My Tes stories

Louise Robinson

My name is Louise Robinson. I'm 48 years old and have been married for 24 years. I have two daughters who are 22 and 18 years old. I live in Barnton, Northwich, Cheshire. I work for Weaver Trust, a MAT, and I’m based at Grange Community Nursery and Primary School in Winsford. 

I began my teaching career eight years ago as a teaching assistant in Nursery at Barnton Community Nursery and Primary School. At the time I was completing my degree in Childhood and Youth Professional Studies. I've taught Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 4.  

After completing my degree, I moved to Grange and began my Straight to Teaching journey, gaining QTS in July 2020. I'm currently teaching in Reception and am the early reading and phonics lead, RE lead and PSCHE lead.

What’s the best thing about teaching?

Knowing that every day is an opportunity to teach a child a new skill, and being able to facilitate children’s thirst for knowledge.

Why did you decide to enter teaching?

I’ve wanted to be a teacher since my childhood and went to university following my A levels. However, I dropped out and took a different career path, married and had children.

After my youngest daughter was born I established a child-minding business and began volunteering in my own children’s school. The desire to teach returned, but I thought I’d be too old to retrain and teach. But, after a conversation with a friend I decided to give it a shot and I reapplied to university. 

My degree was part-time and took me almost six years to complete. I then took the Straight to Teaching course with Tes Institute to gain QTS.

What’s been your proudest moment in teaching?

Teaching my current class phonics and seeing them use this knowledge to decode and read books independently.

What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced in your teaching career?

Teaching and training during a pandemic certainly tested me. Yet, with the support of my mentor, Sam Rutter and Tes tutor, Jo Warburton, it was achievable.

What celebrity best represents you as a teacher in the classroom and why?

At times I feel as though I’m a children’s entertainer, so maybe Mr Tumble!

What do you use Tes for?

I use Tes to explore lessons plans to aid my own planning.

What has using Tes helped/enabled/encouraged you to do?

Working alongside Jo, my tutor, she enabled me to utilise the Straight to Teaching Tes website to achieve my QTS.

Since qualifying I use Tes for inspiration.

If you were telling a friend about Tes, what would you say?

From a Straight to Teaching perspective just do it!  The support throughout the course is second to none.

From a professional point of view, it’s great to be able to use Tes to support lesson planning and to acquire resources. I also trust the information on the website.

You/your school gets a million pounds. What do you spend it on?

Books, books, more books, and a few glue sticks and white board pens!

One piece of advice or top tip you’d give someone just entering teaching today?

Don’t try to reinvent the wheel, speak to others in the teaching profession and use their skills to support your lessons plans.

And reflect on your practice. What went well and how could you have made it even better? Jo was ace at encouraging me to reflect!