I fell into teaching and mentoring by complete accident. But it was a life-changing event that I wouldn't change for the world. What started out as just helping out at the local primary school covering a few art sessions around my freelance jobs, turned into so much more. I helped that particular school gain it's ArtsMark status as a beacon of artistic endeavour and I was hooked. I established art clubs and ran art workshops for both KS1 & KS2 pupils and created Gifted & Talented Workshops and competitions for pupils across Hampshire, creating a network of like minded tutors to work together (The Classroom Creatives) to run 'Arts weeks' and create exhibitions.
Later, moving into the SEN sector, I qualified as a Further Education tutor with a certificate of education and training from Farnborough College and I started up the Art & Design dept for Post19. A summer in 2012, spent running a few workshops for young adults with disabilities turned into a full time passion and a decade long commitment to improving the provision of Design training and services for young, disabled people. From that first summer teaching just 4 young people, a couple of times a week, to now a decade on, teaching 148 students across three permanent sites in Farnham. The next stage to the journey was setting up a separate not-for-profit company (enterprise19) to generate income for further opportunities and training whilst offering genuine vocational training and filling a gap in the sector. The final stage was to create an actual Real Life Company, The Th3rdlevel - to enable our designers and creators to experience 'real work' and training opportunities that they simply couldn't access anywhere else.
So. Whilst teaching and mentoring was never intended to be my 'main' focus and has been a bit of an offshoot in my career for the last few years. The transferable skills and the immense GOOD that has come about because of it, have been considerable and have given me a unique blend of new strings to my bow.
