My initial interest in personal development and cross community work started early in my teaching when I was given a form class of disaffected young people who had been forced to stay at school because of the raising of the school leaving age. We had the freedom to develop a curriculum suited to their needs with an emphasis on social skills, work experience and community service.
The Seven Schools Project grew out of the Schools Cross Community Contact and Education for Mutual Understanding (EMU) initiatives and brought together schools on the North Coast to work together to address the growing divisions within NI society and gave young people the opportunity to learn more of one another’s beliefs and cultures.
I worked as an Education Officer with the Education and Library Board to promote EMU and then was seconded to CCEA as part for the review tem of the NI Curriculum Learning for Life and Work area of learning.
My most recent employment has been in teacher education at Ulster University where I have been course director for a PGCE Home Economics course and Personal Development programme which leads to accredited teacher status in association with the PSHE Association UK.
