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HOW IT ALL BEGUN

Teaching was fun (and still is). However, the turning point in my teaching career came a few years down the road when a bitter reality slapped me in the face. I realised that most of my pupils, especially the black children, who proceeded to high schools either dropped out or joined deadly gangs. It got so bad that I encountered some of them again and again at street corners in London living dangerously. Some of them were already turning into drug addicts, gangsters – life time imprisonment materials. I felt completely torn down in my conscience. The terrible feeling was more than a professional indictment, it was for me another moment of self discovery. I thought I had given my best as a passionate teacher because my employers and colleagues considered me to be an outstanding teacher. But here was I, being faced with the bitter fact that my outstanding professional service was one-sided – it only satisfied my employer and colleagues but did not truly transform my pupils and quite frankly the latter was more important. Then it dawned on me that my teaching craft had not accomplished what I hoped it would in the lives of the children under my care. I was in a great quandary.

The African, West Indian and Asian children in question were victims of being trapped between two cultures. They could not be as British as the native Britons and knew next to nothing about their roots half way across the world. Almost all of them were born in the UK and were completely unaware of their cultural heritage. They were simply trapped between two cultures if not diverse without truly knowing who they are. I identified and connected with their plight because I had the similar struggles as a child back in Ghana. Their predicament showed the futility in and impotency of routine teaching. I was clearly at my wit’s end. But I knew I had to find a real way of helping the children under my care.

My breakthrough came when I attended a Management Training for Ethnic Minority Teachers at the Institute of Education in London. The theme of the conference was ‘Investing in Diversity’ by Rosemary Campbell. The message was: “SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) is at the core of all teaching and learning in the twenty-first century”. This programme empowered us to be true confident servant leaders.

The conference was indeed a turning point in my career. The things I learned transformed into the key I would use to unlock the door to the solution room for the children under my care. That was another Aha moment in my life. From the findings of neuroscience about the psychology of children and my personal breakthrough as a derelict child/teenager written off by some people in Ghana, who embarked on the journey of self discovery and worked hard at transforming into someone whom everyone celebrated, I knew those words bore in them a timeless truth and decided to get to work. It was around this time that I read the touching story of Dave Pelzer, a child who had an abusive upbringing, yet decided to make something positive of his life. I was tired of being a routine teacher who pushed knowledge down the throat of his pupils without connecting with them. I wanted to become an empathic teacher, who would first connect with pupils, help them know who they are, inculcate in them life skills that would make them relate well with the society, teach them how to connect with their creative core and unleash the content of the same for the benefit of themselves and the world. There was a recurring theme that floated to the top of my findings, a phrase that resonated with an ancient yet timeless principle of personal change for global impact, it was KNOW THYSELF!

I knew how to help the children; by helping them to know who they are. To achieve that, I needed to personally and empathically connect with them not just as a teacher with ample knowledge in my bosom but as a human being who genuinely cared for them. And of course the key to all this was to fully exploit the Social and Emotional Aspects of their learning. This was another breakthrough: teaching became a calling. Teaching and learning in my class became so interesting that my pupils would be at the school gate at 7:30am when schools in the UK start at 9:00am. Some of my pupils opened up deep emotional wounds and eventually received help in the process. One of them in particular, a girl from Eritrea who had a very traumatic upbringing opened up and received help when I shared Dave Pelzer’s story. We all had moments of tears and laughter and learning became twice as enjoyable and fun. The academic performance jumped from the pass rate of less than 40% to over 90%. The rest of this work captures the awesome power of the PROJECT KNOW THYSELF – a project based on the practical fusion of this great, timeless theme Know Thyself with a school’s curriculum and beautifully executed in the academic timeline of FAMAKS International schools. I am honoured, as the school’s previous head teacher to have coordinated the project for very first time ever in Nigeria.

Franklin Adjetey (B.A.Art,MBA Int. Bus.PGCE)

Director of PKTS / School Consulant (Int.)

I have experience in Headship and Consultancy, and over twelve years of teaching experience in the UK. I worked as a Teach First Teacher mentor and Maths coordinator at Peckham Park Primary School in London (now known as Harris Primary Academy) since January 2001. Over the years, I have gained vast experience in teaching and learning; assessment; effective people management; budgeting; raising achievement; designing a creative curriculum, effective communication; dealing with stakeholders and outside agencies and providing training to teachers and school leaders.

I have a degree in Art, a masters degree in (MBA) International Business-UK, a United Kingdom Qualified Teacher Status(PGCE) and have evidence of recent, relevant professional development: Strategic Management by Pat Utomi (Abuja), AISA conference (Ghana), COBIS conference (UK), Maths coordinators training (UK), Senior Leadership Training (UK), Investing in Diversity Training (UK), Kathy Lowers leadership training (UK), 360 degrees Leadership Training (UK), Pre –NPQH (National Professional Qualification for Head Teachers - UK), Power Teaching Maths LeadershipTraining (UK), Maths Makes Sense Leadership Training (UK), Cognitive Advantage Leadership Training (UK) and Philosophy for Children Training (UK).

I understand clearly how children learn and this is from my consistent reading of relevant education books; teaching; training in Cognitive Enrichment Advantage; Philosophy for children and Accelerated Learning.

From my experience as a Head Teacher I have gained so much insight in how to move a school from failing to outstanding .

I have an excellent understanding of teaching and learning; use of different teaching styles; how to support teachers to raise standards with effective pedagogies that pins down effective teaching and learning.

In my over 14 years of teaching in the United Kingdom and 2 years of teaching in Africa, I have been able to draw on my cultural background as a Ghanaian; experience of teaching and learning from the UK and my authentic innate potential to enhance standards of teaching and learning in schools. I have also been able to empower teachers and children with a good understanding of SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspect of Learning) and its impact on learning to take control of how to teach children to learn how to learn in this modern day 21st Century .

I believe that every excellent teacher must have a calling or a passion for the job to enable them to take children through the zone of proximity of teaching and learning in order that these children will become independent learners. Even though this might be the usual case, this passion can also be instilled and natured through coaching teachers with the effective knowledge and skills needed.

I have an outstanding teaching skills in the UK and I have been able to transfer these outstanding skills to other teachers to raise attainment in British, Nigerian and Ghanaian schools.