Education and teaching has always been a great passion of mine ever since a teacher at secondary school inspired me to succeed and showed real belief in my ability that I was good enough to go to university and become a teacher; since then I have never looked back. I have over 25 years teaching experience in various educational settings – I started my teaching career working in an international school in Qatar teaching primary and secondary school children and from there I moved to work in a secondary school near Doncaster. I bring a breadth of knowledge and experience to Kip McGrath Pontefract, having been a teacher for 25 years and a GCSE and A-Level exam marker. Outside of Kip McGrath Pontefract I have three dogs: two chocolate Labradors and one cocker spaniel. The cocker spaniel is called Mavis and she is the official Kip dog, often in the centre sleeping next to students and helping them focus on their studies – she is very good at calming some of the autistic students we have in the centre.