Our people

Kate Campion-Smith

Kate Campion-Smith (’07) Natural Sciences, Cambridge
Taught Science Cator Park School
Now CEO, Esuubi Trust

My name is Kate Campion-Smith, I’m currently teaching at Cator Park School as well as being the Founding Director of Esuubi Trust, which is a charity that works with children in Uganda. I studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge and this is my third year of teaching.

I think Teach First initially was exhausting. You go into school, you don’t know quite what to expect. Although you have the six weeks over the summer, you’re not quite sure what’s going to happen on that first day. And although the first day was fairly easy, things dramatically change when the kids realise that maybe you haven’t done so much of this before and they can try out and see what they can do.

There are some very difficult classes but some very rewarding classes at the same time.

I think tackling the apathy is about inspiring the children; that you actually care about them as individuals. I think so often teachers look at a class and they just see a sea of faces, they don’t see each child as that individual.

As soon as a child realises that you care enough about them, then they come round and they respond a lot better.

At the beginning you don’t feel like a teacher at all, but gradually you begin to build up relationships with the individual students. You begin to see them succeeding and them fulfilling dreams that they’ve got. And as soon as that comes round and they realise that you are willing to support them in that, I think that you then feel like you are more effective as a teacher.

I’m most proud of giving students opportunities that they wouldn’t have otherwise had. I think taking eight children to Uganda last year and seeing them come back and say on camera how their lives have been changed by it, and how they now respected their parents. Things you would never expect these children to say.

For me that was a really special moment to know what an impact I’d actually had on those kids.

Don’t jump into it lightly. It is hard work. It is exhausting. But at the same time it is very rewarding and if you put everything into it, you get so much out of it.