“To see those pupils that I have taught in the public domain now and to see the success they have made of their lives, it’s very satisfying,” says David Rennie, Head of PE at Omagh High School.
With students returning to school over the coming days, we have spoken to local Co Tyrone teachers who many of their former students have fond memories of.
David has been a teacher at the Omagh school for more than 20 years now, and seen his fair share of students come and go.
Plenty of other changes have taken place at the school throughout that time, David says.
“When you look back to 2000 when I first started, technology would be the main difference you would see in children nowadays.
“They would be more tech savvy. As a younger teacher you may have been more tech savvy than the younger children but now they seem to have overtaken us.
“We’re playing catch up, they are definitely a lot more streetwise when it comes to technology.
“The advances have certainly helped their education as well, but that’s one of the main differences I see now compared to 20 years ago.”
David is also head of Year 12 in the school whilst he is also a former pupil and head boy.
“When I started teaching here a lot of the teaching staff that taught me was still here and now there’s only a few of those remaining in the current cohort of teachers.
“I came in as the youngest member of staff, and not to say that I’m the oldest member of staff now but I’m certainly one of the more senior members now.
“Being a PE teacher some of the best memories of my time at the school would be some of the sporting success that we have had.
“Most notably in 2013 we won the Northern Ireland U15 Schools’ Cup, which was the biggest achievement the football team here at the school has had.
“All the added on educational experiences that pupils experience outside the classroom was always a highlight of every year.
“Seeing how they develop as young adults whenever they leave school, I take great satisfaction from that.”
The 44-year-old teacher added that many teachers and students have learned more from the events of the last 20 months than they may have learned in the 20 years previous.
“We’ve a full week under our belts and students are starting to filter in now day by day so it’s just entering the unknown again as it’s been a very difficult 20 months.
“Thankfully young people do adapt very quickly to changes and to be fair to the children here they have been excellent in terms of following our protocols here at school.
“We certainly have found it a struggle as adults, so they deserve a lot of credit for adapting to those changes that we and society has asked of them.”
“We’re just looking forward to getting back to some sort of normality as it were before this pandemic.”
Living locally to Omagh High School, David gets the chance to bump into old students and one of the most satisfying parts of his job is to see how they progress after they leave the school.
“I live locally and I do see a lot of the past pupils obviously as the years go by and I’m now starting to see the children from pupils that I have taught come into the school.
“It’s very satisfying to see that they have made a success of themselves and that they are happy.
“Any time you talk to them they all have very fond memories of their time at school, although they may not have thought that at the time!”
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