Niamh Maskey

First job: Shop assistant in Fancy Fayre Florist.

What it taught me: Working in Fancy Fayre helped me build my confidence in relating and communicating with the public. It also taught me how to work as part of a team and the importance of good customer care. The most important lesson of all was that my auntie Patsy was always right!

Family/status: Single.

Best advice anyone ever gave you: Instead of telling yourself you can't, tell yourself you can.

Best advice you could give someone thinking of a teaching career: Be prepared to embrace the challenges you may face, make time for self care and always remember to remain positive because positivity is infectious.

My love for the Irish language and culture stemmed from my family and my early educational experiences at Naíscoil Bhreandáin and Bunscoil Phobal Feirste. This was further enhanced at St Dominic's High school through the inspirational teaching of Miss Higgins and Miss Clarke, who enthused me to progress with my Irish medium education and achieve my degree in Irish Language and Literature. On completing my degree, I was fortunate to be offered a position as a classroom assistant in Scoil an Droichid where I was encouraged and supported to pursue a career in teaching. Thankfully, I gained a place on the IME PGCE (TICO) in 2019/20 where I developed invaluable skills and knowledge through teaching and learning experiences. I qualified as a primary school teacher during very challenging times due to the pandemic. Fortunately, a teaching opportunity arose in September 2020 within Bunscoil Phobal Feirste, which I embraced wholeheartedly as this is where my journey began. Since, I have been employed through the Engage Programme to provide literacy, numeracy and nurture support in the school to children whose education has been negatively impacted due to COVID-19. During this current lockdown I have adapted my methods of teaching and continued to engage with children by producing educational resources including bilingual interactive videos to support children and families with home learning. I am grateful for the opportunities presented to me and for the guidance I have received from the school community of Bunscoil Phobal Feirste. It has been a pleasure to work with each child and watch them flourish despite these challenging circumstances and I am grateful to have played a small part in this collective endeavour. As a newly qualified teacher, I am humbled and very appreciative to have been nominated for this award.