Coming back to the world of education, but in a different role.
Two years ago, aged 60, I retired from teaching and ten years of happy headship, to be more available to my family. I had loved all my posts but felt the need to see more of my wife and teenage son and to recharge my batteries.
I was blessed from the moment I began teaching. I had the privilege to teach in wonderful schools and to meet inspiring teachers and Heads who shaped my vision and sense of vocation. Most rewardingly, I encountered a fascinating range of pupils, creative teachers and loving, loyal parents. When I was asked at ‘Open Mornings’ what made me love my job, I replied with the famous picture by Millais: The boyhood of Sir Walter Raleigh.
“What greater privilege can there be than pointing out the horizon to a child?” – PMK
In my first year of retirement, something miraculous occurred which has brought me back into the world of education and to the creation of this website. I had been fostered, as a six-month-old child, and did not know my birth family. At the urging of my teenage son, I began the search for them. Amazingly, through intensive research, good luck and DNA tests, they are found!
My world, and that of my wife and son, have changed: we find we are part of a web of family relations spread across the world. I joked on LinkedIn that having retired to be with my family: ‘I have now unretired to be with my family.’
I am writing a book about my discoveries and its impact on me, my family and my newfound birth family. The book is also exploring philosophical and scientific questions concerning ethnic, social, religious and political notions of identity.
The discoveries, thus far, have necessitated our travelling around the world including to: Portugal; Jamaica; Poland and Canada. There will be future trips to the United States, China, Israel and the Netherlands.
In order to fund my research and family journeys, I needed to return to work! But what work?
I asked my family, my friends, former parents, former pupils and former colleagues and they were of one voice. “Go with what you know and love! Why not become an educational consultant? Why not harness all your experience and help nurture talent and potential?” Not only did they offer the advice, but movingly, they offered to lend me a helping hand!
So, in the words of the inimitable John Wick: “Yeah, I’m thinking I’m back!” But, I am no longer restricted to teaching pupils in a specific school or with the responsibilities and inevitable burdens of a Headship.
I can view education and its development from a new perspective. I have become an Educational Consultant who wishes to share, creatively and productively, knowledge of educational challenges which has been garnered and gathered, during a life blessed in being nurtured in a remarkably kind school, an enriching university and a sequence of extraordinarily diverse and exciting school communities.
I am pointing out the horizon again, but in a different, yet equally exciting, and fulfilling way.
PMK
