In October, primary school principal teacher Debbie Matthewson won an Education Scotland learning for sustainability award for leadership. The awards recognise people, settings and communities that are passionate about - and committed to - building a sustainable, socially just and equitable world.
Speaking to Tes Scotland, Matthewson, who teaches at Stow Primary, near Galashiels, talks about why a decade working on the other side of the planet - where she ran an Australian bus company for backpackers - made her passionate about diversity and global citizenship.
She also explains how one New Zealand boy’s campaign to ban single-use plastic straws led to children in a small Scottish Borders school becoming environmental “disrupters”.
1. Who was your most memorable teacher and why?
The teachers I liked were the teachers who “got” me, who saw me as an individual and appreciated people’s differences.
There was an incident when I was in about P3 where I was accused of copying from another pupil, but the truth was he had copied me. The teacher was furious, ripped the page from my book and shouted at me. As you can appreciate, I was quite aggrieved and no matter what I did to explain, my voice wasn’t heard. Being a crier, I couldn’t stop, and despite word getting out to my mum via my sibling about how upset I was, when she came to the school at lunchtime, she was not allowed to see me.
Now, if the teacher had done that to my sister, it would have been like water off a duck’s back - but clearly the teacher did not know me. That’s why, for me, relationships and knowing the children and knowing the individual are so important - that experience has shaped how I approach and deal with both pupils and parents.
2. What were the best and worst things about your time at school?
I played a lot of sport at school - hockey, basketball, volleyball and running - and that was always a very positive experience. The teachers in the PE department treated me like an adult and as an individual. It’s a subject that lends itself to that because you need to look at the individual pupil’s strengths and weaknesses in order to figure out how you help them to improve.
The socialisation that came with playing sport was also great - being part of these teams, which then led to playing for teams in local towns.
School couldn’t have been that bad because I stayed on until S6 - but I didn’t find it particularly enjoyable either.
3. Why do you work in education?
Jaz Ampaw-Farr [a former contestant on The Apprentice who, after starting her career in education, now delivers motivational speeches on education] came to the Borders and she said you don’t know the impact you are having at the time you are teaching, but that teachers were still having a huge impact on her even decades later.
My colleagues and I really reflected on that: we want to be the ones who, in 30 years’ time, our pupils remember and say we made a difference to their lives.
4. What are you proudest of in your career and what do you regret?
I’m proud that my career has been very varied. I did my four years’ teacher training, worked two years as a newly qualified teacher and then went travelling and moved overseas. I was in Australia for 10 years and I worked my way through a backpacker transport network - a get-on, get-off bus company that backpackers call when they want to move from, say, Byron Bay to the Gold Coast.
It was a young, forward-thinking company and I was quickly able to progress - I answered the phones and did a bit of marketing and then eventually I became general manager and was responsible for about 70 drivers, a marketing team, an accounts team and an operations team.
I worked with people from all different countries, due to the market we had, and now I can bring all these experiences into my teaching. I’m very focused on what young people bring to the world, global citizenship and embracing diversity.
I’m also proud of the past three years and driving the vision we’ve had at Stow Primary around learning for sustainability. We started on that journey after a friend’s little boy in New Zealand campaigned to stop single-use plastic straws - a story I shared at assembly here.
That really inspired our children to start their own campaigns - even now they still talk about that little guy in New Zealand.
We received funding from the Hunter Foundation, which was looking for 100 disrupters, and we held a big event in the town hall. The children worked with graphic designers to make the invites, [Scottish company] Excel Vending talked about its deposit return scheme [for recycling], and the children wrote and performed a rap. That was in 2018.
When it was over, a parent said, “What’s next for the disrupters?” - the children were engaged and enthused and empowered, so we’ve just never stopped.
I don’t have regrets - I’m not goal driven so I’ve never thought, “I’m going to be a depute or a head”. I don’t work on that basis, I just seize opportunities as they arise.
5. Who would be your colleagues in your perfect school staffroom?
I like working with people who have a shared vision and values - like-minded people. Also, people who have a good sense of humour and a can-do attitude and who use their initiative. I don’t relish micromanagement so I like to be able to share what I hope the end result will be, and to work with people who can see that end goal but who don’t need to be hand-held every step of the way.
Another big thing for me is looking out for opportunities for the children to enhance teaching and learning and to make it real for them - not just putting things in the “too hard” basket.
6. What would you say are the best and worst aspects of our schools system today?
The best thing is the flexibility that we have in the curriculum and the opportunities for pupil voice and pupil-led activities. We are getting so much better at listening to our young people.
I think learning for sustainability, as an entitlement for all learners, is great and very important, and it’s an opportunity for us to work with partners.
The worst bit is the flip side - that flexibility means people’s priorities differ from school to school. Learning for sustainability is a good example of that, because there is variability in how that entitlement is being delivered across the country. There are pockets of amazing practice but I was at an event recently where it was clear that learning for sustainability champions are still seen as lone wolves.
Communication of what the expectations are across the country needs to improve.
7. Your own teachers aside, who in education has influenced you the most?
Some pupils I have worked with have really influenced me - a pupil that had quite specific additional support needs springs to mind. I taught him the first two years after I returned from Australia in 2008. He had a really positive impact on me in that I had to try to see the world through his eyes. I had to change and adapt and reflect and it made me a better practitioner - and a better person, actually, when it came to understanding difference.
8. If you became education secretary tomorrow, what would be the first thing you would do?
I would make sure that learning for sustainability is seen as a priority. We are in a great place just now on the back of COP26 [the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow], and that should be used as a catalyst. We are living and working in a global society. We need to encourage children to play their part in their community, to see themselves as global citizens, to get outdoors and engage with nature - and to use their voices.
9. What will our schools be like in 30 years’ time?
I hope schools will be open and creative spaces where contextualised, relevant learning takes place. It should be about making the learning real for young people.
For instance, our P6/7s have just done a [Microsoft] Teams meeting [that connected them] with Tokyo, to learn about the presentation technique PechaKucha, where you go through 20 slides with 20 seconds of commentary each.
Instead of them wearing school uniform for the meeting, we got them to wear jeans and the special “disrupter” T-shirts they have. Some workplaces still have a very formal dress code, and our children know that, but other workplaces are more casual now, so it was about giving them a taste of that and giving them these skills to present in a clear, succinct way.
They then used those skills to present at a COP26 fringe event in Glasgow - which was all about telling global leaders to get on with it.
10. What one person do you think has made the most difference to our schools during the Covid pandemic?
I don’t know that it has been one person - for me, it has been the team I work with. Because of the pandemic that team has been strengthened - we’ve done a lot of work in the community over the past 18 months or so and home learning has strengthened the relationship we have with parents and pupils. There’s been a real pulling together.
Debbie Matthewson was speaking to Tes Scotland reporter Emma Seith
This article originally appeared in the 19 November 2021 issue
