Hello community. My name is Mhairi and I’m originally from Scotland, but for the past 12 years I have worked in schools in Egypt. I started my journey into education in Scotland, where I completed a BA in English with Education at the University of Stirling. When I graduated, I wasn’t sure that teaching was right for me, but I knew that I wanted to travel, so I completed a TEFL diploma so that I could work in language centres abroad to fund my travels. It was when I taught abroad in Istanbul that I discovered my passion for international education, and I’ve never looked back.

Working at schools in a developing country has been tough at times, but teaching abroad has given me the opportunity to do what I love, and also to change the things in schools that I felt were important. I suppose the benefit of working in a less developed place is that I have been able to suggest ideas that I wouldn’t have been able to elsewhere. If something is going badly, and you have an idea that might fix things, 9/10 they’re going to listen to you. It’s an opportunity. I’ve found loads of opportunities to have my ideas realised just by bringing them up at the right time.

 

I started as an English teacher in middle school, and then took a post as a school librarian for a while. Eventually, I ended up in the Primary Division where I taught year 6 and it was awesome. Every teacher has a year group that fits, and Year 6 was mine. Eventually, I became Head of Year 3, then Head Teacher and then Principal.

 

The school I worked at wasn’t a bad school, just one that had been flogging the same old dead horse for years, like many international schools have. Nothing had really changed in all the years I had been there, and the same problems had come up again and again. When I was offered a position in school leadership, I saw it as an opportunity to change a few things. The school’s owner was open to new things, which was really fortunate, and largely supported me in the changes I wanted to implement and so I started sharing my ideas. I learned a lot and was able to try out new things, and since then I’ve been sharing what I learned along the way with fellow educators.

I believe that as educators, we should always be learning, moving with the times, and striving to improve. While teaching, I started studying at the American University in Cairo, where I completed my Professional Educator Diploma to update my skills and knowledge. When our school started looking at including more technology in the classroom, I completed the Apple Educator Diploma, as there wasn’t much technology around when I first trained and I saw it as a gap in my knowledge. From there, I enrolled in a Special Educational Needs Diploma offered by a centre back in the UK, which I am currently working on and finding really interesting.

 

Nowadays, I’m at home taking care of my daughter, but I still have the education bug and still have a real passion for changing schools. In the near future, I’ll be back in a school doing what I love, but in the meantime I thought I’d start up a blog to share what worked for me and what didn’t, and try to help others to change their school’s culture. 

Education is being reformed all over the world, and I firmly believe that all schools should be looking at the way they work, looking at the outcomes, and trying to make positive change. Every school and every educator is capable of change, and when we share ideas and experiences, we can help each other move forward.