Lizzie Bulley is a primary teacher and PE Coordinator. This is her Teacher Effect story.
Last year I organised for my whole school to take part in a dance project, led by a dance company over a six-week period. We had two professional dancers come in each week to choreograph a dance piece with the children. A few parents were a little nervous about the children taking part because it was a pretty big deal. One parent in particular said that they didn’t want their child taking part because he couldn’t dance.
I spoke to the parent and explained what was going to happen, what the benefits were for their child of taking part. Only six weeks later, the child was dancing in the final performance at the Hackney Empire in front of their parents and the entire school!
I had lots of sleepless nights in the build-up, but the performance was absolutely amazing. And when the time came to do my parent and student feedback, the parent said their child had grown in confidence and was even dancing around in the kitchen every night!
I now teach him PE and I’ve seen a massive difference in his confidence, both in terms of his own movement and also interactions with his peers. Knowing a parent put their trust in me and it paid off, made me feel really confident in my abilities as a teacher.
To know that I had this effect on one child who didn’t believe they could dance – whose parents didn’t think they could either – made me feel really, really happy. It’s just so rewarding when you experience moments like that, where you get to see first hand the effect that you’re having on the children you teach - and not just the children either it’s the parents and the families as-well. Moments like this are what I do my job for.
To see more stories like Lizzie's, visit: Teacher Effect