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Siôn Jones has many reasons to celebrate this week.  He receives his BA Primary Education degree with QTS from the Carmarthen campus of the ���Ҵ�ý and is also a joint winner of the D D Rees Memorial Prize for Mathematics.

Siôn received the award because he is an excellent student teacher of Mathematics according to his lecturers. 

Fiona Jones, BA Programme Manager and Sion’s personal tutor, said, “It has been a privilege to teach Siôn over the past three years and to see his confidence develop in all aspects of University life. His passion for the Area of Learning and Experience of Maths and Numeracy has ensured that his Maths lessons in his professional teaching experiences are enjoyable and has motivated the pupils to enjoy the subject”.

Originally from Newcastle Emlyn and now living in Drefach, Felindre, Siôn chose to study at UWTSD because of its reputation for teacher training.

He says: “I was aware of the University’s reputation for teacher training and because studying in Carmarthen allowed me to live at home and continue working, I decided to study at UWTSD”.

Siôn was intent on working in the world of education and after a period of working as a classroom assistant he felt that a Primary Education course was a natural step. 

“At the beginning of the course, my priority was to pass the course and be a qualified teacher. But after some time, I was determined to make a great impression on the schools during my professional teaching experiences and build a reputation for myself”, he said. “By the end of the second year, having received good marks, I wanted to do my best during the third year in order to secure a first class degree”.

Among the aspects that stood out to Siôn were the University staff and his fellow students. He said: “There is no doubt that the highlights of the course for me were the excellent staff at the University and a great group of fellow students. The resources available to us students such as the library and online library were extremely useful during the three years as well as training such as autism awareness and SKIP Cymru. And who could forget, lunch in the Merlin!”

“As part of the course, I went on three different professional teaching experiences where I had a great time and learned so much which has certainly improved my practice. In addition, a research project needed to be completed annually. In the first year, I looked at the engagement of children who are first language Welsh in lessons compared to children who are Welsh as a second language. During the second year, the focus of my research was the Assessment of Learning Strategy and its effectiveness and during the third, I decided to investigate the impact of learners’ mindsets and attitudes on their academic attainment and engagement”.

Siôn says that he received plenty of support from the University to complete his studies including when his family experienced a bereavement.  He said: “Academically, I didn’t really face any challenges, and that’s thanks to the University because the assignments were organised in a way where the professional teaching experiences weren’t disrupted. During my first year, I unfortunately experienced bereavement of a close family member, but the University was very kind and supportive during this time by offering support on what to do when an assignment deadline was near”.

Since completing the course, Siôn has been working as a supply teacher and praises University staff and his fellow students. “I would definitely recommend this course to others because not only is the content extremely useful for a career in education, but the teaching staff is really amazing. They are always ready to help with anything, whether it is something to do with the university or something personal. They have facilitated the three years for me significantly and I am extremely grateful to all of them.  The course has also helped me because I have learnt so many essential skills that will be useful to me not only in the world of education but also throughout my life”.

“Since finishing the course I’ve spent some time supplying as a teacher and hoping to find a job by September, but I’m more than happy to continue supply work if that doesn’t happen”, he said. ”My girlfriend and I have recently bought a house together and are renovating it so it’s a really exciting time for us and there’s a lot of painting work on the horizon!”.

Further Information

Eleri Beynon

Head
Corporate Communications and PR
Email: e.beynon@uwtsd.ac.uk
Phone: 01267 676790