About

I grow people and systems at the same time.

I am a science teacher and head of department, and I have spent sixteen years in classrooms across four countries: the United States, Thailand, China, and now India. I trained as a biochemist before I became a teacher, and that habit of mind never left. I want to understand how a system works, test it honestly, and keep what holds up.

Most of my work sits at the seam of curriculum, wellbeing, and practical classroom AI, and it starts from one principle: build capacity before tools. The platform is never the point. What matters is whether teachers and students can do something better, with less friction, than they could before. I would rather grow the people in the room than hand them another login.

That instinct has taken me well beyond my own classroom. I have built the systems a school runs on, led colleagues and supported staff through their growth, served on accreditation teams, and learned, across four countries, that the best system is the one people will actually use.

I start with wellbeing. When students and staff are looked after, a school has the steadiness to ask the questions that matter: what education is for, where it is heading, and how we move with it rather than against it.

Wellbeing at the heart

Leading now

Team
An eight-teacher science department across grades 6 to 12.
Supervision
Two technicians, supported through a yearly growth cycle with Assistant Principal sign-off.
Budget
A zero-based department budget of around US$50,000.
Facilities
Oversaw the renovation of the middle school science labs. Helped plan lab safety upgrades and the renovation of science preparation areas.
Beyond the department
CIS accreditation visiting team member, with school-wide work in data, assessment, and practical AI.
Student voice
Co-facilitate the Student Advisory Forum with the High School Principal, currently working on school guidance for AI use.
Beyond the school
Founded AI Coding for Educators, a free public programme where teachers build classroom tools with AI. Invited to the IB Chemistry Bootcamp, the programme through which the IB shapes the next iteration of the Chemistry course.

If you are building something along these lines, I would like to hear about it.

matthewignash.com
An instructional leader who builds systems and develops people, across four countries.