Peter Withey

Peter Withey aged 22 RE teacher, Thornleigh Salesian College in Bolton From a very young age I have been highly interested in discovering the answers to some of life's biggest questions. My search for answers made me focus on my education as I thought it would help me to get answers to all I wanted to know. I always had a lot of respect for my teachers and wanted to push myself in every way possible. I had a great love for Religious Education and History although my greatest admiration was in Maths and Science. I wished that I could one day work for NASA and work with some ground breaking discoveries. Upon choosing my A Levels I picked Maths, Physics, Computing and Christian Theology. Christian Theology was the subject I had a lot of joy in. I loved it so much that I decided that after doing a degree in Astrophysics I would return to the subject to learn more. One of the major influences on my love for the subject was my A Level teacher. He inspired me through his great depth in knowledge and sheer enthusiasm for the subject. Not only did he know so much about the subject but he presented it all in an enjoyable fashion with humour. He also made sure that the subject was a challenging both on an academic level and a level of developing one's own personal theories and beliefs. I went to university to do a degree in astrophysics. Unfortunately the course deemed too heavy. I left my degree and decided to change to a Christian Theology and Religious Studies degree. My theory was that I could change my hobby into a career. One of my A Level teachers asked me to take some of her A Level classes to find out whether I enjoyed teaching. I loved every minute of it. I was helping the students both develop on an academic level and hopefully to get them to question their own beliefs and discover their own personal truths. I am now on my PGCE course for Secondary Teaching and I am thrilled with how well it is going.