The privilege of working in a school

But when all the paperwork and planning is done, it is a privilege. Teachers are in charge of shaping the minds of future generations; our future leaders. How we treat our students, interact with them and inspire them will help shape the adults that they will become, and that is not a small task.

Being a teacher is such an unspeakable privilege as we are part of our students’ journeys. However, this doesn’t happen overnight, and we need to work hard in order to gain the trust of our students. It requires resilience and it requires self-care. It requires kindness, compassion and empathy and not everybody is set up to be a teacher.

Teaching is not a 9-5 job that you leave at the door on your way out. It is a lifestyle, it shapes the way you look at the world, the way you talk to people and the way you look for learning opportunities in every activity. It requires kindness, compassion and empathy and not everybody is set up to be a teacher.

It is also hard, children are not machines, they do not blindly sit, listen and follow orders. They have a mind of their own that will upend your best laid plans and send your lessons off on tangents that you did not even know existed. It is not easy teaching a class of 24 students all of whom have different needs, different interests and different personalities. Patience, resilience and determination are three qualities that are needed by all teachers wanting to succeed but regardless of how difficult things might be, we are always there for our students, able to offer hope, to encourage, to create opportunities, to share, to help and to guide the lives of all the students who we cross paths with.

We persevere and put in the extra hours to ensure lessons are planned and resources are ready, we do give up our evenings and our weekends to do extracurricular activities and to help students. Why? Because we know what we are aspiring to. We are proud of the relationships that we have with our students, we rejoice and cry with our pupils over their accomplishments and their struggles. We get annoyed with them for not putting in enough effort because we know they can do better. We understand the impact we are having on our students' lives and when they leave us, we are proud of the young adults they have become.

Other adults always ask me what I ‘make’ as a teacher – my answer is that I make a difference.

Alfons Vinent

Deputy Head of Secondary