What attracted you to your teaching / job role?   

I found my time as a pupil in secondary school challenging for several reasons and my life could have easily taken a very different path if it hadn’t been for my Head of Year who showed such genuine care for the lives of her year group and other students in the school.

As a result, I knew that I also wanted to help better young people’s lives through education, so I combined this with my passion for sports and became a PE teacher. With my past experiences, progressing through the pastoral system was the only option I was interested in and the reason I find myself in the role I am now.

What inspired you to work at Deptford Green? What makes this school unique? 

The opportunity to come back and work in the school that I myself went to, was too good an opportunity to turn down.

I want nothing more than to give back and to have the impact on young people’s lives that my teacher had on me. Our school is unique in that it has at its heart, the community and a strong desire to better the lives of the young people and families we serve.

What do you enjoy most about working at Deptford Green?

Without doubt the thing that I enjoy most about working at Deptford Green is our young people. Our students can be charming young people with characters to keep you on your toes!

Every day our young people will do something that reminds me of why I became a teacher to begin with whether that’s thanking you for caring for them or holding you to account on a promise you made. We have some very special pupils here, and I cannot wait to find out about their future success.

What is unique about your role at the school? 

My role allows me to make a positive difference in the lives of so many young people. I have the opportunity to see students faces light up when they are recognised for their efforts and achieve the outcomes they have worked towards.

Our young people can be exposed to so much these days and as a result might need additional support in order to achieve their goals. My role allows me to be a frontrunner in ensuring we go above and beyond to provide our young people with every tool necessary to be successful despite any individual disadvantages or differences they might have.

What are your future ambitions? What do you hope to achieve during your time at DG? 

Firstly, the pupils will always be at the heart of what I do. As a result, my primary ambition will be to ensure that every pupil leaves us feeling supported and valued as a young adult. My mission is to ensure that as a result of the pastoral provision I oversee, every pupil is best placed to be successful and leaves ready to be a valued member of our community and the wider society.

When I attended Deptford Green it was regarded as a good school by OFSTED. Therefore, it must be an ambition of mine that during my time here this rating is reinstated. After we have achieved this, with me being the person I am, my focus will turn to how we achieve ‘outstanding’.

Tell us why pupils enjoy coming to Deptford Green?

I believe pupils enjoy coming to our school because they wholeheartedly know that they are more than just numbers to us.

Our pupils spend a large amount of time between our walls and as a result of our actions, know we care about them. Being a community school, I believe that it is so important that our pupils feel valued as individuals. Results and data might be important however, our pupils know that their safety and the support they receive whilst they are with us will always be our number one priority.