At the age of 11 when tasked in a Welsh lesson with writing a sentence about what we wanted to be when we grew up, I vividly remember asking my athrawes what the Welsh for ‘surveyor specialising in the regeneration of communities’ was. For the interests of what I belatedly understood from my PGCE was ‘lesson pace’, her response offered a compromise of pensaer (architect) which was clearly not right but enabled the class to move on, troublemaker far from satiated, but duly silenced.
“From an early age though, I was very clear: I was interested in communities, social cohesion, a sense of justice and adequate provision for all.”
From an early age though, I was very clear: I was interested in communities, social cohesion, a sense of justice and adequate provision for all. Growing up in Cardiff, with a grandfather who worked in the Llanwern steel works, his father before that at Cwmbran foundry, and a whole line of relatives on the railways of mid-Wales, industry, and more poignantly, its deterioration, were in my blood. Fortunately for all language teachers, I moved into the humanities when I left school, examining the decline of the industrial heartlands of the Valleys, producing an undergraduate dissertation that became a rather lofty thought piece on the causes of localised and persistent deprivation. Whilst well-intended, it must now sit consigned to a dusty library shelf or, more likely, befitting its verbosity, as a doorstop. Remaining undeterred, in writing that document, having seen that concepts like ‘skills gaps’ and ‘brain drain’ were ubiquitous in the research, it was clear education had a role to play.
It was, then, via a sojourn in the commercial world of ‘surveying specialising in regeneration of communities’, fittingly, that, some years later in 2012, I would turn up at Warwick University on the Teach First Summer Institute. I was bright eyed, naïve from “crown to toe” (see ‘Macbeth’) and heading into London to embark on a career as an English teacher, armed with a fledgling knowledge of pedagogy but that pervading sense of justice and injustice that persisted.
“I steadfastly believe, even in the face of these challenges, that education and our profession have places now and will do into the future. It is our responsibility and our privilege to defend our profession, but equally, to move with the times…”
Now 13 years into my teaching career and having taught and led in Gloucestershire and London, in mainstream and special, in co-educational and single sex, in primary and secondary, and in ‘Requires Improvement’ and ‘Outstanding’, I have not looked back.
There are so many highlights from across my years in schools, whether personally or professionally, whether on behalf of students and their grades fought for or apprenticeship secured, whether for colleagues with Ofsted judgements hard-earned, or whether seeing former mentees progress. For me though, as my career has increasingly moved away from the ‘coal face’, to continue the industrial semantic field, and more into training, the most recent highlight (both equally welcome and daunting in its unwelcome reminder of my advancing years) has been facilitating ECT sessions to former pupils, relatives of former pupils, or increasingly not just seeing in Aldi the former pupil who shares an update of their life, but ones who are becoming teachers themselves too and referencing moments or lessons long consigned to the back of my memory, but seemingly so pivotal to them in their own career decisions.
“The College, more than ever, needs dynamic voices rejecting Gradgrindian notions of education of the past, working in unison to raise the stature of the profession, and to respond to current and emerging challenges.”
It is for this reason that I applied to become a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching. Our profession is under increasing pressure from outside influences, be they pandemics, AI, budgets, recruitment shortages, political pressures or a plethora of other factors. I steadfastly believe, even in the face of these challenges, that education and our profession have places now and will do into the future. It is our responsibility and our privilege to defend our profession, but equally, to move with the times, to be at the forefront of developments and to ensure that we, as Members and Fellows, are collaboratively progressing our practice and our profession to provide for the most important stakeholder of all (at the risk of plagiarising Whitney Houston): the children of the future. The College, more than ever, needs dynamic voices rejecting Gradgrindian notions of education of the past, working in unison to raise the statue of the profession, and to respond to current and emerging challenges.
That is what that eleven-year-old boy would have wanted in that classroom in Cardiff, and that is why his successor joined the Chartered College, cannot wait to get started, and hopes you do the same.
