My understanding of special educational needs started from a young age, as my mother is also a specialist teacher for students on the autistic spectrum. I was always taught to treat everyone as an equal and to embrace differences.
When I was a primary student I would finish school in the early afternoon and would sometimes have to go to my mother's special needs school to wait whilst she finished work. It was from then on I knew that I too wanted to be a special needs teacher. I first started my SEN journey at the age of 18 when I worked in an Autistic boarding school as a teaching assistant whilst I studied for a teaching degree.
Working as an SEN teaching assistant whilst studying helped me gain a lot of experience and understanding of special needs schools. Once graduated I taught students on the autistic spectrum and with various behavioural disorders for a few years in the United Kingdom before moving to Bangkok Thailand.
I lived and worked in Thailand for 4 years at St Andrews International School Bangkok (Primary School) in the High Needs and Learning Support Department. Afterwards, I went to explore Sydney, Australia, where I continued to teach children on the autistic spectrum for nearly 3 years before I started to miss my St Andrews family way too much and now I am back! which feels great!
I'm really easygoing and really approachable (I like to think so) I really love my friends and family and am a bit of a mummy's boy - I call my mum at least 4 times a week. (Can't believe I have just admitted that) I have been lucky enough to make friendship circles all over the world as I love to travel, which means discounted holidays! I'm pretty much joined at the hip with Mr Marc, who is my best friend here in Thailand along with several other awesome people.
I like to keep fit and healthy and work out a lot - the only thing myself and Mr Marc don't do together as he hates the gym! On weekends I like to explore different places and find cool new hangouts. I also really like rainy days, where you don't have to leave your apartment, can turn on Netflix and order a takeaway...
St Andrews is like one big family. I came back to STA because I missed its unique vibe. It's a school where you wake up every morning and look forward to coming to work because every day is a great day! Everyone looks after each other and that is a really nice feeling when living so far away from home.
"Mr Craig is really fun and really good at doing impressions."