Claire MacDonald

Harberton Special School 

www.harbertonschool.co.uk

Subject or Primary School Year: Vice Principal

Place of Birth: Tyrone

Where you studied: St Mary’s University College

What was your first job? Nursing Assistant

What did your first job teach you?  The importance of hard work and kindness, and the impact you can have on others.

Family/Status: Married with two children. 

Best advice you would give to someone thinking of a teaching career:  It takes hard work and dedication and it really is a vocation, but if you have the passion to form the minds of pupils and shape their future, there will be no better job.

Claire is originally a country girl but has spent all of her teaching career in Belfast. From a young age she wanted to be a teacher. She didn't plan for it to be in Special Education but her very first year as a teacher instilled in her a want to work with pupils with additional needs. Claire feels she has a lot to give but likewise a lot to learn from her pupils, as well as the wonderful team she works alongside.

Claire feels privileged to have worked for over 20 years in Special Education. Every day her pupils inspire her to be the best that she can be for them.

There is no other job she would rather do.