This is one of my favourite quotations by Maya Angelou who said “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” This hangs above my desk in my office. In addition to this, my dad always gave me three solid bits of advice- be kind to everyone, always respect the views of others and be a good listener. Both of these I would like to think apply to everyone I come into contact with- students, staff, friends and family. If I was to sum up the key values which are important to me in five words (which I was once asked to do at interview) then they’d be humility, honesty, empathy, dignity and discretion.
Daddy’s girl!
I am currently a Deputy Headteacher in a secondary school in Durham. Although I have led on teaching and learning in the past, my current areas of responsibility are behaviour, attendance and SEN. Leading a strong pastoral team has taught me so much. My desire to be a teacher stems back from as far as I can remember when I used to play at “schools” from a very young age and always insisted I had to be the teacher (my mum claims I’ve always been bossy) and in particular an English teacher because I loved learning my spellings and I never had my nose out of a book. My passion was further ignited by a very special teacher, John Grundy (yes the historical buildings guy from off the telly) and since then I’ve never looked back. I love to learn and I love to see the excitement from others when they also discover something new. I have aspirations to be a Headteacher some day (but only when the time is right for me). Hopefully this blog will chart my journey to Headship…
My favourite English teacher- Mr Grundy
I have a three year old daughter Ruby who was adopted by my husband and I just before her first birthday. She is the light of our lives and teaches us so much on a daily basis. It is the innocence and joy of her which further prompts my desire to do whatever I can to make our young people’s lives better in any small way. I’m lucky enough to genuinely love my job.
