Inside the classroom of Scotland's most inspirational history teacher
An Edinburgh high school history teacher is up for an inaugural UK inspiration award, after making the final 10 from thousands of nominations from across the country.
From cakes baked in the shape of ancient Celtic forts to designing Iron Age crannogs on Minecraft, Edinburgh history teacher Fionnuala Glover has the past, present and future love of the subject covered.
Now, Ms Glover, 34, who teaches at Holy Rood RC High School in Edinburgh, has been named as the Scotland winner of a competition to find the UK’s most inspirational history teacher.
The competition, led by Historic Royal Palaces and featuring historian Lucy Worsley, recognised Ms Glover for bringing digital skills into the history department - from AI to podcasts - as well as her commitment to the innovative teaching of subjects such as slavery and Scotland, migration and empire.
Ms Glover said: “My favourite topics are the ones I think are really relevant to the students. With migration and empire being a good example of that.
“It’s relevant to the students in front of me, who have relatives all over the world and so understand those links. I look at how immigration has shaped Scotland and the kids really get that. I taught about Italians coming here and opening ice cream shops, and that’s what the family of one of my students did.
“I just love seeing the excitement in students that were not maybe into history as much as me, but I have maybe found something that connects with them about history.
“I give them free reign to be creative and they constantly amaze me with what they produce. That’s probably my favourite part of my job.
“I can’t believe I get paid for this job, it doesn’t feel like a job to me, I’m really lucky.”
Ms Glover, who is in her fifth year at Holy Rood, switched to history teaching after an earlier career in IT and sales.
She said she felt “really grateful” for the award given the standards of other entries, with the whole process “reinvigorating” her love for teaching.
Ms Glover added: “Pulling all the evidence of my teaching together was nice to look back at. It reminded me of things the students loved doing, and I’m sure I’ll use those methods again going forward.
“I also got in touch with former students I taught and student teachers I had mentored who wrote testimonies for this award, so that was lovely to see what they said. This whole process has reinvigorated my love for teaching.
“My main ethos behind teaching is about building good relationships with the pupils and getting them to buy into my love of history. If you are enthusiastic and you have got that trust with your students then they will buy into it as well. My students here are very special and they were the first people I thanked when I got this award.
“They really push me as a teacher to do things in different ways. The kids are what I do this job for. I’m really grateful to be recognised for my work as a teacher, as I don’t think teachers get enough recognition for the work they do.”
She added: “I do a lot of digital work in the classroom also, given I previously worked in that field, which the students really enjoy and seem to take to quicker.
“They know more about digital than I do and are showing me more on that side of things. They really are the inspiration behind what I do in the classroom.”
The overall winner will be decided by historians including Lucy Worsley, Dan Jones and Greg Jenner, plus an education specialist, and revealed at a ceremony at the Tower of London on June 20.
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