Growing up in many different countries, I’ve been fortunate to experience many different cultures, and I have always been interested in the similarities and differences between them. However, wherever I lived, the science was still the same, and how things work. Chemical reactions, physical changes and biological interactions became a passion of mine. This led me to Leeds University, where I studied Chemical Process Technology. A few years after graduating, I realised I had an affinity for teaching, and so I returned to Leeds University to complete a PGCE in Science.
Following this, I have spent just over a decade teaching in schools in the United Kingdom, the Middle East and Asia. I have taught Chemistry, Biology and Psychology to A level and find helping others to understand difficult concepts that explain how the world around us works very rewarding.
I always wanted to teach Science because it allows us to make sense of things that might otherwise seem impossible. From the first day of becoming a Science teacher, I’ve always believed that there is nothing more exciting than discovering the reason behind why so many things that we take for granted, happen. Helping students to discover; how our world is made out of a relatively small number of elements, how oxygen gets transported around the body, why giraffes have blue tongues, or a multitude of other things, is as interesting as the first time I discovered these things for myself.
Throughout my teaching career, I have taken on many additional responsibilities from Head of Science, to Pastoral leadership. For the last few years, as well as teaching my subject specialisms, I’ve also been helping international schools with their Personal, Social, Health, and Economic Curricula. If you’re in the UK, you might know that as PSHE, in other places they call it Life Skills or, here at Wolsey Hall, Skills for Life. I firmly believe that this area of education, our understanding of ourselves and our place in the world, is the foundation that leads to academic success elsewhere. The better we know ourselves, the easier it becomes to know other things.
I live with my wife, daughter, and a boisterous Egyptian Hound in rural France. When I’m not teaching or tutoring, most of my time is taken up attempting to piece together our house or finding new and unusual ways to fail at growing vegetables!
Learning and teaching Science is incredibly rewarding, and I’m looking forward to helping more students on that journey.
