| Personal details |
|---|
| Degree: | Maths and Stats |
|
| School(s): | School of Mathematics and Statistics |
| Year of Graduation: | Jun-2004 |
| LinkedIn: | |
| National of: | United Kingdom |
| Employment details |
|---|
| Organisation: | n/a |
| Job title: | Teacher |
| Occupational Sector: | Teaching |
| What has been your route to getting your current position? |
|---|
I gained experience in the classroom as a Teaching Assistant for 3
years and then completed a Primary PGCE before becoming a qualified
teacher.
|
| What does your job involve ? |
|---|
Planning, Teaching and Assessing lessons, being responsible for a class of pupils.
|
| What are the best bits of your job ? |
|---|
The amazing talent of children to make every day different, although
not easy! My favourite part of teaching is the moment when a child who
finds learning difficult clicks with something, and realises that they
have got it. The excitement and joy they get from being good at
something is wonderful.
|
| Why were you successful? |
|---|
Having experience in the classroom was the most useful think in
getting onto the PGCE course. Having a maths degree was useful too, as
maths is such an important subject in schools.
I also play the clarinet and piano and am involved in a couple of
musical groups. This helped me to get onto the PGCE course, and also to
get a job; schools are always looking for someone who can play the
piano!
|
| What skills/ knowledge from your degree have you found particularly helpful in this role? |
|---|
Obviously, you aren’t likely to find many primary-aged children who
are at degree level, so I am unable to use my subject knowledge as a
teacher; however the general skills of being a student are useful. You
definitely need to be organised, hard working and flexible, which are
skills I learned during my time at St Andrews. Any extra-curricular
activities you enjoy are really important too, as a lot of schools look
for teachers who can run an after-school club.
|
| What advice would you give to students wishing to follow the same path? |
|---|
Make sure it is definitely something you want to do. There is a lot
more work involved then the 9-3 hours that some people imagine it to be.
It would be really useful to go and observe some teachers in the
classroom and speak to them about how they find the workload. Every
teacher is different and some spend longer on their work than others.
However it is extremely important to make sure that you keep up your
social life outside of work, as you really need something to make you
switch your mind off the job! It really is a brilliant job. You get to
work with people who won’t judge you and will make you laugh even when
everything is going completely wrong (which it will from time to time),
you will never work the same day twice and the holidays are fabulous!
|
