Staff spotlight: Johnny Savile, Head of First Year

The next in our staff spotlight series is Johnny Savile, who joined Trinity in 2019 as a Teacher of Geography, having previously taught at Ark Bolingbroke Academy. He is now a very popular Head of First Year, and is involved in the new outdoor activity programme with the Third Year alongside his Geography teaching. We sat down with Mr Savile to discuss his career so far and his role in helping new students to settle into life at Trinity.

1. You’re now in your seventh year at Trinity. What first attracted you to the school, and what has kept you here?

Growing up pretty nearby to Trinity, I had a few friends who came here and spoke very highly of their experiences, so when I saw a position available in the Geography department after I finished my teacher training, I jumped at the chance. Since then, it’s the relationships with both my fantastic colleagues and students that have kept this such an exciting place to work.

2. What drew you to teaching as a career?

Throughout my Geography degree, I had been taking part in youth-work through my church and really enjoyed this. As the end of university loomed I was considering how I could integrate my geographical interests and working with young people and teaching has remained a fantastic way of doing this.

3. What’s your best professional memory?

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to join a Geography trip with some of our Middle School students heading to Sicily and some of the off-lying islands during the summer holiday. While we were there, we climbed up the Stromboli volcano and were so privileged to see this erupt in front of us (from a safe distance) with the lava streaking across the night sky. It was pretty unforgettable for all the staff and students there.

4. In your role as Head of First Year, you act as a key support mechanism for many of our new students. What advice do you give to students who have just started at Trinity?

There are so many brilliant avenues of support across the full breadth of Trinity life. However, one thing that I’ve certainly seen over my time here is that a busy student is a happy student. There are so many amazing things to get stuck into in the classroom and beyond so make the most of this. One of our four key values in the First Year is to ‘step up and get stuck in’ and we’ve seen that this has been a great way to develop exciting interests and foster social relationships too.

5. You’re a passionate advocate for Outdoor Education, and as a Geography teacher you are heavily involved with domestic and international field trips. Could you tell us a little more about the role that trips play in a 21st century education?

I’m very lucky to get to go on so many trips and they are a real highlight of my job. For students I feel that they are very valuable for a few reasons. Firstly, trips can be stretching at times. When going away you are often presented with a range of fresh challenges you don’t see at home, perhaps in the activities you take part in or just in the need for a greater level of personal organisation than you might normally need at home. They are also a great way of broadening horizons with exposure to places and cultures with which we have been previously unfamiliar which is so important in our increasingly globalised world. Finally, they can be a great way of developing relationships with your peers and learning how to work effectively with a range of different people. It’s great to see all these things at work in the trips we run both in the Geography department (such as the trip to Norway we had over the October half term) and in the pastoral life of the school, such as the trips we take down to our Boetius field centre in South Wales with all First Years soon after the start of the year.

Quick fire questions:

1. What’s your go-to Friday night meal? I love foraging so anything that I’ve been able to source from the ‘wild larder’ is always a favourite.

2. What’s your all-time favourite holiday? Last summer I was lucky to head to the Karakoram mountains in Pakistan to go trekking and mountaineering. It was amazing to see the ways people have adapted to live at high altitude and to witness the amazing glaciology in action as we climbed up the ice.

3. Human Geography or physical Geography? I’m slightly conflicted here. I’ve traditionally been physical all the way but having started teaching human Geography at A Level in my time here, I’m certainly starting to see the value in keeping a more integrated perspective, particularly as we consider some of the most complex issues of our times such as climate change and how this will affect people worldwide. That said, it’s pretty hard for anything to match the awe that is instilled in standing before some of the amazing landscapes we get to study on the physical side.

4. What would you be doing if you hadn’t become a teacher? It would have to be something that allowed me to get outside a lot. Before teaching, I had a brief period working on sailing yachts to deliver and race them which was great, but doesn’t get close to matching how much you get to laugh when working in a school.

5. Can you describe yourself in three words? Hmmm… Perhaps: energetic, adventurous, and enthusiastic!