Hi I’m Greg Young, I’m a PE teacher at Hall Cross Academy, but also a Key Stage 3 phase leader in charge of pastoral and learning support.
I started out as a professional footballer. Leaving school at 16, that was obviously my first passion with playing sport since I was younger. I always played lots of different sports, but football was the one that I focused on and managed to be able to get a career in the game.
I knew it probably wasn’t going to last forever. I was mid 20s, and thought that actually, let's go and do something else and make sure that life after football there was something there for me. I did my sports science degree, a bit later than everyone else, but it was linked to what I knew and what I was passionate about.
Both my parents were teachers, so I had that background in education. My dad actually in the off season, while playing football, used to drag me into his school and get me in there. Do you know what? I absolutely loved it. I thought, yeah, this is something that I definitely want to get involved in and be a part of. So I started working towards that to the back end of my footballing career.
First in the morning, I've got a pastoral team around me, so we have year managers who will look after each year and then I oversee those. We'll have a quick check in: are there any students that need any support? What's the plan for the day? Is there any parents that we need to meet? Walk round the classrooms, make sure everyone's settled in, make sure teaching staff are okay. Then I might have some lessons. I'll make sure that my lessons are ready for the day.
I feel so passionate that the vehicle of sport it can give you. It can give you that teamwork and that cohesion. It’s taught me all the skills that I've got now. I think important things like resilience. Students, when they're having difficult moments and I'll reference some of the issues that I've had and say, guys, you know you can do this. At times it might be difficult and you might think you can't, but trust me, you can, keep going.
That's something that sport can give you. So many different skills. Communication, being part of something. We're here to develop them as people. Giving them the skills that are going to make them successful in life. What makes them employable, what makes them resilient, what makes them successful. I think we constantly try to remind them of that.
I had a letter from a student who had left, and he said, sir, I want to thank you for everything you did for me. My confidence was low and you gave me that support, that encouragement, that confidence to get where I wanted to go and he ended up getting an apprenticeship. I'm thriving.
When you get those moments, you realise that actually all the effort and time working, and sometimes it's hard work teaching and sometimes you do long hours. You realise that maybe you’re doing something right. That's what gives me satisfaction of the job role.
