A warm welcome from Gerry

Hi my name is Gerry Manolas and I have been with eteach.com for the past 6 years. I originally joined in August 2002 as part of the Permanent Placement Team and moved across to the Independent Schools Account in March 2005. My role now is to help the Independent Schools place their vacancies onto the website and to try and direct suitably experienced and qualified candidates to them.

I started my career in back in 1989, qualifying as a Primary Teacher from Gwent College of Education in Caerleon, Gwent. My first post was in Penarth where I stayed until 1998, having become a member of the senior management team. Whilst there, I was involved at a county level in Business and Industry Partnership Links and European Awareness issues. I also completed a Diploma in teaching Welsh as a Second Language to Primary children.

I then moved to Surrey and took up a KS2 Manager role and then Acting Deputy position at a school in Guildford. Having taught across the primary range and managing curriculum areas such as Science, IT, Geography along with supporting the PTA and doing all the additional things we do as conscientious teachers, (but that have no official title) I decided a change was needed before I burnt out! So after a few months of supply teaching I moved across and stepped into recruitment for a small supply agency in Guildford in 2001. This enabled me to qualify as a member of REC and keep my hand in teaching when teachers were unable to undertake their assignments.

I now have a 5 year old son and so education is just as important to me not only from a career point of view, but from that as a parent. I feel passionately that children should be taught by inspirational teachers who know how to ‘light the flame of life long learning’ and who understand the individual needs of the child.

My three wishes:

1. That common sense really was ‘common’, as it seems to be missing in huge chunks from all aspects of life.

2. To meet Daniel Craig, as I am a real James Bond fan.

3. To go to the Olympics when they come to London in 2012.

I look forward to hearing about your teaching experiences and thoughts on our present education system and ideas for it’s future.