About me
One of my main passions is music. I started playing the clarinet when I was 10, and had achieved Grade 5 by the age of 15. I travelled to Barcelona with the school concert band when I was 13, which was a great experience.
I was a member of the Army Cadet Force for three years, and in this time achieved a great amount. I was promoted to the rank of corporal, which meant I was the highest ranking cadet in my detachment, so I was in charge. I was awarded cadet of the year six months after joining. I also have various sporting achievements through cadets - I won the area cross country two years in a row, and represented the country in a tug-of-war championship in Germany. I also led the detachment two years in a row in the local Christmas carol service; went to the local Beaver group to talk about cadets, and have learnt many skills, including first aid, shooting and teaching. Through the cadet force I also achieved the Duke of Edinburgh bronze award.
I was a member of the Army Cadet Force for three years, and in this time achieved a great amount. I was promoted to the rank of corporal, which meant I was the highest ranking cadet in my detachment, so I was in charge. I was awarded cadet of the year six months after joining. I also have various sporting achievements through cadets - I won the area cross country two years in a row, and represented the country in a tug-of-war championship in Germany. I also led the detachment two years in a row in the local Christmas carol service; went to the local Beaver group to talk about cadets, and have learnt many skills, including first aid, shooting and teaching. Through the cadet force I also achieved the Duke of Edinburgh bronze award.
Six months after completing my A Levels I went to Australia for five months. It was the first thing I'd ever really done on my own, and up until now the best thing I've ever done. I learnt invaluable life skills, met people from all different walks of life, and had a wonderful time doing it. Among other things I learnt to surf (almost!), snorkelled at the Great Barrier Reef, travelled across the outback in a campervan, spent a week on a ranch, climbed Sydney Harbour Bridge and had a job for ten weeks as a nanny.
I'm very competent with ICT, and my skills in this area were greatly improved during my time working for Systems and Education. (And tested as well as I taught both students and teachers how to gain more from their ICT lessons!). I am very familiar with Textease and Clicker 5, as well as Office 2003. I'm currently learning Office 2007 with the view to achieving Certified Application Specialist level. I've been involved in international links with collaborative educational software - for example, this CV was created fully within j2e, a programme which I co-wrote the manual for, in a collaboration between England and Sweden.
I've also recently discovered the joy of photography, and am hoping to be able to one day turn this into a career. For some of my favourite photos click here.
Some of my photos have been used as educational resources in the NEN (National Education Network) gallery. The Gallery is a growing collection, at present containing around 52,000 Image, Audio and Video resources covering a wide range of topics relevant to the curriculum. Its purpose is to provide a free repository of high quality materials copyright cleared for use in teaching and learning. You can see some of my photographs by clicking on the links below:
http://gallery.nen.gov.uk/index.php?subm=1&st=red%2Bsquirrel&submit=Search
The two pictures entitled "Red squirrel, Sweden" are mine. Plus one has been used for the cover photo for the entire "Animals" section linked to from the home page.
http://gallery.nen.gov.uk/gallery14167-.html
Currently all photographs in this album have been taken by me.
By now I really had the travel bug. So I went to Belgium and worked as a nanny for five months. When I left in February 2008 I came to Sweden and have spent almost two years here. I'm moving back to England soon, to work towards my dream of becoming a photographer. During this time I'll be working with ICT in primary schools, both during school hours and in after-school clubs.
I enjoy raising money for charity, and am also a bit of an adrenaline junkie, so try to combine the two when I can - like abseiling down a hotel, or skydiving from 11,000ft.
I enjoy raising money for charity, and am also a bit of an adrenaline junkie, so try to combine the two when I can - like abseiling down a hotel, or skydiving from 11,000ft.
After this, I spent two months in Guatemala, volunteering at an animal rescue centre. Again, I had incredible new experiences, met lots of new people, and had my eyes open to the way of living in less developed countries. I worked with monkeys, parrots, crocodiles, turtles, pigs, toucans, raccoons and many others. There was also physical work involved, such as carting crates of fruit, building new steps and cleaning enclosures.
