Eamon McQuillan

St John The Baptist Primary School

https://www.stjohnthebaptistps.co.uk

Subject or Primary School Year: SEN Classroom Assistant in Primary 6

Place of Birth: Belfast

Where you studied: De La Salle College/Workforce Training Services 

What was your first job? Volunteer in St Michael's Youth Centre/Sales Assistant

What did your first job teach you? That every child deserves the same chance in life, no matter what obstacles they go through. 

Family/Status: Single

Best advice you would give to someone thinking of a teaching career: Go for it! Believe you have the chance to make that difference in a young person's life.

Eamon's journey started when he decided to volunteer in St Michael’s Youth Centre as a 15-year-old. Attending the centre as a young person gave him so many opportunities and opened so many doors into a life working with young people. He always knew from the age of 16/17 that he was going to go down this career path.

He has a passion for making a difference in every young person's life, working to provide them with opportunities, making the most of one-on-one work sessions and, most importantly, always offering a listening ear.

Eamon studied Childcare at Workforce Training Services and went on to serve as a classroom assistant in St Anne’s Primary School. He seized the opportunity to secure a permanent post by moving to De La Salle College where he worked for three-and-a-half years in the capacity as a one-to-one special needs classroom assistant, which he thoroughly enjoyed. Yet he always knew that working in a primary school setting was the best fit for him, so when he got the opportunity to work in his local community at St John the Baptist Primary School he took it and has never looked back.

In SJB, he has served as classroom assistant in the Social Communication units with a child in Primary 3 and now with a pupil in Primary 6, providing him with invaluable experience of realising the differing challenges individual children encounter and helping them to meet and overcome barriers, regardless of setting. He is a familiar face to pupils throughout the school community, not simply because of his role in the youth club next door, but also because he helps to run the After School Club in the school every day. 

Eamon's experiences in SJB have confirmed to him that he has made the right choices in life to remain in the vocation of helping children develop, flourish and grow, within the formal setting of a school or in the freer environment of the youth centre. Watching children overcome difficulties, helping them through challenging transitions and seeing their confidence and skills develop is the most rewarding and fulfilling aspect of his job.