Ellen Hardy is a geography teacher and head of the humanities department at Avon Valley College in Durrington, Wiltshire. She has a degree in geography and graduated from the University of Bath with a PGCE in geography: secondary teaching in 2001.
My passion for geography started when I was in school. After doing it as a GCSE, I fell in love with the subject. I’ve always loved being outdoors and learning about the environment we live in.
Teaching is about a love of the subject, but it’s also about being able to encourage and engage students in a love for learning. I didn’t go into teaching straight away. I worked in personnel for a couple of years after I graduated. However, I found that in an office, every day was similar. In teaching, every day is different, so you never get bored.
My day starts at 8am. I share a tutor group with the head of English, so some days I do a tutor session first thing. We get the kids settled and ready for the day ahead. My current tutor group are year 10 students, who are preparing for work experience later in the year.
Teaching comes next. We have six lessons a day: sometimes I teach all six, and sometimes I have free periods. Most of my timetable is geography, but I also teach A-level sociology too. That’s a lovely way to start the day – with a small class and great discussions.
My geography lessons make the most of our rural location. We’re lucky enough to have big grounds, a river and fields around us. I might be teaching a year 7 class about measuring the weather, for example, and then we’ll go out and measure our own weather.
I’ve just started a new topic with my year 10 students, looking at how land changes from countryside to city. Our closest city is Salisbury – which is very small – so, while my students can write very well about rural areas, I’m also trying help them be aware of what a big city is like.
We’re only an hour from the coast, so we go down to the beach every year and look at the impact of tourism, for example, or beach management. A couple of years ago we took the year 11 students to Lulworth Cove in Dorset. A few of them had never seen the sea before and it was wonderful to give them that experience. That was a real highlight.
The official school day ends at 2.45pm. We often have meetings then, or run revision sessions for year 11. I usually leave around 4.30 to 5pm, have family time and then get some work done when my children go to bed.
You have to be prepared to work very hard as a teacher. But it’s a brilliant job. The students can always make you smile, even when you’re having a bad day. I love keeping in touch with my former students, some of whom have gone on to be teachers themselves. Seeing them succeed is so satisfying – knowing that you have helped them reach their potential and change their future.
Find out more about becoming a teacher and the support on offer on the Get Into Teaching website.
