Imogen Youd
Imogen, who completed her undergraduate degree at Worcester two years ago, was living in Barcelona playing in Catalonia’s Division 2 basketball league when she decided she wanted to train to become a teacher.
“I decided I wanted to teach Business as I was volunteering in a primary school in Spain and felt very passionate about ensuring every pupil had the same opportunities in education,” she said. “I chose Worcester for my PGCE as I had a previous experience here which I loved and also the reputation of teaching education is top-notch.”
Imogen returned from Spain to take up her studies in the midst of the pandemic and quickly got back into the Wolves side, playing in Division 1.
“My time studying was very intense,” she said. “I was already aware that the PGCE would be very full-on but having basketball commitments alongside this, made it so that I had barely any free time at all. Lesson planning took a great deal of time for me, but I enjoy seeing how I made a difference to pupil lives.”
Imogen said learning online afforded her the opportunity to learn new skills.
“Learning how to teach online and use Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom and Blackboard, helped me to develop my IT skills which would have never been used this often without a pandemic,” she said. “Now it is commonplace at my new teaching post to use technology in every lesson as the impact of the pandemic is still affecting classes and education.”
Imogen is now working at a school in Twickenham and is running the Business Curriculum, alongside playing basketball for Brent Bulls in Division 2 of the national league.
“In the coming years I plan on applying for head of department/head of year roles to capitalise on my managerial experience,” she said. “I am also still playing basketball and enjoying the healthier, work-life balance.”