Margaret Rule, a principal teacher and educational support officer in Aberdeenshire, spent the summer of 2018 in the Ruhango Province of Rwanda.
Margaret, who turned 50 in September of this year, wanted to challenge herself to mark the milestone and the experience has reinvigorated her desire to continue to progress her career.
“My GLP experience has given me the confidence to think ‘what next?’. I am now actively looking to progress my career. It has boosted my confidence in my professional abilities as well as in my personal qualities.”
She is now considering exploring promoted post opportunities and believes delivering CPD in Rwanda will help her in her current professional development role within Aberdeenshire.
Margaret added:
“I wanted a challenge to mark the milestone and GLP certainly provided just that. My greatest achievement was taking the whole thing in my stride. Nothing was as daunting as I thought it was going to be, not even the motos!”
Margaret’s observations from her time in Rwanda:
“The joy and the kindness the people demonstrated puts us to shame and the sense of community was amazing.”
“Apart from the UNICEF boxes, I only once saw a ‘toy’ that children here would recognise as a toy. Otherwise it was plastic bag footballs and old tyre hoops yet the speed with which our neighbouring children sussed out what to do with an iPad was amazing!”
“I am trying to make the most of the resources we have, but I am also very aware that good teaching doesn’t need lots of fancy resources.”