In a staff consultation before the summer break, the college produced a 92.8 net promoter score*. As a whole, the college staff agree that the college is moving in the right direction. It is possible that this reflects in staff retention, which brings me to this week's staff blog.

This week's blog comes to you from Geoff, the longest reigning member of staff at the college, joining EIC in 2002. You can find Geoff’s Teach Tuesday here. Think of this blog as part two. You may be wondering what else is there to know about Geoff? Well, hopefully we have dug a little deeper. 

If you have not read the previous blog, here is a recap: 

A secondary school teacher at David Game College was the beginning of Geoff's professional teaching career. While he found GCSE Maths to be fairly simple compared to his prior university experience, he never stopped taking up new challenges and developing his interests. During this time, Geoff also began practising and teaching the "Alexander Technique", which teaches people how to move their bodies to feel relaxed and comfortable while eliminating pains, aches, and other discomforts caused by their movements. And finally, his flexible hours at the College have allowed him to take painting courses and retreat from the world in his loft with a paintbrush. 

In the beginning, Geoff worked 10 hours a week at the college. The previous Principal, Ian persuaded him to teach more hours over the years. At this time Geoff still wanted to be self-employed teaching Alexander lessons. However, it became difficult to sustain that. Eventually he became Head of the Department and remained at that until around five years ago when Adrian arrived.

The net promoter score is a positive sign for the college. It is important to recognize the dedicated work the staff have put into making this happen. It is also critical to ensure that this momentum is maintained and that the college continues to strive for continued success.

What does the college's future look like to you?

"Excellent."

Geoff recalls hardships at college from previous years but highlights the turning points for him, "the quality of the students and everything is organised better. As a teacher it is a better environment because of Allan." Having the opportunity to receive an insight into the positive change and improvements the College has experienced over the years from a member of staff who has witnessed it all is truly rewarding. He himself feels lucky to have had the opportunity to experience the positive changes and improvements the College has gone through in recent years. Through staff discussions, it is clear that everyone truly cares about college success. They themselves want to work in the environment it has to offer. This commitment is reflected by the College's continued investment in its infrastructure, staff, and resources. Including the expansion which has been a major topic of conversation in a number of blogs, social media and recent parent's evenings. 

If your hobby was your career, what would you be doing?

I thought it was safe to assume Geoff would be an artist. In fact when I asked him this question he responded with “I couldn’t be an art teacher.” It was amusing to know that even when talking about a different career, he still thinks about teaching. “If I could earn a living from painting, maybe” Geoff goes on to say that he does not think he could be a painter full-time as “all the creativity would be taken out of my body. Math's comes out of my ears because I have been doing it for so long.”

What first sparked your interest in painting?

“When I was 24/25 or doing my PhD someone asked me if he was good at doing anything else.” Just by chance a lot of his friends had gone to an art class and he thought it was a waste of time, but he joined to see what would happen. After about three or four weeks the teacher said he had a remarkable sight. She told him to forget about math's and be an artist. Despite this, he had not given painting much thought and figured he would pick it up when he retired. It has only been in recent years that the hobby flourished as a result of him teaching part-time.

* A net promoter score is provided where the amount of respondents who state that they agree with a statement 0-6/10 is removed from the amount who agree 9 or 10/10, and divided by the number of respondents.