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Associate Assistant Principal
The Gateway Academy

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	Megan Koprash – Associate Assistant Principal
00:00	My name’s Megan Koprash and my job role is associate assistant principal at the school and I work at the Gateway Academy.
00:08	But my main roles are first and foremost I’m a classroom teacher, I teach quite heavily English and a lot of the CD borderline students so that is you know quite a big role in itself. I’m also head of sixth form, you know, responsible for rewards, whole school and that’s led by the students. I’m responsible for behaviour, whole school and that’s led by the students.
00:34	I’ve grown up and did all of my schooling in Canada and now I’m sitting here eight years into a job at the Gateway Academy and it was never actually part of the plan if I’m honest.
00:47	So my time at school I was your typical Miss Goody Two-Shoes, couldn’t go amiss and I was really quite rebellious to be honest, school for about two years became not important. Thankfully with the support of amazing family and wicked grandparents if it wasn’t for my Nono, my granddad and if it wasn’t from him looking at me going you know don’t make the wrong choices I don’t think I would have stepped up.
01:16	I was somebody who always had quite high aspirations, my first particular job that I wanted was to be a dentist, I saw money. But then when I went off to university I realised that that wasn’t something that I enjoyed or my heart wasn’t in it and I wanted to work with people and help them and that kind of grew into teaching.
01:37	I don’t remember it very clearly but I put my name down at a job fair obviously to teach in the UK and this random phone call just dropped from the sky saying, you know, there’s an interview available to you to teach in the UK if you want.
01:52	I think after being here for one year, my decision was always to stay in England and teach for one year and go home to my family and that was the plan and I never dreamt actually that my plan would change and I think that’s something, it’s so important in life to have a plan and have goals and have ambitions but actually it’s OK if that changes. I was holding myself back at the school because I was afraid that it didn’t fit into my plan. And I did struggle. There was another time where there was another barrier and the barrier was kind of home again, you know I’d lost my granddad that person who’s you know, that inspiration and I missed his funeral because I was here.
02:39	What do I wish I knew growing up that I know now. That you can’t make a plan, I don’t know if that’s it, but you just, you can’t, you can plan but you can’t, I never, I didn’t even know what a sixth form was, the UK for me was not even a place I wanted to travel to, it was Australia, it was the hot places I wanted to go to. And here I am.
03:02	Just be open and enjoy it, life is actually quite fun.
03:10	I think you can’t take yourself too seriously. Where I think I’ve been most successful is those moments when I found a balance between being the disciplinarian and also letting the students in on me. But there’s challenges every day and you don’t always feel like you’re succeeding especially in teaching. I think you see the negatives you see the holes, you see what you missed, you see the student that you didn’t get on board that day, you see the planning that you didn’t quite get right, you see that hole all the time, rather than the success.
03:44	Yeah that’s the hardest bit is that the job is never finished, ever. I think if that there’s one skill it would be to not lose yourself in it and having fun with it. Remembering that it’s OK to stop and have a laugh throughout the day.
03:58	Highlight the good things and walk out every day remembering what you did really well.
04:03	What motivates me now? Just making a difference.
	End

“You can’t make a plan,” says Megan, “the UK wasn’t even a place I wanted to travel to.” After leaving Canada to teach in England for a year, Megan is at the same school eight years later. Her role now combines classroom teaching with responsibility for the sixth form and for student rewards and behaviour across the whole school.

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The UK average salary is £29,813

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There are 37.5 hours in the average working week

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Sets the school's values, provides leadership to staff and helps create an encouraging environment for learning
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