Fiona Kettle
St Ita’s Primary School
www.stitas.co.uk
Subject: Primary
Your place of birth: Belfast
Where You Live: Carryduff
First Job: Paper Girl
What it taught me: A sense of responsibility
Best advice you could give someone thinking of a teaching career: Make learning fun! Excitement is contagious. Tap into your pupils’ interests and find out what excites them. Use this knowledge to plan interesting lessons that will awaken their curiosity about the world around them, capture their imagination, motivate them to work harder and instil a lifelong love of learning in them. Celebrate the uniqueness of every child, always build self- esteem and inspire your pupils to want to make a difference.
Fiona was born in Belfast and grew up in Carryduff, one of four children. She attended Our Lady and St. Patrick’s College Knock and studied Art, English and RE to A Level. She has always been passionate about Art and was delighted to achieve third place in Northern Ireland in her Art A Level in 2000. She studied Business and Photography in the USA as part of the Business Education Initiative from 2003 to 2004. She graduated from St. Mary’s University College with a First Class Honours degree in 2005 and was presented with the Dymphna Taggart Memorial Cup for Curriculum Studies and the Ulster Bank Religious Studies Award.
Fiona started teaching in St. Ita’s in Carryduff in 2005. “I am currently a member of our Senior Leadership Team, Foundation Stage Co-Ordinator and RE Co-Ordinator,” she says. “In recent years I have been fortunate to combine my love of travel with my passion for teaching and have worked with children in Ghana and Uganda. In June 2012 I received a Pearson Teaching Award and received the ‘Northern Ireland Teacher of the Year in a Primary School’ accolade — needless to say, that was an exciting time for my friends and family.”
