PUBLISHED 14 May 2020
1. What is your role at AKS?
I am the Head of Sixth Form at AKS Lytham. I also teach English across all years and specialise in English Literature at A-Level.
2. Where did you study or work before coming to AKS or what were your previous roles?
I read English Literature at Aberystwyth University and completed my PGCE at Nottingham Trent University. I taught in Nottingham for five years in a very busy state school and then relocated to the idyllic North West after joining King Edward VII and Queen Mary School in 2008.
3. Why did you become a teacher?
Firstly, due to my love of English Literature. Everybody loves a good story; they have the power to inspire us to better ourselves, but they can also be used as narratives to promote fear and hatred. It is so important to be able to distinguish between the two and this is what I strive to teach my students. This desire to help people navigate their way through life’s multiple narratives continues in my pastoral role as Head of Sixth Form.
4. What's the best thing about working at AKS?
Every day is different at AKS. There is a real buzz of energy when you teach students who are inquisitive and enjoy learning. In the Sixth Form we promote the idea of work hard and play hard. If you enjoy what you do and the company of the people around you, work is never a chore, it enriches you. It is this playful spirit, built from success, that has kept me teaching at AKS for ten years and will keep me here for the foreseeable future.
5. Tell us an interesting fact about yourself.
I can repeat the Welsh village Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch while drinking a glass of water.
6. What is your favourite book and why?
My favourite book is Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid. Published in 8 AD, it is a collection of 250 myths that span the creation of the world and the death of Julius Caesar. It is an epic patchwork of literature that reminds us that as a species we may have split the atom, mapped the genome, and explored space yet we still share the same personal hopes and fears of our forebears two thousand years ago.
7. Who would you most like to meet (past or present) and what would you ask them?
I would like to meet the late great British film director Alfred Hitchcock and ask him why he never considered adapting a Shakespeare play.
8. Where in the world would you like to visit and why?
Singapore is high up on my travel list. I would love to visit the supertrees at the Gardens by the Bay are of the city. Being an avid gardener and technology geek, I find the fusion of botany and engineering a fascinating concept.
9. What one piece of advice would you give to the AKS students?
My piece of advice would be to “go for it”. There are so many wonderful opportunities available at AKS, more so than any other school I have previously worked at, in fact. Whether your interests lie in sport, performing arts, or academic there will be opportunities to extend your interests with a vast array of cocurricular opportunities. The number of competitions, trips and volunteering available, locally, nationally, even internationally through our Round Square membership is also breath taking. The only barrier to pushing oneself is often our own self-doubts. Heed the wise words of one of Wales’ most famous poets, Siadwell, “’Go for it Siadwell,’ they said. I went for it. But it had gone.”
Applications for 2020 entry: Visit our Remote Admissions Page.