Until the sixth form at Cranleigh I had quite a narrow view of what jobs I could do after university and spent as little time as possible contemplating them. Then the wonderful Beccy Gibson offered us the chance to go on a World Challenge trip to South Africa and Namibia. It was there, seeing first hand the difference access to schools can make, that I knew I wanted to be involved in education.
After university I did the TeachFirst scheme and taught in an inner-city Academy in Croydon. The experience was humbling and made me acutely aware and interested in educational poverty and the myriad of issues it creates.
In 2014 I joined the tiny central team of United World Schools (UWS), then just consisting of two people. The charity’s mission is to provide a basic education to children living in remote areas of post-conflict countries. Here education not only cuts the horrifically high infant mortality rate by 50% but also empowers and equips children to access new life opportunities. We work in countries like Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal and the remoteness of the communities there is a key factor in our work. We only build schools where there are no educational alternatives and often this means we work with communities that are only accessible by canoe trips followed by long marches though dense forest. I certainly feel I have crossed my quota of dodgy looking bridges with unnerving drops on either side. Whilst I sometimes enjoy the ‘field expeditions’, my main role is around school partnerships and each UWS School is joined with a specific school in the UK or overseas.
Cranleigh School kindly help support a UWS School through the work of ‘Beyond Cranleigh’ and I have also tried to recruit a number of our old sporting adversaries, including RGS Guildford and Eton College. Visiting these schools, holding assemblies and being able to show students the impact of their fundraising and the power education can have is certainly the highlight of my role. I think Cranleigh, and schools like it, do an amazing job, not only supporting their students to succeed, but also teaching them about the importance of charity and the impact that they can have as the philanthropists of the future.
If any OCs are interested in finding out more about the work of United World Schools or have children who are looking at Gap Year opportunities then please do send me an email: Jack@unitedworldschools.org.
