What do you do now?
I’m in my third year as an SEN teacher.
I studied Dance, Performance and Teaching at UCLAN after studying Dance at South Craven from Years 7-13. I also danced outside of school as well. I didn’t want to go down the performance route, so decided to become a teacher. I had some fantastic dance opportunities at university, competing around the UK and abroad.
I then decided to do my PGCE at Leeds Trinity to become a dance teacher. I spent a year after my PGCE working for a company that taught Dance and P.E in primary schools around Yorkshire. Throughout my university years and during my PGCE I taught SEN children in and out of school and different organisations. It was then that I fell in love with teaching SEN children and decided this was the route I wanted to go down.
Following this, I started at a specialist SEN school as a teacher to a fantastic special needs class and still work here. I was very surprised I got the job as my placement there was the only experience that I had with teaching SEN, and I’d only taught Dance and PE. I have a fantastic class of ten pupils with a mix of Year 9, 10 and 11 students. My class has a mixture of verbal and non-verbal pupils, pupils with autism, and global delay. The most rewarding part of my job is seeing my pupils grow in confidence and independent skills!
What advice would you give to your 17-year-old self?
Don’t rush into a decision or feel pressured to rush - take the path of something that you enjoy doing! It’s also OK however for that path to change throughout your life. Listen to yourself and what you want to do, not others!
What are you most proud of?
The path I’ve taken since leaving school. It’s OK to not know what you want to do! I had a complete career change from a Dance/P.E teacher to an SEN teacher at the age of 22. I now teach all subjects to my class.
