Teachers are much undervalued in our country; they're not in other European countries, 

Mmmm yeah

But they are in ours, did you ever feel anxious about the fact that you'd moved from the prestige of the PhD to a prestigious job with someone like Barclays, into working in a primary school?

No I don't think so, I don't think that sort of thing has ever bothered me, I think that's why I didn't fit in somewhere like Barclays, and the things that they offered in terms of a prestigious career, and money, and bonuses and climbing a ladder, just doesn't mean anything to me, it doesn't make me feel good about anything so er no, that side of things has never been lacking.

What kind of things do you think are important to you in a career and in an employer?

It has to excite you, it has to interest you, and it has to give you room to constantly grow, be better. I needed something that every month, year, week, I'm learning new things, I'm getting better at what I'm doing and I'm going to be really good at this. And you need the scope to be able to do this and I suppose you need to know which kind of environment that happens for you, and so I tested out the corporate environment and that didn't work for me, it didn't give me that scope to grow as a person and constantly feel that I was, you know, getting better at my job whereas teaching does for me.