A. Newton – Assistant Director of KS3 / Teacher of PE at St. Mary’s Catholic High School
I have always wanted to be a secondary school teacher. After gaining my honours degree in 2014 from the University of Birmingham in ‘Sport, Physical Education and Coaching Sciences’, I researched about becoming a secondary PE teacher. After some extensive research I became skeptical about training in this subject, due to the extremely competitive job market.
My auntie, who is a Head Teacher at a Twelve Apostles Primary School in Leigh, told me about Catholic School Direct. This programme appealed to me as it provides a unique insight into working full time in local Catholic Schools giving me an advantage over my competitors training in PGCE courses. My training offered me both a subject and professional mentor in both my ‘home’ and ‘away’ school. These mentors offered specialist support in relation to lesson planning, behaviour management, subject knowledge and personal reflection. This allowed me to gain vast experience teaching in KS3, KS4 and KS5 Physical Education.
I was lucky enough after my training year to be offered a job at St Mary’s Catholic High School in 2015, my home school. The support and backing from my training year continued into my NQT year. During this year I was successful in my application to become Head of Bernadette House and towards the end of the year was appointed Assistant Director of Key Stage 3. This pastoral role has allowed me to take a lead with year 7, 8 and 9 in relation to their behaviour, progress and attainment. My line manger continues to stretch and challenge me giving me experiences across a range of educational contexts which are consistently continuing my professional development. St Mary’s are supporting my development even further through an ‘aspiring leadership course’.
I truly believe WWLCSD have allowed to me to progress extensively due to the fantastic training and support they offered, which has continued well past my training and NQT year.
