Orla Duncan, Wheatfield Primary School

Subject or Primary school year: SEN teacher
Your place of birth: Northern Ireland
Studied at: Queens University Belfast
First job: Checkout operator
What it taught me: A smile can light up someone's world.
Family/status: Married, mother of 2
Best advice you could give someone thinking of a teaching career: Be kind and supportive.

I've been teaching for nearly 30 years. My mother was also a teacher and has been an inspiration to me. I enjoy teaching, helping children learn, especially when I can help them understand something they've experiened real difficulties with.
 When I was a teaching student, one of my favourite lecturers told us that "if a child doesn't understand what we teach, it is our job as teachers, to find different ways to teach so they can understand. To paraphrase Einstein, if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."