Rooted in science, grounded in nature
For twenty years in the Prep Department, Mr Grant has been igniting curiosity, nurturing young minds and opening up the world of Science for the next generation of learners.
Now beginning his retirement, he looks forward to spending more time among the trees and landscapes he loves, while treasuring the memories of two decades spent shaping Bridgewater’s youngest scientists.
Q. How did your teaching career begin?
“My first teaching experience was in karate classes in which I quickly discovered it was necessary to develop an eclectic approach to demonstrating and explaining techniques as people did not have the same levels of flexibility, mobility or kinesthetic sense. Over time I instructed many students, from the most able to the most physically challenged, including students who were blind and, in one case, quadriplegic and unable to stand.
My school teaching career began at Ryan Middle School in Bradford where I taught Maths, Science, PE and Games from Y5 to Y8. I then was appointed as class teacher at Derwent Junior School in York where I taught vertically grouped Y5/6 classes for twelve years, coordinating Science and ICT. During this time we experienced a ‘trinity’ of changes: the National Curriculum, the introduction of SATS, and the creation of OFSTED.
There followed two years working as an independent Primary Science Consultant with schools in York while teaching on the Primary PGCE course at Leeds University, as well as supply teaching with various agencies. Having eventually decided that classroom teaching was a more fulfilling role, I returned to Worsley, continuing to teach on supply until, on a cold afternoon in December 2004, the supply agency gave the telephone number of ‘an independent school very close to home’…”
Q. If you hadn’t become a teacher, what other profession would you have been part of?
“Biological sciences have always held a fascination for me, along with a childhood obsession with dinosaurs. I would very much have enjoyed going out on paleontology digs. I would also have enjoyed working outdoors in woodlands, so forestry or arboriculture would be high on the list.”
Q. What is it that inspires you?
“The staggering diversity of the living world and the ways in which all areas of knowledge are inextricably connected. There is so much to know and understand that there is never a need to stop learning. We are surrounded by discoveries waiting to be made.”
Q. What would surprise others to know about you?
“Probably that I have been a zoo keeper and worked with big cats. It is generally not considered that teachers may have lives before or outside school.”
Q. What has changed since you first joined Bridgewater School?
“The increasingly extensive role of IT and computing, an inevitable step, and one not without its concerns. I still find the smell of chalk dust nostalgic.”
Q. What is the best advice you can give to your students?
“Learn from mistakes and never make excuses. Life is a continuous problem-solving exercise, and there is always a way around a problem if you are prepared to keep looking and putting one foot in front of the other.”
Q. What has been your greatest achievement?
“I have never felt I have had some solitary goal to achieve. There are things I am glad I have done that took great effort and determination. One of the hardest was grading for a karate 3rd Dan black belt. Motorcycling around Europe over the Alps and Pyrenees was also a great thing to have done. Perhaps having reached a point in life where I can do my own thing in my own time should count as well.”
Q. How will you look back at your time in the Prep Department?
“As a period of great good fortune: it remains one of the nicest places I have ever worked.”
Q. What will you most miss?
“Colleagues and familiar faces with whom I have worked for so long, and a thousand small things impossible to list. But there is one…
…That moment after everyone has left on a sunny Friday afternoon, and it feels that I have the school to myself and the whole weekend ahead. I would put the kettle on, tidy the classroom, then sit at my desk listening to Ry Cooder and the Rolling Stones with the windows open…”
Q. What does the future hold for you?
“Time to read the great stack of science fiction books waiting on the box next to my chair. Time to visit old friends, work in my old zoo-keeping mate’s woodland. Time to motorcycle through the Yorkshire Dales. Time…I hope.”
