User:Eleanor Simons

Eleanor Simons is a Middle school teacher based in Cambridge

Born in 1981 in Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex Eleanor spent most of her childhood in Worthing, West Sussex.

Eleanor's first school was The Vale County First and Middle School in Findon Valley. It was here that she decided upon teaching as a possible career choice. Having studied ballet fromt he age of 3 Eleanor was a keen ballerina but a knee problem put stop to aspirations of becoming a professional dancer.

Eleanor left The Vale in 1994 and started at Davison C of E High School for Girls in East Worthing, she left in 1998 with 11 GCSEs.

Whilst attending Worthing VI Form College Eleanor made a shift in her education, moving from science and mathematics to arts subjects. As such she left college with 3 A levels and one AS level heading for The University of Leicester in 2001.

The University of Leicester is where Eleanor relished in her love of literature and her decision to become a teacher was finialised. It was also at university that Eleanor met her fiancee Adam (through mutual friends). Getting engaged after 3 months Eleanor and Adam are still very happy together and are planning their upcoming wedding.

After studying at Leicester Eleanor moved to Canterbury to join Adam and enrolled at Canterbury Christ Church University College to study a PGCE in 7-14 English.

Eleanor gained QTS in August 2005 and started supply work in the following September. As a result of her and other NQTs inability to find work due to the number of teaching jobs being passed over to unqualified support staff, Eleanor made a television appearance to highlight the problem. Following this a petition was set up to be sent to Ruth Kelly the current Education minister to show protest over the new situation in schools.