Gabrielle Rushton has turned her educational journey around after failing to get the grades she wanted at sixth form.
“I'd always known that I wanted to go into education, specifically primary education. However, I left sixth form with one A-level. So, I was under the impression that it was out of reach for me,” explained the 24-year-old from Sandbach.
A friend recommended Staffordshire University’s Step Up to Higher Education which supports students who want to return to education and develop the key academic skills needed for university level study.
Gabrielle said: “The Step Up course was really beneficial because it helped bridge the gap between leaving sixth form with one A-level to actually accessing a degree course.
“It was through Staffs and the support offered by the staff and the rest of the support network that really secured me going on to higher education.
“Ashley Cotton from Step Up, I can't sing his praises enough. Honestly, I believe if it wasn't for Ash, I wouldn't be where I am today. I absolutely loved it and that solidified for me that I was making the right decision.”
After completing the ten-week Step Up course, Gabrielle secured a place studying BA (Hons) Education Studies.
“On this degree, you're finding out about the laws and legalities behind education and the history of education. This really prepares you and gives you an idea of why education is so important and why it is such a driving force behind our communities.
“I think that teaching is a very important profession because it helps to shape young minds. And I believe that that's really important because these are the future generations who will go on to be politicians, be teachers themselves, be doctors, be nurses, be people in our community. And it's important that they're given the best opportunities from the get go.”
During the degree, Gabrielle got hands on teaching experience at local primary schools. On one of these placements, Gabrielle provided free yoga lessons after school to help children with anxiety and boost their physical activity.
“I was lucky enough for one of my placements to back at my primary school, which was lovely, really nostalgic,” she commented. “It was great for me to see education on the flip side, where I'd grown up and then to be helping out teaching in those classrooms was really lovely.”
“I felt that offering yoga was great to exercise mindfulness for the students, which is great because even though they're so young when they're in primary school, they can be going through all matter of things like family divorce, moving from home to home, things like that.
“Because they enjoyed it so much, it was really rewarding for me as a future educator, to see the impact that this type of activity can have on children.”
Having completed her degree, Gabrielle is staying at Staffordshire University to complete a PGCE in Primary Education so that she can achieve her dream of becoming a primary school teacher.
“I was chuffed to be graduating with anything because I thought I'll never be able to get a degree. It was only because of Staffs that I was able to do that.
“It's such a tremendous feeling that I've been able to turn my educational journey around.”
Discover your future with Clearing at Staffordshire University. Call 0800 590 830 or get an online offer at https://www.staffs.ac.uk/clearing.