Angela Bate at an awards event with one of her English course students
Angela Bate, from Fircroft College of Adult Education, knows only too well what it’s like to fight your way back from the bottom. Suffering in an abusive relationship that left her as a single parent with three children, she now gives students like former drug and alcohol addict Eddie Roche (see last month’s Student Journey) the confidence and skills to build a teaching career for themselves.
What got Angela into teaching? “It’s partly my subject and partly the people I teach. I was once like the students we support here. I put myself through university but couldn’t afford to eat at times. Now it’s almost like full circle. My key subject is English but I also lead the Access to HE course which I once attended myself. I understand where most of my students are coming from – and they get it that I understand.”
Everyone's on the same level at Fircroft College
Almost fully residential, Fircroft was originally founded in 1909 to help working people upskill and support each other when returning to their workplaces. It’s based on a deep sense of social justice and runs more than 150 short residential (mainly three-day) courses annually, particularly for learners with few or no qualifications. Staff spend more time with their students than most colleges as they share all facilities. “Everyone is on the same level, sitting together when we eat and having a coffee in the common room.”
When Eddie started attending courses at the college, he was in recovery. “He still is, he tells me, but he was a lot quieter then,” says Angela. “He’d have a chat and a laugh but had very little self-confidence in his academic abilities; he was looking for direction.”
Eddie proved them all wrong
The turning point for Eddie came on Angela’s Award in Education and Training course. “It was a lovely moment when he sat in my office and I told him that he had passed his first Level 3 unit – there are three, and all are quite in-depth. He got really emotional – he didn’t think he could do it but now he’d proved them all wrong at school [a place where he had been bullied and severely undermined]. I didn’t realise how deep a challenge it had been for him until then.”
Eddie quickly became a Student Champion and during recruitment open days has helped attract many college learners who have been nervous about returning to education and may have had difficult backgrounds such as an abusive relationship, going through drug rehab or just out of prison, and/or have learning disabilities and mental health issues.
Next goal: college tutor
“Many had been scarred by being repeatedly told at school that they were not clever enough. Yet Eddie – and his fellow champions – could fully empathise with them as they had been there themselves and gone through their own problems.”
The dozen or so qualifications and courses he has gained so far – mostly within the last academic year – the greater his self-confidence has become, whether it be a level 3 AET (award in education and training), dyslexia, or his current intensive Functional Skills maths course.
Thanks to Eddie’s growing confidence and student championing, supported by Angela and Student Services, he is now a full-time student support and outreach worker at Fircroft. Next goal: college tutor.
Enthusiasm, drive and focus – like tutor, like student
Both tutor and tutored have got where they are through enthusiasm, drive and focus. Angela has taught for 11 years, her first six at Solihull College after finishing a three-year English and drama degree at the University of Birmingham. This was followed by volunteering at the college and then eventually gaining paid work. Full-time but hourly paid, she taught key skills and then functional skills in English, taught business, became a personal tutor and went on to teach special needs students.
‘I gained a massive perspective on many different areas but wanted a more permanent, salaried role and found Fircroft. I went in as an English teacher, became lead in functional skills, teacher training and Access to HE and am now about to take up a new college role as curriculum manager.”
Teaching is about listening and showing respect on the same level
So what are the typical challenges of working with adults, especially from so many different and often difficult backgrounds? “Teaching,” says Angela, “is the easy part. The key is about respecting people on the same level. If you walk into a room of adults and view it as a classroom, it’s really not a good idea – they’ve chosen to be there, they want to learn. It’s about listening – especially if someone is having a bad day.
“I had one learner who got really anxious when doing literature – she found it so challenging. She had anger management problems and yet we got her through – you have to listen and show patience and understanding. It usually works! If you as a teacher start thinking you are above somebody, you’ve lost.”