Meet the teacher: Hannah Shuter, MyEdSpace Physics teacher
“I love teaching. I love it. But, being a teacher wasn’t something I planned,” begins Physics teacher Hannah Shuter.
“First, I wanted to be a vet. I loved animals and I loved being around animals. We had a family friend who was a vet - she was always very supportive in my ambitions but as I got older she showed me the realities of what she had to do day-in, day-out and I realised it probably wasn't for me.”
“I’m one of those people who wants to understand how everything works, which always attracted me to the sciences. I found Physics really interesting for explaining the ‘how and the why’ of the world around us, and I enjoyed Maths, so those combined into a desire to keep studying Physics. And then someone told me they didn't think I was clever enough to do Physics at university, which was of course a red rag to a bull for me to prove them wrong.”
“While at university, I thought I would stay in academia, do a PhD and stay in research. I got a scholarship from the Ogden Trust - who have been amazing in supporting me and funding me all the way from sixth form, right up until my MEd - but I found research really dull. I was just sat in a room all day, staring at a computer and I realised I need more human interaction than that. I’d spent five or six years working to get to this point, so the realisation that a career in research wasn’t for me, took the wind out of me a bit”
“Through the Ogden Trust, an opportunity arose for me to do a six-week internship teaching Physics in an inner-city Bristol school. I was thrown in at the deep end, with no training or anything like that, and while it was really hard - at no point in the classroom was I bored.”
While intrigued enough about the idea of teaching to apply for a PGCE place at Cambridge University, the bug hadn’t quite grabbed Hannah yet and finding inspiration in her love of animals - particularly horses - went to work in the yard of a leading UK eventer. Working her way up to becoming the Yard Manager, Hannah was given the responsibility to look after the Yard’s apprentices. Once again, Hannah found enjoyment and fulfilment from teaching.
“Every time I taught, I enjoyed it. Added to that I had lots of people telling me that I was good at it. I kept thinking about all the coaches and teachers who’d had a massive impact on me - for example my Physics teacher, Dr Cuthbert, was just an incredible teacher. I thought that maybe I could be that for other people, so I called Cambridge and asked if the PGCE offer still stood, and they said, ‘absolutely, we start on the 7th September’ - and that was that.”
After qualifying, Hannah quickly set about proving those people who thought she’d make a good teacher, right. While it wasn’t always plain sailing - including two occasions where Hannah was physically assaulted in her classroom - she could clearly see the positive effect she was having on students.
“I remember in my second year of teaching I had this one lad who had been in my Year 10 Physics class - and been a real pain - and was now in my Year 11 Physics class. After Christmas I think the penny dropped and he realised that his GCSEs were coming and he actually had to do something. I was running a Monday after school Physics revision session - basically just an hour working through past exam papers - which he asked if he could join. I told him he could, but he needed to know that it was a serious session and the students there were determined on achieving the best Physics grades they possibly could. It wasn’t a mess-about. He came along and he worked hard and he did better in his GCSEs than he expected. I think he realised that I was there to help him, but he had to put the work in, and actually try, too. At the end of the year, he used some of his - probably very limited - pocket money to buy me a cinnamon bun, which was really lovely.”
Over the years, the joy of having a positive effect on students kept growing, ultimately leading to Hannah deciding to step out of the physical classroom to join MyEdSpace - and thus massively increase the volume and diversity of students she could reach.
“It always struck me as unfair that children have access to different qualities of education - teachers, resources, facilities etc etc - based on the size of their parents wallet. At MyEdSpace those barriers to receiving a top-quality education are dramatically lowered, so while it was awful leaving my students in the school I was in, by joining the team here I could massively expand the volume of students I could teach. And, I still see students from my old classes commenting in the live MyEdSpace lessons, which is wonderful.”
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