Tuesday 7 March 2017

Moments that matter


One of my Functional Skills students, a young lad with a family history, and personal experiences that make you weep just to think about it, always disliked maths lessons.

The last few weeks though, he'd started to show some interest and compete to be first with the answer and I encouraged him as best I could in a class that sometimes resembles an angry, underfed, nicotine addicted zoo. He slowly let slip, in rare moments, that he'd never had any encouragement to do anything and it broke my heart to hear how he had rarely had Christmas presents and never a birthday cake.

Last week, he took his Functional Skills Level 1.

Today, I told him that he had passed and at 97% and I gave him a huge chocolate cake, with icing and sprinkles to celebrate.

The look on his face will stay with me forever.

Nothing can beat teaching when moments like that happen.