Simon Daw

I live in the mediaeval village of Castle Hedingham, in north Essex; most of the visitors to this site arrive here because they're looking for information about Hedingham and/or its castle. Simon with respectful children...

I've lived here for well over ten years, but worked at Buckley-Saxon Cycles (which was located in Castle Hedingham until it closed in November 2002) for many years before that. I've also worked at Hedingham Castle for a time, but some years ago made the decision to switch career to teaching. I enjoyed my training at APU (now Anglia Ruskin University) in Chelmsford and my school experiences at Woodhall Primary, Sudbury, St Luke's Church School, Tiptree and Earls Colne Primary.

I spent the first two years of my career teaching maths and humanities at Clare Middle School in Suffolk. Although I gained some valuable experience there, and taught some wonderful children, I found Years 7 and 8 hard work, and missed the variety of primary teaching. I therefore switched back to primary in 2006; also a lucky move, as things turn out, because Suffolk County Council have now announced the closure of Clare Middle School as part of their switch from a three-tier to a more conventional two-tier system.

In any case, I've been more comfortable in my "new" school: I in fact returned to St Luke's. My first year there was an odd experience in many ways, because I taught the class I'd worked with on my teaching practice, some four years earlier! It was quite a privilege, and I was sorry to say goodbye to them in July 2007. The school is, in my opinion, extremely successful in terms of developing children's values and self esteem - things I consider to be of far greater value than test results. Have a look at some of the art work that last year's class produced during our arts fortnight. A few years ago, whilst training, I transcribed "The First Hundred Years: The History of Tiptree CE Primary School", which I found in the university library, and which is a fascinating read.

During my first few years I've found that teaching has the potential to take over one's life somewhat. Sometimes this can be depressing; little time to spend with friends, or even to keep in touch with them in the same way one once did, and not managing to fit much else in during the average week. I've found it easy to work sixty or more hours a week, and it can be pretty grim coming home at 10pm to a house which hasn't been cleaned and a kitchen sink that's still full of yesterday's dirty dishes. Very often, however, something then happens which outweighs all of that at a stroke; a child makes a comment that brightens the day, or brings you the chocolate bun they made last night. It is a fantastically rewarding job, and I can't imagine doing anything else now.

Although teaching limits the time I have available for leisure activities, I still try to maintain contact with Mad Dogs & Englishmen, the theatre company of which I used to be a trustee. Visit my theatre page for more information and pictures of some of their productions.

I used to be a racing cyclist of middling ability; take a look at my cycling page for more. For just over a year now I've been making a big effort to do more cycling again, since I find it an excellent way of de-stressing, and of keeping the flab at bay. Having been riding to work only once in each fortnight for the past few years I've now started doing it three times most weeks, and I'm back to a point where the 35 mile round trip no longer feels like a major feat of endurance. I've re-joined Cycle Club Sudbury, the club I started racing with more than a quarter of a century ago, and have started riding a few time trials, albeit a bit slowly. It's all been successful - I've been taken off the blood pressure tablets I'd been taking for five years.

I suppose that photography is also becoming something of a hobby too, albeit that most of my photos are taken either at school or in Castle Hedingham (because I tend not to go anywhere much else!) Some of my photos on Flickr can be seen in the Flickr button in the navigation panel on the left of this page.

Please feel free to email me using the link on my navigation bar – I'm usually pleased to hear from visitors.