Meet our Former Trainee: Harry Dearsly

Teacher of Music ​​​​at Exmouth Community College

“When I was thinking about teacher training, I was thinking about students seeing teachers in front of them who are from a different background.
If they see someone who is their background, they might think that is something that they can do as well and this motivates me to connect with the students more.”


As a professional musician, Harry Dearsly came into teacher training with life experience aplenty. Music has always played a big part in his life and continues to do so. After college he trained with the Royal Marines band for two years, which although good experience, did not suit him musically and he then went onto study music in a Degree Course at Bristol Institute of Modern Music (BIMM). 

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The idea to teach was starting to germinate and Harry worked as a Teaching Assistant at Exmouth Community College for three years after graduating. He then found a job as a subcontracted primary music teacher and seized the opportunity to teach, as he did not need a teaching qualification and taught all the year groups from Early Years to Year 6 for five schools in the area. However, it was a lot of travelling and being self-employed it was difficult to maintain when the work started to dry up, and when COVID hit, the work stopped completely, and the business eventually closed down.
 
During the COVID years, Harry worked as a delivery driver, before working as a cook in a friend's café because he needed another job whilst he maintained his band and music. Two years in, Harry remembered making food in the café and saying to himself: “I’ve got my degree. All I need is my PGCE and then I can teach, and that is what I’d really love to do: I want to inspire youngsters with music,” imagining himself coming back to Exmouth Community College and working there again.
 
It was like a manifestation. Harry remembered replying to SWIFT Executive Director Martin Smith in his interview about why he wanted to go into teaching: one of his time main reasons was to represent minorities in the South West in teaching and that he would like a teaching placement at Exmouth to give back to his community. Harry was then accepted onto the training course near to his home with SWIFT Teacher Training and of course, the rest is history.

Harry has always been in a band and performed and played at festivals and shows - including Glastonbury and also supported big acts, such as The Specials and Lee Scratch Perry and whilst studying at BIMM Harry sat next to popular musician, George Ezra. His band’s music has been released on all digital platforms and had air play on BBC Radio 1 David Rodigan show. But as all practising musicians will know, he needed a steady income which has always steered him to working at the same time. Harry’s current band is a duo called Harry & Lee, playing all sorts of original music, and through the different eras and they perform at weddings and functions and in pub gigs.
  
Music is in the Dearsly DNA and Harry’s daughter is already inspired by music and plays the piano and bass guitar and loves singing and is in a choir. She goes to the same primary school that Harry attended, where they have very good music facilities and encourages her love of music and Harry sees the benefits of music learning for her that he sees in his own students.
 
Above all, Harry’s real drive as a Teacher of Music is to inspire the next generation to pick up an instrument and to reap the positive rewards of music. 
 
Harry has an interesting heritage in that he was adopted at one month from Sri Lanka and his parents here in the UK are White British gifting him a White British family, with a Sri Lankan heritage. Harry has been back to Sri Lanka on a family-finding journey, although sadly that did not work out. Whilst his upbringing is British from his adoptive parents, he obviously has dark skin and lives in a predominantly white area. But for Harry, it is about trying to spin the positives and see it as a representation of a minority group, and there are many Asian, Brown and Black people in the community of Exmouth, which he tries to build on.
 
At school, as a case in point, only the other day, a student who is from India and new to the school stood outside Harry’s classroom early in the school day. Harry could tell that he was potentially from India or Bangladesh. The student came into his classroom and Harry asked if he were new and the student replied that he was from India, to which Harry shared that he was born in Sri Lanka and in that moment, he sensed a relief in the student as felt a connection.
 
Thinking about Harry representing a minority group, we were grateful to interview him to find out more about his experiences as a Teacher of Music.

1. What guided your decision to train with SWIFT Teacher Training?
Firstly, I was trying to find courses that were available for secondary music, PGCE, and a SCITT course. With SWIFT having different campuses, it allowed me to find a placement at a school that was near to where I lived, and having a family as well, I wanted to train close to home and be able to find a way to do that through a course that was hands-on like the SWIFT course. Also having the added extra of the partnership with the University of Nottingham and being able to do the PGCE element was my main focus.
 
2. Were your individual needs met during the course e.g. learning, SEND, health, representing a global minority group?
I do not have any SEND myself, but for those colleagues with SEND, I saw that they were represented very well and always well supported. Personally, for me, it was being a minority background. Being able to share our views and opinions, along with others who were also from minority backgrounds, I felt like we all had an equal say and sharing our different backgrounds made the experience more interesting because you had more diverse people's opinions, which is beneficial.
 
3. Did you consider the training environment to be inclusive and respectful of colleagues from all backgrounds?
I would say the training environment was very respectful and inclusive and everyone's background was valued. As I said in the previous question, we all got to share our own opinions and ideas and everyone was able to give their different views and encouraged to share our own personal life experiences. Some people had backgrounds in school already, and there were young people at the start of their career and people that were older. I was also a career changer as well, and there was always a sense of collaboration and that everyone’s voice in perspective was equally heard.

4. What strategies helped you to navigate any challenges related to representation or inclusion during the course?
I definitely relied a lot on peer support and mentor support, my school and placement Mentor and my SWIFT Tutor as well and both within my Campus and placement schools.
 
I benefited from support from people, and I made a point to speak openly about representation where it was appropriate and obviously through the training there were parts of the course that linked to diversity and inclusion. I could normalise my conversations and reflection was a big part of the course and played a big role because I used the challenges and opportunities, and learning to grow from my experiences. Also thinking that my place in the programme in itself was a step towards greater representation for other minority backgrounds.

5. How has your cultural background influenced your approach to teaching and connecting with students?
This was probably the biggest for me because it is the strong appreciation for diversity from my own cultural background and having that represented. In my current school where I am working, I was a student here and was one of maybe 10 minorities in a large school of maybe a few thousand at the time and an all-white teaching staff.

In nearly every lesson I have today, there is a minority group who are represented by teachers like me and the teaching staff now have more of a representation in the community.

It gives me a sense of pride and future hope that encourages me. When I was thinking about teacher training, I was thinking about students seeing teachers in front of them who are from a different background. If they see someone who is their background, they might think that is something that they can do as well and this motivates me to connect with the students more.

Interview by Jude Baylis, SWIFT Executive Assistant