A visitor to Jill Gill’s school is much more likely to find her on her hands and knees helping children to solve a puzzle or reading them a story than at a computer ploughing through paperwork.
The invitations to her retirement gathering next week are only partly jokey where they state ‘technology was never my strong point’.
Forty three years in education will come to an end for Jill, headteacher at 102-pupil Ballacloan Infants’, Douglas, when the bell sounds for the Easter holidays a week tomorrow.
As she reflects on her lifetime in teaching, she recalls how, as a schoolgirl, she realised the career she wanted to follow.
‘I was inspired by a particularly good English teacher at my secondary school and wanted to emulate her,’
she said.
Jill started teaching in 1971 in Formby, Merseyside. Among four other probationary teachers, as they were known then, was John Gill, who she was to marry in 1973. After a long time in the classroom himself, John is now the Head of Legal and Administrative Services for the Department of Education and Children.
Jill and John’s careers took them to the former West Germany to teach pupils in the forces’ schools. Moving to the Island, she was a supply teacher at the now-closed Patrick School and then had permanent posts at Ballasalla and Ballaquayle primaries. She was deputy head of Ballacloan for five years prior to being appointed head 16 years ago.
Jill recalls more challenging periods in education, early in her career.
‘Adopting initiatives, especially at the time when the British Government was struggling to get the National Curriculum right, was a period of what seemed like constant change,’ she said.
‘Teaching has changed for the better in that there is now greater clarity for teachers about what must be taught, about children’s expected attainment levels and the strategies children need to help them learn.
‘Since my career began, certainly since the introduction of the National Curriculum, education has become focused and consistent. Conscientious research into teaching methods provides practitioners with a wealth of guidance to support their presentation of the curriculum to the children.’
Looking back on her own achievements, Jill said:
‘It still gives me satisfaction to have been part of the Isle of Man working party for the Manx curriculum for three and four-year-olds and I am proud that the Isle of Man document preceded the 'adjacent island’s' foundation stage curriculum.
‘However, being instrumental in establishing one of the Island’s first nurture rooms is the achievement of which I am most proud, because it allowed the pupil it first served to maintain his place in mainstream education.
‘Since then the facility has gone on to support many, many children with a vast range of needs.’
Of the countless children she has influenced, Jill said those who had overcome challenge or adversity stood out.
‘One former pupil, who is totally blind, has continued through education to emerge as a talented musician and a self-assured young lady,’
Jill said.
‘There is a boy who has grown into an exceptionally gifted Manx speaker and author of texts in Manx.
‘Equally worth noting are those young men and women who, as children, were painfully shy and lacking in confidence and have blossomed and those with adjustment issues who have completely turned themselves around to become effective members of the community.’
In line with her own ethos, Jill said Ballacloan children are:
‘generous in their acknowledgement of one another’s successes and caring toward one another’.
She said:
‘I have been privileged that so many parents over the years have entrusted their children to my care and teaching and to have shared in their children’s early development.’
As retirement beckons, she said:
‘I will miss no two days ever being the same and the buzz of social interaction with colleagues, parents and especially the children.’
However, Jill will continue to spend lots of time with two children who are particularly special to her – her granddaughter Ella, two, and a sibling for Ella who is due in TT week.
‘Apart from extending my cherished role as a granny, I hope to finally realise the potential of my garden in Rushen and bring to fruition the practical as well as the more whimsical ideas I have for it,’
Jill said.
‘I also hope that John and I will be able to enjoy many more canal boat holidays in Britain, maybe even owning our own narrowboat, which I dream of naming Berenice after the music played at our wedding.’
So with her vast experience in education, what advice would Jill give to a teacher starting out today?
She said:
‘Celebrate the uniqueness of every child. Be prepared to be vulnerable enough to learn from others, including the children, and always be open to fresh ideas.’
Ballacloan will be the last of the infants’ schools to merge with its neighbouring junior school when it and Fairfield Junior join together as the Henry Bloom Noble Primary School on 1 May.
From the summer term, the school will come under the leadership of current Fairfield headteacher Ian Walmsley and deputy headteacher Jo McCabe, who has also been acting as deputy head at Ballacloan over the past year.
Jill said:
‘I have no doubt that the 'family' feel to the Key Stage 1 site will continue and that the well-being of children will remain at the heart of the school.’
