5 teachers on bringing their passion for sport into the classroom
We spoke to 5 teachers about how they bring their passion for sport into the classroom. Leah Kellogg teaches PE at The Bemrose School, Nathan D’Laryea is an assistant head and maths teacher at Loreto High School, Jack Barlow is a PE teacher and wellbeing lead at Philips High School in Whitefield, Elliot Bailey is a PE teacher at Sandringham School in St Albans, and Scott Lycett teaches PE at Bedford High School.
Why did you get into teaching?
Leah — I’ve always liked working with children and really enjoyed coaching at my local cricket club. I’d been involved in sport at school and looked up to my own PE teachers. I really wanted to inspire children and for them to look up to me.
Elliot — When I was younger, I had aspirations to be a professional footballer. When I was doing semi-professional football, I did a lot of coaching in local schools and colleges and I just fell in love with it. When going into professional football didn’t work out, I spoke to a former teacher and he managed to get me a placement at my old school.
Scott — In my second year of university, I realised that I wanted to pass on my passion for sport to young people, and I thought that teaching was a great way to do that. I was still playing semi-professional football when I left university and went into teaching, so I was still able to keep my passion for football.
Jack — As many people can probably relate to, for a time I wanted to be a professional footballer! Unfortunately, that dream wasn’t quite right for me. But I had a PE teacher who really influenced me. Every PE lesson he made me feel innately good about myself. He challenged me and I just really enjoyed it. I love sport and knew that’s what I wanted to do, and my PE teacher encouraged me to go down the teaching route.
Nathan — My dream was to be a professional footballer. I managed to achieve that, but my career was cut short due to injury. During my time playing football, I was lucky enough to do some coaching in different parts of the world and I loved the feeling of helping children and seeing how much they enjoyed it. I then got into teaching through Teach First.
“Sport has been a part of my life for so long that it never crossed my mind that I wouldn’t be able to do it alongside teaching.” — Leah Kellogg
How do you fit your sporting activities around your teaching career?
Leah — I’d say that I’ve always had quite a busy life, so I’m used to finishing the working day and going off to play cricket, running football or cricket training sessions, or going to the gym. Sport has been a part of my life for so long that it never crossed my mind that I wouldn’t be able to do it alongside teaching. Being chosen for Lightning [professional cricket team] was great for me during the pandemic. As it’s a professional team, we were able to continue training, and for someone so used to being busy, I would have found it hard not to have that opportunity to play sport.
Scott — Obviously you do have a lot of work to do as a teacher, but I actually found it quite easy to fit football around teaching because I think you need something else to focus on as teaching is a very absorbing career. I think it’s important to have something to take your mind away from teaching and give yourself a break. I love my teaching and I love football, so I found it quite easy to do both.
Elliot — Playing semi-professional football, I train twice a week and play games on Saturdays. My school have been really understanding because they knew it was one of my passions and they value that. Sometimes I need to travel for matches and they’ve been great at offering to cover for me. I play for Welwyn Garden City FC which is a big team in the area and the students come to watch us on Saturdays, so they really buy into their teacher playing for the team.
How has your passion for sport influenced your teaching?
Leah — I did a sports degree so I’ve been able to bring a lot of the theory side into my teaching. Obviously, teaching is not just about going onto the field and having a game of rounders, you need to engage the students in different ways and take into consideration ways of helping them to learn more easily.
We have after school clubs where girls can come and choose what sport they’d like to play, and they can also socialise and have fun. It’s a great opportunity for them to do something that they’ve never done before and to try things that might not necessarily be on the curriculum. Just getting students to explore different sports and encouraging them to join other clubs outside of school is such a good thing. We also started school cricket and rounders teams, which have given students a chance to play in tournaments with other schools. Some girls had never been outside of Derby before taking part in that, so it’s great to see them get out there with their friends in their new sports kit.
Scott — When I was playing football professionally, I was taught how to do media interviews, and during my sports science degree I had to stand up and present to the class. It was then quite a natural progression for me into teaching having had those two experiences — I went from doing media interviews with a few people, to university where I would present to fellow students, and then on to teaching where I’m standing in front of a classroom.
“Equally, the nerves of playing at Wembley match the nerves of being with a student when they’re opening their results and they don’t know what they’re going to be!” — Nathan D’Laryea
Nathan — In my last game, I played at Wembley for Rochdale in the playoff finals. It was a great experience and I sometimes compare that to when I have a group of students that I’ve taken from year 7 to year 11 and I see their joy when they get their exam results — that matches or even exceeds the sense of joy that came to me when playing at Wembley. Equally, the nerves of playing at Wembley match the nerves of being with a student when they’re opening their results and they don’t know what they’re going to be!
What would you say to someone who was thinking about getting into teaching?
Scott — I would say 100% go into it. No two days are the same. Yes, you do have your down days when things aren’t going exactly as you’d like, but the good days outweigh them. It is the best job in the world. Especially when you see your year 11s on results day and you’ve worked your socks off with them, and you see their faces and know that you’ve made a difference for them. Nothing can beat it. That’s job satisfaction at its best. That’s my advice — just do it.
“If one of us has a lesson that hasn’t gone to plan then we’ll get a coffee in the staff room and have a chat about it and help each other out. Being part of a team is really important.” — Jack Barlow
Jack — Teaching is not an easy job but it is a really rewarding and enjoyable job. The relationships you can build with students are so meaningful. The relationship I had with my PE teacher was amazing and that’s what encouraged me to go down this route. Hopefully I’m now doing the same and those students I’m speaking to are the ones who will be encouraged to go on and do something in sport or even to teach one day.
Of course there are challenges as a teacher, but you work as a team. In my school, the PE department is amazing. If one of us has a lesson that hasn’t gone to plan then we’ll get a coffee in the staff room and have a chat about it and help each other out. Being part of a team is really important.
Elliot — My advice would be to just go for it, because it’s the best thing that I’ve done. Even though it had been my dream to be a professional footballer, it’s turned out that teaching is probably better than what I wanted in the first place because you get so much positivity all of the time.
The fact that I wake up in the morning and feel like I could make someone’s day or shape 100 students’ lives in one day is quite a remarkable thing to think about. I feel like everyone in the world has had a teacher who was important to them at some point, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without our teachers — it’s such an important role in society.
Nathan — Get into a school, shadow a teacher and experience the different types of schools. It can be a difficult job at times but it is the most rewarding job that you’ll have, knowing that you have had a direct impact on the outcome of children in terms of their livelihood and getting on to the next step. It’s not an exaggeration to say that you help to mould them — and I don’t just mean in terms of qualifications, but as human beings. It’s so rewarding when you see them grow up.
If you’ve been inspired to explore a career in teaching, go to the Get Into Teaching website now.
