Bio

A Little Bit About Me…

                I’m currently finishing a PGCE in Religious Education at the Maryvale Institute, I am embracing this opportunity as a chance to widen my skills spectrum. Throughout the placements I have determined that I have a particular flair for working with children who have special educational needs. I believe this stems from many of my previous successes but also from some of my natural characteristics.  As an educator I believe it is a core value that every child matters, I mean this not only in the legal sense but also the moral sense. Fostering a Childs education by embracing their natural talents and finding ways to compensate and allow access to weaker areas  is generally acknowledged to be a difficult task. However using my experience to provide a project that focuses  on the pupils interests and also allows room for differentiation by outcome has become a strategic focus of mine. I accredit my success as a teacher to my two other underlying disciplines.
                I spend many weeks of the year working as a TEFL contract teacher, this has been very successful as I am frequently approached by agencies offering work. I accredit this success to having a naturally creative streak which allows me to produce a range of activities that address the fundamental elements of English. One of the agencies I work for focuses on spoken English, this comprises of vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar and understanding.  For this particular agency I have used their materials to compile a syllabus for all levels of English from elementary to advanced. This has been an enjoyable challenge and measurable in terms of statistical data, with pupils I have taught improving an average of 36% in all of these areas.
                I also have a keen interest in marketing and entrepreneurship, this started with my first job after my a-levels when I started working for the Edinburgh Woollen Mill as a part time sales assistant and within 7 months I was promoted to acting manager, also embracing satellite opportunities. I really embraced this job taking part in every aspect of the business from staffing, back office, deliveries, merchandising, training, hire and fire. I left this job to join Greene King pub co. were I became a supervisor and team trainer, this job allowed me to learn team success recording skills and maintain the business learning environment while being profit focussed. The duties also involved maintaining the running of the business, back office duties and staffing. I left this to pursue a degree in business with marketing at the University of Leeds. During this time I enjoyed socialising with like minded people and this lead to the process to establish an enterprise society, which I was elected to the position of managing director.  The society met to discuss events for the university, held meets with other universities, and also participated in nationwide events such as “flux 500”. During this time I entered the universities business competition and ranked in the top three places three years running. I am still maintaining a keen interest in marketing and hope to pursue an Msc in Marketing Communications in the near future.