Conor Kennedy

First job: Paper round.

What it taught me: That there are many more hours in a day that can be used if you wish. It also taught me that the streets in the early hours are softer, calmer, and quieter.

Family/status: Married with children and dogs.

Best advice anyone ever gave you: “You can’t control other people’s actions, but you can control your reaction to them.” The advice comes in different forms but encouraged me to be responsible for the choices I make and the actions I take. It also helped me understand the limits of control and the joy of letting things go.

Best advice you could give someone thinking of a teaching career: If I could give someone thinking of a teaching career advice I’d ask them to never lose sight of the people sitting in front of them. Targets, rules, grades, deadlines will all have a part to play throughout a teaching career but they can only be effectively met if you show empathy and understanding to your pupils first. Teachers don’t know what may have happened to our pupils on their way to school, over breakfast, the night before or over time. Take time to listen to them, ask others around them; be patient and take care of them. The respect, learning, grades and targets will all be met in due course.

Upon completion of a BA (Hons) in Humanities I volunteered as human rights research intern in Relatives for Justice, working on behalf of those affected by state violence. Formalising this work by undertaking a Masters degree in Human Rights Law through QUB led to a research post within Queen’s, working toward presenting our team’s findings at UN level. In order to fund my LLM, I became a substitute teacher in CBS Glen Road, and through happy accident discovered a love for teaching.

I left CBS to manage, develop and teach in a charitable EOTAS project, educating pupils who had disengaged from mainstream education. The role married education with social justice, rights-based research and lobbying to effect meaningful change for disadvantaged and excluded pupils. I returned to CBS, now All Saints College, in 2017, working during the summer months for two years in Conway Education Centre as a coordinator of the Refugee/Asylum-Seeker Summer Programme, laying the foundation for my current role within ASC working alongside our newcomer pupils.

In my spare time, I volunteer as a film-maker for Féile an Phobail and the Duncairn Centre for Culture and Arts and I run a lot to keep my own head straight!