bbcteaching

Today´s interview is with Nick Corston of Steam Co. Please introduce yourself... Nick Corston. Dad and Co-founder of community enterprise STEAM Co. @nickcorston What made you become a teacher? There are people out there who'd choke on their grits if I called myself a teacher. So let's say I'm just a dad. A dad that finds himself in situations where people admit to learning stuff from me, whether they're in year one or the staff room. The journey I'm on, to advocate for creativity in education, business and community, was kicked off by reading a TED talk (Sir Ken's) , reading half a book (Prof Claxton's) and meeting a bunch of creatives in a field at a festival (House of Fairy Tales) Does that come close to a PGCE? I have a Master's in Electronic Engineering but doubt that will further my cause enough to convince the cynics that I'm knowledgeable or qualified enough to do what I do.   Whatever. What is your favourite part of the job?

First could you please give me a brief outline of who you are, your ´real´ identity if you want it sharing, where and what you teach. I’m head teacher of St Matthias Primary School in Bethnal Green, Tower Hamlets and have been since 1997. I haven’t taught regularly for 20 years, though do a bit of booster class stuff with year 6 and very occasionally cover a lesson. What made you become a teacher? I fell into teaching. What I really wanted to do when leaving university was – and this might be a surprise – be a priest in the Church of England. Anyway, they said I was too young and too anti-authoritarian so told me to go and get a job where I had to experience be ing in authority and then come back later if I still felt that was right. So I was floundering about , not sure what on earth to do when I saw an ad for teaching and thought ‘that’s a job, I could do that for a bit.’ I’m ashamed to say that primary teaching never occurred to me – my mum was a primary school t