Just before the start of the autumn term, staff at Badger Hill primary school, Saltburn-by-the-Sea, came in for a routine training day and found themselves in a scene from Alice in Wonderland.
The school had been decorated with playing cards, flowers and large (pretend) jam tarts – as well as a human-size White Rabbit, Alice herself on stilts and, of course, a Mad Hatter. Spread out on a long table was the tea party: mismatched vintage teacups and saucers, cakes on cake-stands, sandwiches, "eat me" cupcakes and cloudy lemonade.
Jan Dering, a volunteer at the school, dreamed up the tea party together with The Open University (OU) as a way of thanking staff at Badger Hill for their kindness and support while she'd been studying for a foundation degree.
Soon after Dering's son Lewis started at Badger Hill in 2006, she became a parent governor and started to visit the school regularly, helping out with activities such as listening to the children reading. But it was her son's year 1 teacher, Sarah McCallum, who suggested to Jan that she might be a "frustrated teacher" and should look into doing some training.
It took a little while for that seed to be nurtured and bear fruit, says Dering: "I thought, 'maybe she's right, and maybe it is something I would like to do'. Because the more I was in school, the more I was enjoying it."
Dering was born with a heart condition, which meant she lost a lot of time at primary school through illness."There are big holes in my knowledge which impacted on my secondary school," she says. It was only after leaving secondary school that she was diagnosed with dyslexia.
In 2011, having looked at the different options and consulted with headteacher Heather Rowe, Dering started a foundation degree in primary teaching and learning with the OU. She gave up her party supplies business, but continued to go into school two days a week as a volunteer.
The first course on the programme, on child developmental psychology, was demanding. But, says Dering, the OU was "really fabulous": "I had a supportive tutor for that course, who knew I had only a very basic smattering of child psychology under my belt. And the online forum, and working with other students, was really helpful."
The school has continued to back her. Rowe assigned deputy head Anne Coleby as a mentor, and she has proved to be an excellent guide, making sure staff are on hand to answer questions. Rowe has helped too, says Dering: "Heather's been extremely supportive all the way through my OU studies. It's a guiding gentle wing across the shoulders, which she gives all the staff."
Staff have also benefited from having Jan at the school during her studies, says Rowe – supporting her has made them think more critically about their own teaching practice. "Getting us to reflect on all those theoretical things that Jan is going through is a big learning opportunity for us as well."
Dering's experience has made her realise that she is capable of academic study, and she now plans to take a full BA honours degree with the OU.
And the Mad Hatters' tea party? It went down a treat, says Rowe: "To be thanked in the way that Jan thanked us through the OU was just totally brilliant, and it lifted us all up at the start of term. That was absolutely wonderful."
Find out more about The Open University and watch Jan's Mad Hatter's thank you to her colleagues
