Josie Ashton

About

A teacher, an artist and a writer. In that order, on most days.

Josie Ashton spent a decade in UK secondary classrooms teaching art (and English, and French, rarely by choice), which is where Coming to Terms happened. She believes in speaking out on education and equality, especially when it’s inconvenient.

And though she left secondary teaching, the teaching never left her. She now teaches adults both art and language. She considers herself one of the lucky ones.

Self-portrait by the author, period five, a Thursday.

Josie Ashton, self-portrait

The longer version

Josie Ashton taught art, then English, then French as well, in state secondary schools in the south of England for ten years. She left in 2024. Coming to Terms is what she wrote next: part diary, part case for the defence, part love letter to the kids.

Josie Ashton is a pen name. The schools, colleagues and pupils in the book are real, but their names are not, and some details have been changed. Everything that matters happened.

She paints in ink and watercolour, drew every picture on this site and in the book, and can usually be found with paint somewhere she didn’t intend it.