Spotlight on…Anthony Bart-Appiah

What made you decide to study as an EYT?

I am originally from Ghana but joined the British Army in 2005 in the Royal Logistics Corps as a movement controller, which means moving troops, equipment and resources from A to B. I then worked in the NHS. One day I went into my son’s nursery to give a talk on the Commonwealth and they really responded to me, in a different way from the staff, who were all female. I wanted to play a part in supporting children in my local area of SE London, to teach them self-esteem and knowledge about the world and society from an early age.

What is it like being a man in a woman’s world?

During my training I had a problem with parents in the nursery saying, what is he doing here? And parents would walk right past me to the female staff member behind. Everyone has a stereotype that it’s a woman’s job. This was quite difficult and made me a little dispirited at first. But I took it as a challenge to make the parents see how good it was to have a male figure around. I created leaflets to introduce myself and had one-to-ones with parents on their child’s development stage. The children went home talking about Anthony at nursery.

How do you think the children benefit from a male presence?

At one of my placements, in the Reception class at Deptford Primary School, some children were having problems with their reading and phonics. Teachers were finding it difficult to get some children to focus, but me being male, and I think because of my military background, meant I was in some way an authority figure. Before I left, the children in my group had all progressed with their phonics. I’m known as ‘Anthony from the military’.