I came to the University of East London in 2002 to manage the Secondary Graduate Teacher Programme and to teach on the PGCE Modern Languages programme. In addition to taking trainees with French as their main teaching language, the MFL programme is the first in the country to enable trainees to qualify as teachers of Bengali. We now have trainees in all major European languages and our work has been recognised by Ofsted who awarded our course a ‘Grade 1’ in 2003/4.

The Graduate Teacher Programme has grown enormously and we now offer this programme in all secondary subjects and have added the Overseas Trained Teacher Programme to our portfolio. It has been an exciting opportunity to develop these two new Programmes – working both within UEL and in local schools to build up a supportive partnership with the capacity to train high calibre teachers.

Before coming to UEL I worked at Anglia Polytechnic University for 5 years where I was also involved in Initial Teacher Training for undergraduate and postgraduate Programmes and employment- based routes. My last post at APU was Field Leader for secondary teacher training. I was very lucky to work with over 90 schools in Essex and surrounding areas which gave me a good knowledge of local schools and teachers which I have been able to draw on in supporting our present trainees based across London and the home counties.

Prior to training teachers I was Director of a translation agency for four years. I taught French and German for fifteen years, including primary languages. I was Head of Modern Languages in a Havering comprehensive school and also worked in the London boroughs of Barnet and Enfield.

Employment Based Initial Teacher Training

I have an interest in creating and developing professional learning in informal learning sites (e.g. museums), through new technologies and in online communities. I maintain the CreativeITT website which amongst other things showcases projects undertaken by Secondary ITE tutors and trainees. I am interested in social networking, particularly the use by children and young people and am currently researching in the area of ethics in cyberspace to look at the differences in behaviour in 'virtual' and 'real' worlds.

My other interests include management of the night time economy in urban areas and the impact of alcohol consumption on the health of young people. I am an active member of the Brighton Old Town Local Action Team and a board member of Eco Developments.

I am pleased to be the UEL trustee of the newly created Upminster Learning Trust.

• Secondary Graduate Teacher Programme
• Secondary Post Graduate Certificate in Education

• Brennan, C and Wright, K (2010) “Making Collaboration Count: can assessment be constructively aligned to recognise and reward collaborative activity?” UEL Learning and Teaching and Assessment Conference;
• Brennan, C, Herrington, N and Wright K (2010) “Teacher Training in an Urban Setting: A Story from East London” in Ang L, Trushell J and Walker PLearning and Teaching in a MetropolisRedopi Amsterdam-New York;
• Museumscouts: A Handbook for Teachers and Tutors(2009) EU Comenius Project
• Brennan, C and Herrington, N.  (2006). “Professionals, Partnerships and Academia” UEL Learning and Teaching Conference;
• Brennan, C (2006) “A critical evaluation of the development of an E-learning Community to support Secondary Initial Teacher Training at the University of East London”. BERA Annual Conference University of Warwick ;
• Brennan, C (2006) “The challenges of building an e-learning community in ITT using WebCT”. CILT Annual Conference University of Manchester;
• Rising to the challenges of building an e-learning community in initial teacher training (ITT). TDA E-learning Case Study;
• Brennan, C, Herrington N and Wright K (2006) “Quality and Diversity: a simple story of East End Folk” UCET Annual Conference Daventry;
• "Supporting the Delivery of Professional Studies in secondary schools and colleges" (2005) LPHDG Project.

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA);

Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA);

Member of the General Teaching Council for England (GTC);

Vice Chair of London and South East 2 Regional ITT Network (TDA);

Member of London Providers Harmonisation and Development Group (LPHDG);

Ambassador for the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre;

Chair of Brighton Old Town Local Action Team (BOTLAT);

External Examiner for employment based training at CILT, the National Centre for Languages.

Trustee of Upminster Learning Trust

Governor of Hall Mead School