Class of 2015 Alumni Teachers

Alicia Jeffries-Jones CO15
Teacher of Biology

In my current role as a Biology teacher at Truro, I teach students across the age groups 11-18. To do this, I’m involved in planning and delivering lessons for all three key stages. There are a number of responsibilities associated with the job, including the safeguarding of the children in my care, being accountable for their progress, providing useful feedback on their work. The role requires a great deal of reflection to enable consistent progress in both the pupils understanding but also the lessons I am delivering. As a form tutor, I am also a point of contact for parents and pupils alike. Additionally, there are numerous co-curricular activities that I am involved in; some of which include trampolining, Ten Tors, D of E and climbing.

After leaving Truro School, I continued with my studies at the University of East Anglia in Norwich (it would have been difficult to get much further away from Cornwall whilst still being in England!). I completed my BSc in Biomedicine which I thoroughly enjoyed and through which I developed a keen interest in genetics. This led me into undertaking my MSc in Genomic Medicine at Imperial College London, a big change from the “city” life offered by Truro and Norwich!

After leaving Truro School I went to the University of Bath to study Spanish and Italian. One of the main reasons I chose Bath was the tennis programme which would mean I could continue playing competitive tennis. In my first year of university I played for the women’s tennis first team and absolutely loved the team atmosphere and weekly matches against other universities. Wednesdays very quickly became my favourite day of the week! After my first year, I decided to change course to Spanish and Politics so that I was able to specifically focus on my Spanish language. The highlight of my university experience was without a doubt the year abroad in which I worked in Madrid, Spain for a year. I had the chance to explore Spain in my free time and I met so many of my closest friends who I still keep in touch with now. It was also in this year when I started taking short backpacking trips around Spain and then went on to travel around Bali and Australia the following summer.

I definitely considered lots of different careers in Languages, despite the fact I spent a lot of my childhood playing teachers at home with my sister and having her complete printed worksheets I’d found online – poor Beth!