data and people analytics are all the buzz in UAE at the moment. There is a surplus of schools in the region, so anything that can help schools differentiate and measure the success of their students is a bonus.”

Meet Melissa

A massive science nerd at heart (after a recent trip to NASA Houston, I secretly do very much want to be an astronaut), I fell in love with the idea of becoming a science teacher during my Year 11 Physics class.  My physics teacher not only inspired a love in the subject but was such an important advocate for his students. Something that I too wanted to do when I grew up – do we ever actually grow up?

My teaching career was launched at Canberra Girls Grammar School (CGGS), where I was lucky to have worked there for 15 years in a variety of roles.  My most recent appointment, as the Head of Science and Technology, was a true highlight of my career and I loved creating opportunities outside of the classroom to inspire a passion and love of all things science.  To help students understand the world around them, to inspire them to be curious and to deepen their understanding through cool experiments – being a science teacher is great fun!

Then, my husband scored a job in Abu Dhabi and we decided to follow him.

Proudest accomplishments 

Other than my two kids; the annual Women in STEM festival that I established at CGGS.  Providing the students with opportunities to meet and work alongside an inspiring group of females working within the STEM field.  It is well known that females do not typically study and then follow on to work in the field of STEM; a trend that I am passionate about reversing.

Why become an EPeep?

I worked closely with EP in my previous role in Canberra, both as a teacher and as the Head of Faculty.  So when I saw the job advertised in Abu Dhabi, I thought “what were the chances, that EP would need a person at the exact time and place that I was”.  It was the perfect opportunity and the perfect fit. Like-minded people working together to inspire a love of learning in students around the world!

Favourite features

The data!  So much good data to help the teacher guide their students learning and to help the faculty program future units.  With the data, it is easy to individualise the learning but to also give good feedback to the faculty and the parents.

It is also very teacher friendly. We are so time poor that anything which helps make our job efficient and easy is a bonus. I have worked with many platforms over the past few years, EP was by far the easiest to navigate but the most comprehensive in content and range of activities.

Most excited about

Being a part of an international team. Working with people all around the world. Branching out into new areas and emerging markets,

EP in three

  1. The content rich, fresh and regularly updated or improved. There is so much content to explore and use. The content is delivered in a variety of ways and new ways to engage with the content is brought online regularly.
  2. The data! As I mentioned before, very useful and comprehensive. Allows the teacher to differentiate and personalise.
  3. The easiest platform to use – saves time, quick to create tasks, the support team behind the screen is excellent

EP’s potential in the UAE

Exploring data and people analytics are all the buzz in UAE at the moment. There is a surplus of schools in the region, so anything that can help schools differentiate and measure the success of their students is a bonus. The EP competitions for example would be loved over here. The schools in the UAE love to promote how their students are both achieving excellence and that they are happy – the provision of first class material will resonate with the market and the ability to personalise the content will tick the “happiness” of the students in their learning.

Being an international community, many students come into the schools with such a broad background with various prior academics. EP could help students catch up in their new school system or be supported to fill in any gaps. And in reverse, it could be used to extend students who are repeating content or concepts.

Goals for the next three months

  • To become an expert in the use of EP across other subjects; not just science.
  • To become more familiar with the British and American curriculum in Languages, Science and Mathematics.
  • To support the successful introduction of EP in UAE international schools who currently use either Australian, British or American curriculum 
  • To support the mapping of the IB, British and American languages curriculum to the current EP content