Kath Fitzpatrick
We were a typical Aim Higher family. Although my mum had a variety of jobs and my Dad worked in a warehouse, they had high aspirations for me to continue into Higher Education, and were delighted when I left school to study textile design at degree level at Art College.
It was a bit of a revolution for me to go to Art College, as it wasn’t considered the done thing, and I believe my Head Teacher, Mrs Jackson, was one of the major motivators in my early life, because she told me I couldn’t do it! She was against my going to Art College, so I think I have her to thank for my stubbornness, my desire to buck the trend and not just go with the flow. If you believe in something, you do it, so I think her disapproval of me was quite a significant factor really!
My Dad was an enormous influence on me. He was an ordinary working man and a brilliant mathematician, and he just never had the opportunity to do anything with it. I feel it’s so sad to have a skill and never have a chance to utilise it. He used to say to me, “You can do anything you want to, you just have to work hard”.
After I obtained my degree, I worked as a freelance designer for six years, before qualifying as a teacher. I taught Environmental Studies for a while, to children that had been written off and who hated school, although were quite bright kids. This had a major impact on me; especially as they all passed their exams, and then decided that school wasn’t so bad after all!
I left teaching to become a Trident Director for Barnsley, and when the Objective One programmes started, I worked for a year in Barnsley as  the Key-Skill Coordinator. I was then offered the post of School Improvement Officer in Doncaster, initially managing Aimhigher, plus managing the Work Related Learning Team and am now the 14-19 Curriculum Manager for Doncaster. It was a natural progression but you couldn’t possibly have had it as a career plan! I love my job. I think it’s my desire to make a positive impact and to do something that really helps people to achieve their aspirations.