Course: BA (Hons) Education & Training
My Story:
Starting out in London, Eugenie worked as a Montessori teacher – a method of teaching that is based on self-directed activity and hands-on learning – before becoming an Early Years Teaching Assistant at a local school. Inspired by the birth of her own children, she then decided to venture into primary education with a Level 3 Assistant Teaching and Learning course alongside her Teaching Assistant role.
Despite having already completed a Design HND in the mid-90s, Eugenie found it difficult to find an institution that would allow her to finish what she’d started, but after meeting the Education and Training Programme Leader at the University Centre, who helped with a quick brush-up on study skills, Eugenie was warmly welcomed onto the one-year-top-up course.
She said: “I had tried many routes into finishing my degree, but everyone kept saying I had been out of education for too long and needed to repeat the previous years.”
“Being accepted onto the course was incredible as I had got so used to hearing ‘no’ all the time. The unshakeable belief that the tutors had in me from that first interview continued, for me and my peers, throughout the course; they knew that with a bit of hard work and determination, we all had it in us to achieve our degrees.”
“The course tutors were aware that many of us had families and accepted that we wouldn’t always be there for the 9.30am starts and 3.30pm finishes, but they made sure we kept up with any missed work.”
“It was perfect: I was able to learn about the theoretical side about education at the start of the week in College, then apply it while working in the school at the latter end.”
“I’d never done any academic writing like this before but after a few clumsily created essays I started to find my feet – and voice! Back then, I’d have been happy just passing the degree, I could never have imagined I’d come out of it with a first. I’ve come a million miles from the person I was at the start of the course and I have to thank the lecturers for that: I couldn’t have done it without them.”
“Every institution and course should have a Programme Leader like mine: someone who can look past the paperwork and see the individual underneath. I will never be able to thank her and Truro and Penwith enough for opening up new horizons for me.”
Upon graduating the BA (Hons) Education and Training degree, Eugenie progressed on to a Masters degree in Psychology and hopes to follow this with a Doctorate in Educational Psychology.
