By Anne-Marie Lawlor
I studied French at university and joined the Civil Service straight after graduation. I loved my job — I was involved with public policy and spent time working with politicians, which was fascinating. However, after a period of serious illness about seven years ago, I started to re-evaluate the direction my career was taking and, after a lot of soul-searching, I left my job and began an Open University degree in psychology.
At the same time, I also began to work with two charities as a trustee and a volunteer, helping children with reading in primary schools and running parenting classes.
Now Teach
Then in 2016, Lucy Kellaway, the founder of Now Teach, announced that she was leaving her job as a columnist at the Financial Times to become a teacher. Her article reawakened in me a thought I’d had on and off for a long time — teaching.
I like teenagers and I feel very passionately about the importance of education, especially for children from disadvantaged families. I also enjoy explaining things and getting the best out of people.
Reading about Now Teach made everything click into place for me. It demonstrated that someone somewhere wanted people like me as teachers — not brand new graduates but people who have had a career already.
It offered a structured way to train, and a cohort to belong to, which felt reassuring. The age range of students is about 40 to 60 and I find the young people we’re training alongside are very generous. Once you start the course, you’ve all got so much in common you forget about age anyway.
Training to teach
I began with an intensive two-week summer school in July 2017 and then it was straight into the classrooms in September — with lots of support!
I’m in school three and a half days a week — teaching French to year seven at the wonderful Walworth Academy in South London — and I spend Thursday afternoon training with the rest of my cohort, which is wonderful too — hitting similar milestones together and sharing challenges with each other.
I’m also taking a PGCE so I spend every Friday working on that, which is great because it brings together your classroom practice with the more academic side of teaching.
Changing lives
Right now, I’m learning to manage a classroom, and whilst some students are excited about learning French, others are quite daunted. One student I had was very bothered about having to say words ‘out loud’ in class and I finally got him to speak in the lesson.
Afterwards he came up to me and said, ‘Miss am I good at French? ’ and I said, ‘You are!’ The fact he believes he can do something he couldn’t do before will have a knock-on effect on the rest of his life and that’s very exciting.
To be doing something new in your early fifties and having a completely new adventure is great. What I really enjoy about the job is that the feedback I get is instant. With students, you know immediately if they don’t understand what you’re trying to teach them and you can put that right straight away.
The hardest thing about the job is behaviour management. The school has systems — which work — and you have to use them and trust in them — but keeping the lid on low-level disorder is still hard work.
Family life
I have three children of my own and they have all been curious and supportive. My husband is also fully behind my decision. As soon as I said it was something I was interested in he said, ‘It’s obvious! Of course you must do it.’
It’s less than a year since I first looked into Now Teach and here I am, in the classroom teaching French to 11 and 12 year-olds. I’m far more resilient and less fearful than I was in my twenties and have a wealth of experience from my previous job that I hope, at some point, will all be helpful and useful in my new career.
Find out more about Now Teach by visiting nowteach.org.uk
