Five Minutes with Neil Matkin

By Flora Watson, Upper Sixth

I am the Director of Academic Administration; what it means in practice is that I build the school timetable. I also work fairly closely with Mr Gillies and Mrs Hynde in running all of the internal and public exams. So, overall I deal with constructing the timetables and making sure exams run ahead, as well of course as being a maths teacher.

It might seem a little bit obvious and dull, but I am happiest when I enter my maths classroom and start teaching. Whether this be with the lower years or older years I feel as though I come alive and that’s what I like to do and never cease to enjoy.

Yes, anyone will agree that the Pascal building is a real jewel in the crown as a teaching space. From day one, when we had pupils coming into the building, they could see that it was light and bright and spacious. It feels like a place to do serious work, not that I’m suggesting that pupils at this school are naughty or badly behaved elsewhere! The previous building, the Scott block, was a nice building with four nice classrooms, but that was the problem, we needed more space. It is a lovely environment to work in.

I think, as I’m sure is the case for the pupils, it’s massively better and a big relief. I spent a lot of time talking to blank screens, which was the most bizarre experience. It was around this time last year that the school decided we could come and work from school, which is what I did and would not see a soul, except Mr Spencer occasionally. However, I always come back to think about how hard the young people must have found it with missing out key years. So yes, it is nice to be back to something that is ‘supposedly’ normal.

My favourite part about teaching maths can be seen from my Fifth Form group that are in the lower end of ability. After two and a half extraordinary years I have reached that point of getting pupils that find maths fairly difficult on board with it. Especially, in maths it is very easy for people who do not enjoy maths to say they can’t do it. However, there comes a point in the teaching course where gradually more and more pupils start to realise that what I am saying is starting to make sense. So, then you sort of see people begin to believe that they can do it. I had a lovely experience a while back where one of my pupils who I had taught for five years and really struggled with maths, was advised not to take it as an A Level but was adamant that was what he wanted to do. He got the A grade, which was what he needed, which surpassed what I thought and even more lovely his mother had come to visit him on the day of getting his results. That’s a special moment for me, helping young people fulfil what they want to do.

How many am I allowed? Well Mrs Matkin is always telling me I mustn’t be a grumpy old man. One thing I do not like is waste, and what I mean by that is pupils wasting fabulous opportunities that they will later regret in life. The other things that annoy me, because I am quite old fashioned, are fundamentals like timekeeping and appearance. Because of my seven-year background in the Royal Navy I think things like appearance are so important to me as that is how my brain works. Overall, I think that we as a school should be celebrating what we are about and be proud of it.

One of my favourite moments has to be 20 years ago, when the then Head of Drama in November emailed around asking the teachers if they wanted to be part of a teacher pantomime. I said yes I’ll give it a go, and we all gathered for two lunchtime sessions in the drama centre. It was the last week before Christmas and an announcement came out saying that the whole school had to gather in The Memorial Hall. The kids just about knew what was going to happen. The pantomime was ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and I was cast as the Princess with Mr Hall being cast as my handsome Prince. We had about 20 staff taking part, the hall was full, it was just one of the things that we haven’t had for the last two years. This special feeling of community, which is something that I liked from day one. It might have been easy for the pupils to laugh at us but instead they laughed with us and I think that is something really special.