John Page

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

Though I have always enjoyed working with young people, I never thought that would be my career. While Growing up, I was always encouraged to pursue STEM careers (e.g. software design, engineering, research etc). Though it was a rocky start in school, due to undiagnosed Dyslexia and ADHD, with the right support from a great teacher (Thanks Mr Johnson!), I gained a Masters degree in Physics.

This degree, combined with my experience volunteering in museums, lead to my role as a Researcher in a heritage science group. However, Academic Research has a lot of ups and downs, and though I enjoyed my time there… to my surprise the aspect of the job I enjoyed most was supporting students!
The research group had many students for who it was their first time away from home, or in some cases even in the UK. Along with supporting their studies, the group organised extracurricular excursions to help them settle in, for which I arranged multiple hiking trips. It was lovely to see the benefit these students gained from these activities in stress-relief and forming friendships alongside their academic progress.

This revelation lead to a lot of self-reflection… In the end, I decided to take the plunge into teaching. Since making this decision, I have gained a place on the Bluecoats SCITT Alliance teacher training course to be a secondary School Physics Teacher, and earned a scholarship to do so from the Institute of Physics (IOP).
This course will start September 2025, so in the meantime I have been working as a KS1 – KS4 Teaching Assistant at different Primary and Secondary schools around Nottingham to gain experience inside the classroom. In this role, I supported students with additional learning needs (e.g. ADHD and Autism) to achieve their full potential in a classroom.

Alongside work and my degree, volunteering has always been a passion of mine. For almost a decade now, I have volunteered with various organisations to support young people from all walks of life continue learning:

The first place I volunteered was with the Scouts Association, starting as a young leader working with young people aged 10-14 years old. When I moved to University, I progressed to being an Explorer Leader working with young people aged 14 – 18 years old, which I did for almost a decade. In these roles I planned weekly sessions, completed risk assessments and lead activities. Getting to teach young people lifelong skills like cooking and orienteering, as well as supporting them to develop and grow, was extremely rewarding.
Over the years, I have also volunteered in libraries, museums and art galleries to get young people involved in the creative learning. It was fantastic to get young people excited about reading, history and art outside of the classroom, while getting involved with their local community.

Work

volunteering