Nick Matthews

My name is Nick Matthews and I teach design in a prep school in North Norfolk and I've been teaching here for about five years now.

On a day-to-day basis the large portion of my day is actually hands-on teaching children. So I teach children in years three to eight.

However, with a subject like design, there's a lot of preparation. So having to get materials ready, although I have a technician to help.

There's a lot of time and work goes into preparation, ordering of materials. And then there are a lot of hidden sort of responsibilities that come with the subject.

So it could be a school play, could be making scenery or backdrops, could be going off to help mend something. It's a slightly jack-of-all-trades if you're at a school in the subject like this.

And in addition to that, I have various school responsibilities. So I'm not just head of design technology, I'm head of a couple of year groups.

I oversee most of the residential trips and our co-curricular activities. So staying on top of all of that is quite a juggle sometimes.

Typical day, I'm normally at school fairly early. So I like to think it's a hangover from being a boarding house master many years ago. So I'm normally in school by about quarter past seven.

I enjoy a bit of peace and quiet to answer all the emails and questions, make sure the workshop's all ready. So I like being prepared and organised in that respect.

Then we have a registration. So I'll meet my tutor group first thing in the morning, say hello, check they're all right. And then we're into lessons.

So we have nine lessons through the day and they tend to be sort of back-to-back although I may not be teaching all of them.

I'm afraid I have a fairly busy timetable, compared to some other subjects, because I teach every pupil in the school and we have break times, so you might find yourself on duty on some of those.

Some days we have sport fixtures. So I often take an alternative game session. So I might be kayaking in a swimming pool, I might be shooting at the Senior School range.

So it is on a day to day basis, really quite different. Evenings, we have evening activities as well. So I think that the earliest we tend to finish is five o'clock, but it could be 6.15.

And then when it gets to 6.15, if I've been doing evening activities, there's often sort of that downtime, I will stay at school and just sort of tidy up emails and paperwork and so on.

And we also work Saturdays. So not to forget the Saturdays. Saturdays is lovely. I really enjoy Saturdays. We start with chapel rather than straight into lessons. It's a slightly different feeling day.

So we have academic enrichment slots in the morning. So pupils are looking at learning different skills, it's sort of letter writing, how to sit exams, do interviews.

Again, we have sport and then we have co-curricular programme in the afternoon. So this term I'm teaching with other staff a STEAM project to year 6 pupils in the afternoon.

So that would give you a brief snapshot of my week.

There are a lot of staff at the Prep School. I can't give you an exact number. But on a small basis, sort of working outwards, I have a technician who is in all of my lessons with me.

My department works very closely with several other departments. So the Art department, IT, Physics. So you have quite a lot of communication with certain staff more than others.

We're currently expanding our STEAM program. We have the Head of Geography, Head of History, Head of Physics, the DT technician. We're all trying to work out how to mesh all our subjects together.

So it's slowly sort of spreading out and that will include maths and various other subjects. So there are all the heads of departments, the various teachers. We have a big support staff as well.

And we have deputy heads, headmistress. We're a third of the school, I suppose. We have a Pre-Prep beneath us and we have a Senior School above us.

So all in all, there are a huge amount of staff and pupils on site.

I think the best thing... I tell people I do genuinely I think I have the best job on the planet because I teach a subject that I love.

I love the creativity of design technology and there's so much freedom within it. If I'm setting a design brief I always encourage people to take it their own way.

I love to see pupils being creative and trying different ideas and sort of straying slightly from the beaten path. So I really enjoy seeing people stretch themselves.

And I think they get a great deal of satisfaction from the subject such as design technology, or STEAM or engineering or whatever variation of this is.

It's that chance to be creative, use their hands. And it's just a break for them, I think, in what can be quite a busy academic timetable.

And that's not to say this subject isn't academic, but it is a different form of education, I suppose.

And in addition to teaching an amazing subject, I teach a lot of outdoor activities, which I love doing. So kayaking, climbing, I love going on school trips.

So I've gone numerous school trips throughout the year. So I'm very lucky to be involved in those. We've seen some amazing places and to see pupils out of a school environment is a real treat.

The hardest part of the job without doubt is the paperwork. I dare say everybody will say that.

In a workshop, we have to make sure that we have all sorts of health and safety standards that we have to adhere to. So risk assessments, making sure that machines are maintained.

Extraction services have been tested and so on.

So that's something we have to stay on top of all the time. Control of substances hazardous to health.

And so there is also then all the paperwork associated with teaching. So you have to make sure your schemes of work, lesson plans are up to date. You have to write reports and do effort grades for pupils. And that's really the tip of the iceberg.

On a day-to-day basis, there is quite a lot of jiggling around, certainly with sort of things like running an activities program. You're constantly having to sort of stay on top of paperwork and where pupils are and where staff are.

So I would say that that is probably the hardest thing. It's not necessarily an unpleasant process, but it is something that I would rather spend less time doing.

And I'd rather be up a climbing ladder or in the workshop instead, but you can't have it every way, I suppose.

I found my way into the job slightly by accident. I'm very keen on art. So I always thought I'd sort of end up down a more artistic route.

And then when I was sitting my A levels at a local sixth form college, I had a very inspirational head of design and technology who took me on a field trip to see his old university, Brunel.

And I saw the incredible product design and industrial design that the students were doing there. And that was really quite inspirational.

So I then set my heart on going to that university. I still wasn't sure about the teaching part. I knew I wanted to do industrial design, so that's what my degree is in.

Although all my family are teachers, I sort of had it as a bit of a backup and I thought I'd genuinely end up in industry.

However, I had a phone call out of the blue, suggesting I look at a certain job advert for a school that a family friend knew about.

And I applied to that straight out of university and I was given head of department. Right from day one, which is quite a big ask.

To expect a newly graduated member of staff to take on a head of department role. But I was very lucky that I had the previous head of department stayed in tenure for two terms.

Who's a lovely old chap from Sheffield who sort of gave me possibly an equal amount of education that my university did, so sort of quite a lot of learning on the job initially.

So yes, it not entirely ended up where I'd expect to be but I absolutely adore it so I think I'm very grateful for whatever twists of fate brought me here.

School education did definitely help. I was a grammar school boy down in Surrey initially and we had two wonderful, back then it was just woodwork teachers.

Although it was a design technology GCSE that I sat, but I think it was fine as long as you were woodwork.But they were super, they gave me a real grounding in the subject.

They were very sort of controlled and tight. And made you go through a design process immaculately to ensure your coursework was all up to scratch. And I really enjoyed that but as I said, I was still probably more interested in art at the time.

And then as I moved to sixth form college, as I've mentioned already, an inspirational teacher, as is so often the case, made me move further over towards design technology.

I've got lots of moments in my career that I'll never forget. So being put on the spot, I suppose for me is probably not going to be a subject related one.

It is almost definitely going to be a trip related one. I've been lucky enough to take school groups to India over the last 10, 15 years. And I think I just love seeing how pupils react in places such as.

My absolute highlight was I did actually get engaged on a school trip. Halfway down the river Ardèche, I got onto one knee and proposed to my wife with 50 school children just around the corner out of view.

So I suppose that better be my highlight of my career.

I do genuinely wish I had worked a little harder. I think I've always been very lucky that in exam situations I can perform quite well with a minimal amount of revision.

I'm now going through that process of trying to get my own children to revise for their GCSEs. And I wish I could have been a little more dedicated at a younger age.

And I think it's something that for me has increased exponentially as I've got older. I've found myself far more able to apply myself towards work and towards studying for longer periods of time.

And much more intensively. Back when I was 15, 16, I did find it quite hard to be brutally honest with myself.

So I think I would go and press my younger self to do a bit more revision and to study harder and to try and enjoy that process rather than see it as a chore.