Deputy Headspace

Caroline Cirino, St Joseph’s College

It is hard to comprehend that as I begin my 20^th year of working at St Joseph’s College, I am also taking on the role of Deputy Headteacher. Time really has flown!  Starting here in 2005 as a main scale RE teacher, just three years into my teaching career. I have been privileged to undertake a host of positions do date: I have spent time as a Second in Department, as a Subject Leader and Director of Sixth Form, each role giving me the chance to grow both professionally and personally.  I have also taken on wider Edmund Rice responsibilities within school, helping to initiate both international immersion and ERI ambassadors for the English schools.  I have also played a role in highlighting the internationality of our schools in bringing EREBB into the consciousness of our students and staff.

My current role is multifaceted, and part of my remit is to be the Person in Charge of Catholic Life (PICCL) within school.  This is a way for me, alongside my colleagues, to help maintain and nurture our Catholic school in a world where our Edmund Rice Catholic ethos is somewhat counter-cultural. I am passionate about role-modelling to our students how to live out Christian values in a way that is relevant and accessible.  I also have the good fortune to inspect for the Archbishop of Birmingham as a part of the CSI team and have found this work to be incredibly rewarding.

I have laughed and cried with my students and colleagues over the years and have celebrated many personal milestones whilst surrounded by this community.  I have always felt safe, nurtured and valued, and my ambition is to offer that same dignity and respect to the students and staff that I am fortunate to work alongside.  My relationship with the school and with the wider community of St Joseph’s College is rich and varied, and I am most definitely all the better for my time within this school and the wider Edmund Rice network.

I feel really blessed to work for a school, within a network, which upholds the highest academic, spiritual, and moral standards, because our students deserve nothing less.  We are all in the job of planting seeds so that one day “the good seed will grow” and in my new role, I continue to keep this in mind every single day.