About Me...
How did I end up doing one of the most interesting jobs I never thought I’d end up doing?
That’s a good question as I didn’t think I was even very academic at 18 years old, after not doing terribly well with my A-levels. However, I believe that with determination and a strong work ethic I turned things around pretty quickly.
My goal was to become a Primary School teacher however with the grades I had achieved I was going to need to take a different route to the one planned. I was offered a place at Stockport College to study Early Childhood as a Higher National Diploma (HND). Apart from thoroughly enjoying the 2 year course, I also realised a valuable life lesson – I was academic but I just needed the right course and I also needed to learn HOW to study and HOW to structure and write essays, neither of which I had learnt before.
I had always enjoyed working with children, volunteering to help out at a local primary school when I was in Secondary school myself and I worked for YMCA Day Camps in the school holidays, caring for the children who came to us from getting on the bus at 8am to drop off at 5pm, leading them in fun and energetic activities such as archery, circus skills, pond dipping and the whole camp wide game on a Friday afternoon. This experience hugely developed my confidence and enthusiasm, and I quickly worked my way up through the ranks to become an Assistant Camp Co-ordinator, programming the week, taking bookings and ensuring that we had enough staff coverage. I also trained up younger staff to reach their full potential too.
So when I finally got a BA in Teaching Studies with English Language and Linguistics at Roehampton Institute (now the University of Roehampton) I felt a real sense of accomplishment and felt I had achieved tremendously well with a Second Class (Upper) Honours degree.
I went to work as an NQT for the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, where I felt I had a really strong start with a fantastic mentor – Mrs Valeria Hand. She was amazing, always had tricks up her sleeve with quite a challenging set of pupils at times. I focused on PSHE as my specialist subject, and somehow got picked to make a film for the Borough on Drug education. I often wonder if it will end up on YouTube somewhere!
After 3 years I decided to change school and work for Essex County Council, and a lovely school called Ivy Chimneys in Epping. Again I focused on PSHE and developed the coordination of the school council. With my Year 4/5 class, mainly out of sympathy for some of the Y5s (the other Y5s got to go on residential with the Y6s), I began to run an enrichment week of activity with a history focus. We went visits to local historic venues and used art to really reinforce the learning and inject plenty of fun. We even interviewed my grandparents who had lived through the Second World War as children – and I’ve never seen a class sit and listen and show such engagement as on that day!
In 2006 I decided I needed a change and began to look for other opportunities. A post came up for Chelmsford Borough Council (as it was then), for Education and Marketing Officer at Chelmsford Museum. Surprisingly I got it! So I handed in my notice and then cried realising the enormity of the move, not to mention the £10K pay cut…
In all honestly I can say that I have never looked back. I thoroughly enjoyed working for the museum and got so much out of it – organising and developing sessions, working on developing family sessions, meeting lots of new people, working out how to speak ‘museum’ and even ‘council speak’ too! One of the most rewarding achievements from my time there was developing a session for under 5s once a month, Fridays Fives quickly became popular with local parents as it cost just £1 a session, introduced children (and their parents) to the museum, included a craft activity and linked a nursery rhyme to a museum object. The feedback was really positive and I felt that we had gained a new audience (previously families had come in to use the toilet, see the bees and the stuffed bear then leave). My legacy is with Friday Fives and also the design brief for the education room was written by me – I always joke it should have been called the ‘Girling Room’ but sadly I lost out to history (and quite right too!).
In 2009 I had my son Noah. I also changed job and was offered a post at Essex County Council, for the Heritage team based at Essex Record Office. I won’t go into my work there as you can read it all on my CV but having my son did not stop me working incredibly hard for the Council and I’m proud of the many achievements I feel I accomplished there and the projects I have worked on. Whilst heavily pregnant with my twin girls, in 2014, I was halfway through managing our WW1 in Essex project, Now the Last Poppy has Fallen. In fact, if you look closely at the YouTube film – Essex at War – which was the launch of our touring exhibition, you will see that I was ready to pop. They were born 2 weeks later!
So how did we end up on the Isle of Wight? Well, many years of family holidays gave me a fondness for the Island, plus my family moved here in 2015 to manage a B&B. My husband and I just fell in love with the Island and began dreaming of what life could be like for our three kids – so we started looking for a house and found just what I had always dreamt of – a Victorian house by the sea. It truly is beautiful and everything I’d ever hoped for.