Thousands of DMU students graduated in July after years of hard work. We reported some of their stories in our Class of 2015 series...
Jack Hickey is a De Montfort University (DMU) student of many talents and interests – he is passionate about teaching and politics, while still finding time to help run his friends’ four bars and nightclubs in Leicester, Loughborough and Manchester.
After graduating with a First in Education Studies BA (Hons), he will start teacher training in September through the Schools Direct programme at St Thomas More Catholic Voluntary Academy in Leicester.
Jack said his course – including the practical support with CV writing and interviews – had prepared him well and helped him to secure his trainee role: “Schools want you to get up and present, and speak really well in front of a class. We can do all that thanks to DMU, which is why so many of us from the course go on to find employment. You’re steps ahead of the competition. We know how to do things, but also why we do things.”
He originally started at a university in Manchester, studying Primary Education BA (Hons) with recommendation for Qualified Teacher Status, before a death in the family meant he came home to Leicester. He transferred at the start of the second year, and said the process was very easy as DMU carefully matched his course with what he’d already learned: “It went very smoothly and I wasn’t underprepared at all.”
He praised the tutors at DMU, saying they were always accessible and happy to help, adding: “The course doesn’t make cookie dough teachers – they don’t have an idea of the ‘perfect teacher’, they just want you to have a well-rounded view. It’s great to be challenged. I don’t think you have to agree on everything – it’s good to question your own beliefs.”
Jack has taken part in DMU’s award-winning Square Mile programme, which uses the university’s academic expertise and a network of student volunteers to offer potentially life-changing services in the Leicester community. He went to Slater Primary School to take part in a booster club to help improve SATs (National Curriculum assessments) levels.
In April of this year he was also part of the student panel for the Higher Education Review, conducted by the Quality Assurance Agency, in which DMU excelled after demonstrating the high standard of its teaching and learning.
Jack says that being at DMU gave him a fuller understanding of the relationship between politics and education, particularly a module he studied with tutor Dr Barry Dufour: “In one year a teacher influences dozens of children, a head teacher hundreds, a local education authority thousands, but government policy has an effect on millions.”
He lives in Thurnby Lodge, an estate in Leicester, and in this year’s city council elections stood as a Conservative candidate for the Thurncourt ward, narrowly missing out on being elected a councillor by fewer than 100 votes.
In the build-up to the General Election, Jack also met Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, Conservative MP for Loughborough (pictured above). They discussed the possibility of him going to the House of Commons with his lecturers to present a paper on the lack of male primary school teachers, a subject he feels strongly about. He hopes this will happen in the near future.
Posted on Thursday 16 July 2015