I studied the Early Years Degree, beginning with the FDA Early Years and Education and continuing immediately on to the BA.
Prior to my degree, I studied my AS levels at 6th form and then went on to go get a job. I completed an NVQ3 with adult education. My future aspiration was to teach primary.
At the time I was about to move out and purchase my first home. I was also about to get married! I didn’t want to give up my job either, so moving away from university was completely out of the question. Being able to continue employment and study alongside was the prefect mix for me. This made UcWA the best choice.
My favourite part of the course was learning about the development of children from birth, as it has given me a hugely important grounding in understanding why children may behave the way they do and how to best support this, both in work and personally too.
The friends I made during my time at UcWA made my experience very memorable and I’m still very close with them.
After having my first son in the middle of my final year, I took a short break from furthering my career and actually had another child. After a couple of years, I was lucky enough to be offered employment as an instructor at my school, where I then progressed on to QTS through the assessment only route. I recently completed my NQT year and am now a subject lead and a class teacher, working part time. I teach year 3 for half of the week and am subject lead for design and technology.
Without my degree, I wouldn’t have been able to continue on to qualified teacher status. To anyone thinking of returning to learning as an adult, I would say to be brave. It was a big step to go back into the classroom after having left school and I wasn’t sure I could do it. At first it feels overwhelming but with hard work and dedication you can do anything.
I was lucky to have the full support of my school, family and friends. Without them it would have been much more difficult to achieve all that I have.