Pamela Robinson

Up until the age of fourteen I was exceeding in all aspects of school life, I was reaching all targets set in obtaining very good results in my GCSE’s. Then my parents decided to buy a business in another country, due to being in the last year of secondary school I took the decision to stay with relatives to finish my education. Unfortunately my plans did not succeed, and I found myself having to get a job, my education suffered and I ended up leaving school before exams had even taken place. By the age of sixteen I moved in with my partner and become a mother at the age of twenty. I then went on to have another two children, in that time I was a stay a home mother and on times I suffered with bouts of depression which resulted in me becoming isolated from the outside world.

When my children started school I pushed myself into becoming a volunteer at their school initially, so I could be around my children, but I found I loved being useful and helping the other children. I also started attending various projects/courses run by the Garnsychan Partnership which helped me to get out of the house and socialise with other adults. I really enjoyed myself and my confidence began to grow. I decided I wanted to better myself and continue improving my education.

Amazingly I was offered a temporary position as a teaching assistant and although I was overjoyed I also felt inadequate thinking what kind of role model I was? Also what qualities did I have to offer? I decided to take the position for my children as I wanted them to have a mother to be proud of and not a mother who couldn’t get out of bed on bad days. I was very thankful to Garnteg Primary School for believing in me and giving me a chance to improve my life; I hadn’t worked for over 14 years and before that I had only ever had dead end jobs with no prospects. So I vowed to try my very best to improve my children’s life’s, my life and the children that I was supporting. I felt this was a chance to build a career for myself.

Soon after starting my post I achieved a NVQ level 2 in maths and English, I also passed my driving test, I was thriving and was very happy with my achievements and felt for once in my life I was capable of doing something for myself, I was proud knowing my children could look at me as a positive role model, and I was demonstrating to them that if you want things in life you needed to go out and get it.

To be able to gain a permanent position within the school I needed to gain a Level 2 and 3 NVQ teaching assistant qualification. So I started the course. One thing I needed to improve was my skills on a computer, I knew very basic skills, but I found myself stepping back or panicking when it came to any duties or assignments using the computer and felt embarrassed by my lack of knowledge, and when children asked me for help I was unable to give assistance and when an I.C.T. lesson was taking place, I would find other things to do.

It was recommended for me to the I.T. courses at the Garnsychan Partnership. I signed up and began the courses. During the course I learned to use a microscope, a microphone and how to incorporate media into a child friendly program. As a group we went on a bug hunt and then observed our findings under the microscopes we were able to save the pictures within a story board and then with the use of the microphones the children recorded songs which were then emerged with the story board.

The tutor went on to show me how I could bring more I.C.T. into the classroom and how to differentiate according to the child’s age and abilities, I was amazed with how many wonderful things that could be developed on the computer, and I really enjoyed each session not only because I was learning skills and having an enjoyable experience with my son but I was also building good friendships with other parents.

I’m still learning lots of new skills and often ask the Garnsychan Partnership tutor for tips in improving tasks within school, I am using the skills I have learned to improve my portfolios and during observations on my files it was commented on how professional they were. I also spend lots of time supporting my children at home on their laptops. I am looking forward to continuing the classes and obtaining qualifications within I.T.

Since taking part in the course I have secured a permanent Teaching Assistant position within the school and gained my Level 3 Teaching Assistants NVQ.

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