Staff Profile

  • Having gained her teaching qualification in 2002, Korrin began her school career as an English Teacher before taking on management and senior leadership roles in various schools in South London.

    She has worked at local (The Royal and Derngate) and national (The Poetry Society) arts organisations as Head of Education, promoting inclusion in the arts and widening participation of marginalised groups. In her arts education management roles, Korrin contributed findings from arts projects towards Ofsted’s report, Poetry in Schools – A Survey of Practice 2006-2007, and has spoken at Ofsted’s ‘Creativity in the Curriculum’ conferences.

    Since 2014, Korrin has worked as a senior leader in alternative provision settings, supporting young people with specific learning needs who have been excluded from mainstream school. In addition to working at pupil referral units, Korrin was Director of a local voluntary organisation championing the needs of young people ‘out of education’, offering free advice, resources and teaching.

    In 2020, Korrin was awarded a Masters in Education; her Masters dissertation explored the needs of SEBD pupils on work experience placements. She is currently chair of governors at a local primary school, with a whole school responsibility for Special Educational Needs and Disability.

    Korrin is also a published poet and was awarded the Regional Aurora Prize for Poetry in 2021 by the Society of Authors and Writing East Midlands. She received a grant from Arts Council England in 2021 to develop her practice; build a local community of educators who write poetry, and collect ethnographic poetry exploring the education sector. This research and writing project resulted in the creation of the Public Sector Poetry Journal; Korrin is the Director of this project and part of the Editorial team.

    Korrin is also the Co-ordinator for one of the Centre for Education and Research’s special interest groups: Education in Schools.

    • Childhood and Youth BA (Hons)
    • Learning and Teaching BA (Hons)
    • Education Studies BA (Hons)
    • Learning and Teaching (FDLT)
    • Inclusive Studies in SEND and Diversity BA (Hons)
    • Special Needs and Inclusion (MA)
  • Korrin’s Masters dissertation identified contributing factors for successful work placements for excluded SEBD students, deemed ‘disaffected’.

    Her post-graduate areas of research include: off-rolling and education entitlement; alternative provision and home education; ‘disaffection’ and SEBD; Creative approaches to promote Inclusion and Well-being, and the well-being and experiences of public sector workers, working in Education, Health and Social Care.

  • For publications, projects, datasets, research interests and activities, view Korrin Smith-Whitehouse’s research profile on Pure, the University of Northampton’s Research Explorer.

    • Smith, K. (2008) Taking the Fear out of Teaching Poetry. NATE Classroom: 4, pp. 6-8.