Introducing: Karen O'Connor our new Membership Manager

Hello,

My name is Karen O’ Connor and I am the new Membership Manager here at Smart School Councils. 

I’m lucky to be based in the lovely county of Yorkshire, which is a beautiful place to live, even if I am a little biased! I taught for fifteen years in primary schools in Yorkshire and really enjoyed my time in the classroom. I led on PSHE and had a particular interest in developing the social, emotional aspects of learning, encouraging pupil voice through strategies such as Philosophy for Children. Teaching was a challenging job, but very rewarding, even on those days when you needed more than one shot of caffeine to function in the morning!

Three years ago I left teaching and moved to work in the charity sector, supporting Kinship Carers in their roles in Yorkshire. My own nana had been a Kinship Carer and it was a privilege to support Carers in the difficult challenges they faced each day. It also gave me great insight into how well-thought out programmes can support Carers and help them to connect to each other for peer support, while enabling their voices to be heard on a much larger scale. 

I came across SSC by chance. I visited their website and read up about their programmes and I was totally onboard with their mission as a charity. I wish SSC would have been around earlier on in my own teaching career! The programmes provide structured support, step-by-step to teachers and schools to raise pupil voices and enable them to enact change. Now more than ever I believe that students want their voices to be heard and should be allowed to participate in democracy - seeing that it can lead directly to change. That’s why I’m so enthusiastic to be part of SSC and support members as part of my role.

When I’m not working I can usually be found rambling somewhere around the gorgeous landscapes of Yorkshire and enjoying nature up close.

I look forward to getting to know our members more closely, and getting to see what amazing things can happen when student voices lead the way!