Our people

Paul Durkin

Paul Durkin (’03) Economics, Nottingham
Taught Maths Wembley High Technology College
Now Associate, Mckinsey

It’s great to impact 30 kids that you are responsible for, but to go above and beyond just the learning of fractions or percentages, to actually help kids understand where they stand in life and where they want to go in life and the values that they need to have in order to fulfil their ambitions. I think that more holistic picture of child development is one thing that I did not always succeed at, but certainly where I did I look back very positively on.

There was a time when I walked in to a classroom and I had 30 blank faces in front of me, and that scared the living hell out of me, and at the end of the class there’d still be 30 blank faces. After about a month I could get one light bulb to get on, and then after three months I could get three light bulbs to go on. And eventually after much hard work I managed to have 30 light bulbs all in front of me understanding what it was I was trying to teach them.

The most important thing you will learn on Teach First is how to fail. It’s very hard to appreciate what success is until you’ve learnt to fail, and you will fail every day, but you will be stronger for that, and you will really appreciate it when you do succeed.

You know when you turn up at school that irrespective of how the day pans out, what you’re doing is possibly the most unselfish thing that you can do. It really is about giving yourself to others and whether you succeed or fail - it really is something that means that you know that you’re doing something right.