She retires at the end of this term after a career which has taken in learning support teacher, leading music in the infants side of the school, and the deputy head position.
‘I still can’t believe some afternoons when I do the music with all of the children, that I get paid to do it. You’re sort of looking around, thinking, “Now this is really what a true vocation is”. You love doing what you’re doing, you look forward to coming in,’ she said.
‘I’ve got a perfectly placed office that everybody walks by, and they say, “Hello Mrs Atkinson. Hello Mrs Atkinson.” And you just get hundreds of hugs every day – and that’s just joyous, to make the children happy.’
While Mrs Atkinson has now spent a significant portion of her professional life at ECJS, she originally began her teaching journey in the UK – a career decision she made as a result of a prompt from a computer programme.
‘At school, I didn’t think that going to university was an option for me. But we used this computer app at school that suggested trying teaching,’ she said.
With a new sense of direction, Mrs Atkinson then went on to pursue a degree at Chichester University, before beginning her teaching career in Essex. From there she went on to teach in Gosport and Southampton, before her husband, a Guernseyman, brought her and their three daughters over to the island.
‘I had taken time off to have the girls, and then my daughter Alice was in pre-school here. Then I was spoken to by another of the teachers. “We hear you’re a teacher, and we’re desperate,” they said. Very flattering, but that’s how I started doing supply work,’ she said.
‘Then I just sort of fell into it, really. And here I am, 19 years later, thinking, “How did that happen?”.’
Now looking back on her time at the school, Mrs Atkinson identified several pastoral initiatives that stood out to her as particular successes.
‘What Mrs Bott and I have done is we’ve done a lot to do with growth mindset and decider skills,’ she said, referring to her fellow deputy head, who serves as the pastoral head for the upper-half of the primary school. 'We’ve got all these characters as well, which promote concentration, having a go, being curious, determined, kind, creative – all those sorts of things. It’s really about teaching the scaffolding, the process of learning, rather than just memorising spellings.
‘I think that helps an awful lot of children with their learning, knowing that actually there are strategies, and if you go wrong there are skills you can use. That’s really the baseline of how we teach at ECJS – it’s about giving the children the tools to be successful.’
While her pastoral work may go down as her greatest successes, it is the musical endeavours and the day-to-day work with colleagues and students that Mrs Atkinson said she will remember most fondly.
‘It’s just a really supportive team here, and I think that comes across to the children – that it’s really good to have a community around you, and to be the best you can be with your friends, working together instead of having competition,’ she said.
‘That’s what our concerts are like, really, and I’ve always loved doing them. We have them twice a year, and you can see the children getting up on stage and being free, and sometimes bringing children to the forefront who might not be the best at maths or the best at reading.
‘And for some children, it’s not for them, so they’re in charge of putting the lights on or putting the music on – there are always ways for them to be involved.
‘The concerts just bring a tear to my eye when you’ve done all the work and you just see the children up there being themselves and being proud.
‘I shall miss that.’
Though Mrs Atkinson may be retiring from her role at ECJS, she has expressed intent to stay involved in the community – and most especially in the island’s musical scene – with plans to volunteer for local charity branches and the Eisteddfod.
‘My husband and I are both retiring, and I think we’re both going to miss work,’ she said.
‘There are so many moments that I’ll remember – those moments when the children are just loving life.’