Sarah Jackson
Class Teacher at Forest Lodge Academy
My name is Sarah Jackson and I am a year 6 teacher at Forest Lodge Academy, an inner city primary school based in Leicester. I have just completed my fourth year of teaching, all in year 6. I am also the Religious Education subject lead, supporting staff across the school to deliver high quality lessons, across a range of religions. As I develop in my career, I would like to teach across a range of year groups within KS2.
I started out on my journey into education by volunteering to cook with the nursery children once a week at Forest Lodge Primary School when my son was five, 25 years ago now! I became a school governor as a way to support my local school - a position I held for 15 years. I then applied for a teaching assistant (TA) position and when one arose. I worked in years one and two to support children with their reading as well as reading to them. As this was a temporary position, I continued to work at Tesco’s in the evenings. Eventually, I was given a permanent position at the school and worked as a classroom based TA, where I developed a passion for supporting pupils with their education.
After completing CPD courses and a specialist teaching assistant course, I put my newfound knowledge into practice to support my own children as well as those in school.
Throughout my career, there have been many milestones which I am extremely proud of. Having left school with ‘O’ levels and GCSEs, I chose to undertake a Foundation Degree, while working full time as well as bringing up a young family - I was the first person in my family to go to university. I was encouraged to become a Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) and use my experience and newly acquired skills to teach in the classroom; this is where my interest in R.E. developed. As a HLTA, I became more confident within the classroom, planning and developing high quality lessons across the curriculum but mainly in R.E; I also reflected on my own practice to improve and develop.
As an avid reader, I helped develop the school library and ran reading clubs. This led to me being asked by the Head Teacher to set up an After-School Club, offering a wide range of activities based around reading. This was my first position where I had to direct and lead a group of adults as well as children. I became the school librarian as part of my HLTA role, and designed our new library, including an amazing mural inspired by the pupils based on their favourite book characters, when our school was rebuilt.
Moving on, I enrolled onto a BA Hons degree in Teaching and Learning, with a vision to go into teaching training. But after five years of university, I decided to take a break and just concentrate on school life, developing my experience and putting theory into practice.
As I developed within my role, I was encouraged to apply for teacher training but I couldn’t afford to give up my job to do this; however, I was lucky enough to be accepted onto the SCITT (school centred initial teacher training) programme through the salaried route, earning one of only two places available - which I thought was an amazing achievement.
During my career, I have met with many obstacles along the way. My first was during my HLTA assessment, where I became overwhelmed with the workload and I wanted to defer my assessment. However, with the encouragement of the Head Teacher and colleagues, I persevered and managed to complete the assessment within the time frame.
The second was during my NQT year. My first year of teaching was not how I expected it to be, having taken over the class at Christmas and feeling that the class was becoming my own, lockdown happened. This really knocked my confidence as when we were in school, I wasn’t working with any of my partner teachers due to the bubbles in place and working at home was difficult - online teaching hadn’t started and we were having to upload work to the website.
Luckily, my school was very supportive and colleagues were always on the other end of the telephone. It made me realise how strong I was and that I could do it. When we returned to school, for the new academic year, my class was the first bubble to close and I was the guinea pig for online learning - through TEAMS. Over recent years, I have realised that I am good enough, I can do it and we can achieve our goals with the support of great colleagues.
I am extremely grateful for the support, guidance and opportunities that I have been given, from both the school and the Trust. I have learnt so much from my colleagues and this has enabled me to achieve as well as support numerous pupils over the years. I have become more confident and will continue to strive to be my best self and the best teacher I can be. I look forward to continuing my journey with Forest Lodge and L.E.A.D. Academy Trust.
