What’s the best thing about teaching?
Students! I miss them in my new role. They would always put a smile on my face and they still do when I'm visiting our schools. The students we have are amazing, and all you need to do if you're having a tough day in meetings is to step outside the office, wander through the corridors and pop into classrooms to speak to the students and find out what they're learning.
A conversation with a student can very quickly remind you of why you went into teaching.
Why did you decide to enter teaching?
Friends and family had always said I’d be a PE teacher but I wanted to be a physiotherapist. But a couple of set backs with my A levels meant a change in direction and university was on hold.
I became a fitness instructor and then had a change of heart to try an office job, it didn’t take me long before I realised that wasn’t for me and I headed as a mature student to university, and it was only towards the end of my degree that I decided to go into teaching. I think I’d always known this was something I wanted to pursue but hadn’t gone with it. In the end it came through and it was the best decision I've made!
What’s been your proudest moment in teaching?
As head of secondary in my last post – to lead a school with such fantastic students who have incredible attitudes towards their learning due to the team around them made me extremely proud.
I would often get choked up at a graduation speech and be holding back the tears when speaking about the students and their achievements, or even when leading end of year assemblies or farewell speeches I’d get overwhelmed with emotion reminiscing about everything that had been achieved for our students and the community!
There are always the students who astound you with their achievements in exams, but it's also those who've gone from being too shy to say a word, to leading assemblies in front of the whole school – or who've been having instrumental lessons and get up on stage – who blow you away and make you tear up because they've come such a long way.
I have ex-students from my NQT years who are also in PE teaching, and they've developed to be outstanding leaders in schools around the world. We are connected on social media and it's amazing to see their achievements.
What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced in your teaching career?
I'm often willing to be thrown in at the deep end (!) so there has been plenty to learn from on my journey. Every new role or responsibility is a challenge, and I've faced most calmly. I believe calm is contagious and although my heart might be beating loudly and my nerves running high, I have a fairly good poker face!
Moving school is always a challenge, but packing up your life and moving to the other side of the world – having never set foot inside the school or met the team you’ve committed to for the next two years – is pretty big.
On both occasions I've moved overseas from the UK it has taken time to settle in, but almost 10 years on and three international schools later, it was worth each risk!
What do you use Tes for?
Our schools in Malaysia use Tes as one channel for recruitment. The Tes reach is global and together we can attract a high calibre of candidate. I'll often scroll through to see what's out there and where there is movement on the international circuit. It’s useful to see what positions are being recruited for in terms of more recent focus such as edtech or innovation, and DEJI roles.
I regularly use the Tes app for the magazine and the news. It helps me to keep up to date with all education matters in the UK and across the globe with the variety of articles and contributors. I’ll often share links to relevant articles for colleagues to support their development in their responsibility areas too.
It’s great to be part of the Tes International network too, it gives opportunity for sharing best practice, and staying in tune with relevant initiatives across the international circuit. The links to the social network pages for both Tes and Tes International provide valuable connections with like-minded leaders and teachers to share best practice and network on a global scale.
What has using Tes helped/enabled/encouraged you to do?
Many of the articles on Tes have helped to spark ideas and start conversations about the next initiative or how certain aspects of our school could be better. I'll often share articles in my weekly reminders with the team or send them to individuals to kick-start an interest and see where curiosity takes us all.
Personally, Tes has encouraged me to be #10percentbraver as I have contributed articles that have been published, providing insight and guidance for teachers looking to make the move to the international circuit. It’s led to many more connections and opportunities to speak, write and collaborate on projects that I'd never have got involved in otherwise.
If you were telling a friend about Tes, what would you say?
It’s where every teacher heads for a job, resources or articles to catch up on any teaching.
You/your school gets a million pounds. What do you spend it on?
Invest in projects run by our students, as they would keep investing to help the million pounds grow, which would be spent to make education accessible to all children on our planet.
We’d invest in our students as leaders, we’d build the schools and resource them, train the teachers and create a strategy to get all children access to learning around the world.
One piece of advice or top tip you’d give someone just entering teaching today?
Get into as many different classrooms as you can to watch, listen and learn how to be the most effective teacher you can, and that includes self-care too.
