Maitreyee Chakraborty

Maitreyee is an Academic Coordinator for the British Curriculum programme at 21K School. Her journey in education began in the classroom, where her love for History, Political Science and meaningful conversations with learners shaped the way she understood teaching and learning. Over the years, this journey has grown into academic leadership, while her curiosity about how learners think, learn and connect ideas has remained at its heart.

With a Master’s in Education and postgraduate degrees in History and Political Science, she brings together subject knowledge, pedagogy and a deep interest in the learner behind the learning. Her academic interests span curriculum planning, assessment, instructional design, inquiry-based and differentiated learning, interdisciplinary learning, critical thinking, learner agency and technology-enabled education.

Today, her work extends beyond any one subject or classroom. She works across Grades to support curriculum implementation, academic planning and assessment, while collaborating closely with facilitators, learners and parents. She is particularly interested in how a curriculum is experienced by a learner, how facilitators can be supported to bring it alive, and how assessment can become a tool for understanding learning rather than simply measuring it.

A strong believer in learner ownership, Maitreyee creates opportunities for learners to take the lead through learner leadership, interdisciplinary experiences, creative academic initiatives and meaningful connections between classroom learning and the world around them. She values those moments when a learner moves from simply participating to thinking independently and saying, “I want to do this.”

Her work with educational technology and AI has added another dimension to her academic journey. She is interested in using technology thoughtfully, not for its own sake, but to support deeper learning, empower educators and create new possibilities for creativity, personalisation and engagement.

She believes that academic leadership is ultimately about people. It is about supporting a facilitator who needs encouragement, helping a learner find confidence, listening to a parent’s perspective, and bringing teams together around a shared academic purpose. For her, these human connections are as important as the curriculum itself.

For Maitreyee, education is about creating experiences that spark curiosity, encourage thoughtful thinking and help learners grow with confidence. She believes in building environments where learners and educators feel seen, supported and empowered to explore, question, create and grow.

My journey in education began in a classroom, with a genuine curiosity about how learners make sense of the world around them. As a Social Science educator, I found myself drawn not only to the content I was teaching, but also to the conversations, questions and connections that happened around it. History and Political Science taught me to value different perspectives, while my studies in Education helped me understand the many ways in which learners engage with knowledge.

Over time, my role evolved from teaching a subject to thinking more broadly about learning. Instructional design, curriculum planning, assessment, educational technology and an understanding of how learners think and learn became natural extensions of my work. I began to enjoy designing experiences that helped learners connect ideas, ask better questions and see relevance beyond the immediate learning context.

Today, as an Academic Coordinator, I get to look at learning from a much wider lens. I work with facilitators, learners and parents, support academic planning and assessment, and think about how different parts of the learning experience come together. I particularly enjoy supporting facilitators as they experiment, reflect and find new ways to make learning meaningful for their learners.

One part of my journey that continues to excite me is learner ownership. I love seeing what happens when learners are trusted with responsibility and given the space to create, lead, question and express themselves. Whether through learner leadership, interdisciplinary projects, academic initiatives or everyday classroom experiences, these moments remind me of what makes education so powerful.

I am also fascinated by the possibilities technology and AI are bringing to education. I enjoy exploring new tools, but I am equally interested in asking a more important question: does this actually make learning better? For me, technology is valuable when it gives learners or educators something more: more choice, more access, more creativity, more personalisation, or simply a better way to bring an idea to life.

What continues to motivate me most is people. A learner finding confidence, a facilitator trying something new, a parent feeling heard, or a team coming together to make an idea work may seem like small moments, but they are often the moments that make this work most meaningful for me.