Student Celebrates Graduation after 12 Year Journey to Become Teacher

Twelve years after first stepping into the classroom as a volunteer, Anthony Price will next week celebrate his graduation as a teacher.

For some time, Anthony, of Shrewsbury, had wanted to take a more leading role in the classroom from his role as an assistant teacher. Completing his degree in Primary Initial Teacher Education at the University of Worcester enabled him to take that next step to fulfil his ambitions.

Anthony will graduate along with his fellow students in ceremonies being held on Tuesday, March 4 in Worcester Cathedral and already has a new job teaching at a primary school in Shrewsbury.

“I’m just looking forward to the opportunity to catch up with people and celebrate our success,” said the 31-year-old. “It feels like the result of a lot of hard work, but it does feel good to be able to lead children down the correct path. It’s an opportunity to inspire children to be as good as they can be and give them that thirst for knowledge and finding more out, to create that next generation of leaders.”

Anthony did an initial foundation degree in primary teaching at Shrewsbury College then opted to do a top up course at the University of Worcester to achieve his full degree and qualified teacher status. “I was looking at courses around my lifestyle and the qualifications I had up to that point and Worcester was one of the only places that offered something that was accommodating to part-time and school-based needs,” he said. “I knew what a good educational facility it is and how outstanding it is for its teaching, so it was a bit of a no brainer. It has taken about 15 months.”

However, teaching had not been a career Anthony had planned. He fell into it when he was set up with some voluntary work with small groups of children in a school after he finished at sixth form. “After that they offered me an assistant teaching post,” he said. “I stumbled into it and realised how much I enjoyed it and stuck with it.”

He praised his experience at Worcester. “It was really positive, it was a really good standard of education,” he said. “We were really lucky to have a course leader who was really understanding of everybody’s individual situations and needs and adapted things based on people’s needs. We could get advice if we ever needed it, nothing was ever too much.

“It prepared me really well. It was very realistic and supportive. It was honest about the responsibilities and how hard the job was going to be. From the start it prepared me. It definitely improved my confidence and also it reinforced to me that I was doing the right thing. It cemented that my practice was good.”

The transition for some from assistant teacher to teacher might have proved tricky to navigate. “It was quite daunting at first because I’d worked in the same school for a quite a long time, but I just quickly felt it was pretty natural to be honest,” said the father-of-two, who now works as primary teacher at Greenfields Primary School in Shrewsbury.

“It wasn't as difficult as I expected because I found early on that I was able to form positive relationships with staff and pupils in a new setting so once they were established, I felt more comfortable. Early on I was quite happy to be in that supportive role, but when your situation changes, you have got children you realise that actually you could make more of a difference to children’s lives.”