Following a BMus and MA at Cardiff University, studying with the renowned Bach scholar Professor Peter Williams, I completed my PGCE at Cardiff Met (then UWIC) and then spent 10 years in the classroom teaching secondary music. I have also taught at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff University and the Open University.
I joined Cardiff Met part time in 2012 and full time in 2015, and now lead the PGCE Secondary Music programme. In 2023, I was awarded my doctorate for a thesis entitled ‘A study of Key Stage 3 music teachers’ pedagogic beliefs in the context of a new curriculum for Wales’. My other responsibilities in Initial Teacher Education include membership of the clinical practice requirements team, who are responsible for translating the Cardiff Partnership’s adopted model of research-informed clinical practice into a framework for student teachers’ school placements.
In 2018, I collaborated with Emma O’Dubhchair to create a podcast, ‘Emma and Tom Talk Teaching’, which has been downloaded over 100,000 times worldwide and has welcomed academics, policymakers, teachers and student teachers to the studio.
I am currently involved in a three-year project with Canterbury Christ Church University, funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, investigating how to create deeper, more meaningful dialogues between different subject specialists in secondary schools.
