David moves from expelled pupil to trainee teacher

David Wilson-Stonestreet was expelled from school at 17 and failed all his GCSEs. He grew up feeling an academic failure. Over 15 years later, David has changed his life in a huge way. This summer, he achieved a BA (Hons) degree in English and Media from the University of Teesside and in September will start training to be a secondary English teacher.

David, 32, is originally from Upminster in Essex. He now lives in Wilton Village, Redcar, with wife Kirstie and four-year-old daughter Grace. As soon as he started primary school in Essex, David felt intimidated by education.

David said: “I went to a Catholic Infants School and found some of the teachers quite frightening; I felt spoken down to and wasn’t inspired. I started secondary school with poor literacy and numeracy skills and fell in with a bad crowd. I’d been accepted into the sixth form, but was expelled in Year 12 aged 17. The highest grade GCSE I got was a D in English, which is still a fail.”

After school David started training as a Care Worker, a vocation he enjoyed. He progressed in the profession, and moved to New Zealand at 24. While working as a Care Manager in Wellington, he met wife Kirstie, who is originally from Marton in Middlesbrough. The couple returned to Kirstie’s home town four years ago, with new daughter Grace.

David said: “I felt a failure to Grace; I had no academic belief in myself. But Kirstie did have faith in me and told me she thought I’d make a good teacher. She pushed me into devising a five year plan for myself.”

David’s plan started with three GCSEs and an Access Course, marking a return to education 12 years after his expulsion. David said: “Studying the GCSEs was the hardest thing; it was like going back in time. I’d never done homework before! But I was hugely inspired by my Access tutor, Ian Jones, and my confidence grew when I started to get good marks.”

The GCSEs and Access Course led to David’s Teesside degree, which was split 70% English and 30% Media. David said: “I really enjoyed the degree; authors like Ibsen and Henry James blew my socks off. And analysing film was excellent. I used to say to the tutors all the time ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this.’ All throughout the degree my aim was to be a teacher.

“My parents Lorna and Mike think what I’ve done is amazing, they’re really, really proud that I’m the first in the family to get a degree. Mum said I needed to live before I could learn. Without Kirstie’s support and belief in me I couldn’t have achieved any of this.”

David’s teacher training course will end in summer 2007.

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