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Suzanne Gomersall

Mrs Suzanne Gomersall

Senior Lecturer

School of Social Sciences

Staff Group(s)
Undergraduate and Professional Education

Role

Suzanne Gomersall is the Admissions Tutor for BA (Hons) Primary Education undergraduate degree as well as a Senior Lecturer. On this course she lectures across all four years, delivering sessions on primary Design and Technology and Professional development. She also lectures on the PGCE and School Direct Primary Teaching routes, in both D&T and PE.

Career overview

Prior to joining NTU in 2014, Suzanne was an Assistant Head teacher and literacy leader at Oak Tree Primary School. In a bid to improve reading results across the school by promoting a love of reading, Suzanne project-managed the funding, designing, building and running of an inspiration library, which was named the most ‘Inspirational Library’ in the country in 2014.

Before that, Suzanne was a lead PE teacher, working with primary and secondary colleagues in her role as Primary Link Teacher of PE and School Sport Coordinator. Suzanne brought the ‘Wake and Shake’ initiative, which was to encourage children to engage in 10 minutes of daily exercise to many schools across Gedling.

After nearly twenty years as a primary teacher in Nottinghamshire, Suzanne joining the primary team at NTU primarily to lecture in Design and Technology and PE across the various primary teaching routes. She is very passionate about the value, importance and benefits of both of these subjects, both in the classroom and beyond.

After completing her Masters in Education in September 2017, Suzanne has published various articles and presented her work at several conferences. In September 2018, she began her PhD studies, focusing on childhood obesity, combining the two areas of great personal interest - health and fitness (PE) and cooking and nutrition (D&T). Her PhD is the evaluation of a whole school project entitled: The Healthy Lifestyles Project (HLSP), which aims to develop children's practical skills, knowledge and understanding to choose, prepare and cook healthy ingredients to feed themselves and their families, helping to change their attitudes and perceptions towards choosing a healthier lifestyle. The HLSP consists of a series of interventions including:

  • termly practical cooking and nutrition sessions delivered by a chef
  • engaging parents through homework tasks and ‘top tip’ leaflets to accompany the practical session
  • providing many opportunities to get active both in and out of school

Through her passion and rising profile, Suzanne is now an active member of the All-Party Parliament Group on School Food, as well as the Design & Technology Association's Subject Consultation Group, where she hopes to be able to play a part in shaping both primary D&T and School Food over the coming years.

Over the last several years, Suzanne has been proactive as the Admissions tutor for the BA Primary Education degree, responding to the lockdown situation, due to Coronavirus, by creating a rigorous, informative and supportive online interview process and has developed this into a hybrid system once face to face interviewing became possible again in 2022. She enjoys supporting families on open days to help them make sense of the admissions process and provides a warm, positive and informative presence on open days for the course.

Research areas

Suzanne completed both her PGCHE and Masters (Ed) at NTU, carrying out research around primary D&T and writing her dissertation about peer mentoring within HE. She has co-written a chapter around planning for creativity in the book: Serret N and Gripton C (2021) Purposeful Planning for Learning. Routledge, and recently had a chapter entitled ‘Healthy Lifestyles Project: a practical food programme for primary schools’ in: Food Futures in Education and Society by Lali, Turner and Rutland (2023), which introduces her PhD research, aimed at reducing childhood obesity by teaching children cooking and nutrition skills from an early age. It is a longitudinal study, lasting six years measuring and evaluating the impact the Healthy Lifestyles project has on their behaviours and choices towards a healthy lifestyle, throughout their time at primary school. Suzanne is looking forward to presenting the findings at the end of 2024.

This year, Suzanne has become a founding member of the D&T research unit:  NTU Archer Exchange, which brings together a group of colleagues from all age phases of D&T education from primary through to Higher Education, with a shared interest of raising the profile of D&T through research and expertise.

Current Projects

NTU Archer Exchange: Shaping the Future of D&T Education

External activity

Suzanne is an active member of the Design and Technology Association (DATA) Subject Consultation Group and have written articles for both their primary and secondary publications.

She is a member of the All-Party Parliament Group on School Food, and is looking forward to presenting the findings of her study in 2024.

Due to the new Ofsted framework which is promoting a 'broad and balanced curriculum', Suzanne has been in demand to provide CPD for staff in several of our local schools, and looks forward to continuing to support teachers as they bring their 'broad and balanced' curricula to life.

Sponsors and collaborators

Dr Alison Hardy

Dr Sarah Davies

Max Pownall

Publications

In the last 3 years Suzanne has had the following articles and chapters published:

November 2023. Gomersall, S. (2023) . The Initial Findings of the Healthy Lifestyles Project: A Practical  Design and Technology  Cooking and Nutrition Programme for Primary Schools.  In: S. Davies, M.McLain, A. Hardy & D. Morrison-Love (Eds) (2023), The  40th International Pupils Attitude to Technology Conference Proceddings 2013, 31 October-3 November, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK (319-329) The Initial findings of the Healthy Lifestyles Project:: A practical design and technology cooking and nutrition programme for primary schools | The 40th International Pupils’ Attitudes Towards Technology Conference Proceedings 2023 (ljmu.ac.uk)

July 2023. Healthy Lifestyles Project: a practical food programme for primary schools’ in: Lali, Turner and Rutland (2023) Food Futures in Education and Society. London: Routledge

Sept 2021.Gomersall, S. & Gripton, C. (2020). Planning for children’s creativity. In: Purposeful Planning for Learning: Shaping learning and teaching in the primary school. N. Serret & C. Gripton. Oxon: Routledge

April 2020. How Primary D&T can help with Childhood Obesity? In: D&T Practice issue 2

See all of Mrs Suzanne Gomersall's publications...