For more than a decade, I’ve been teaching English, marking scripts and getting to know the children behind the work.

Over time, I’ve realised that teaching is about more than getting a child to the right answer.

It starts with knowing the child.

When you know a child well, you begin to understand what sits behind the work. You notice what they find difficult, what they enjoy, what they avoid, when they need more support and when they are ready to be challenged. That relationship can change how a child experiences learning.

When a child feels known by the person teaching them, they may become more willing to ask a question, make a mistake or try again. Slowly, they may begin to see themselves differently too. The child who has always thought, I’m not good at English, may start to think, Maybe I can do this. The child who only notices the mark may begin to notice the sentence they improved, the idea they expressed well or the question they finally understood.

Their relationship with English can change as well.

English can become less about getting everything right and more about understanding why something works — having something to say, finding the words to say it and noticing how those words work. It can become a subject they understand, engage with and gradually feel more at home in.

Teaching my own children has given me another perspective on this. At home, I’ve seen even more clearly that children do not learn in quite the same way, or at quite the same pace. The same child can approach something differently depending on the day, the context and how they feel about what they are being asked to do.

It has reminded me that knowing the child matters just as much as knowing the subject.

My years in MOE schools, including my experience marking the PSLE, have given me a strong understanding of the skills students need. I later pursued a Master’s in Educational Psychology, which deepened my understanding of how children learn.

Those experiences have given me a strong foundation. But it is the children I’ve taught, and now my own children, who have shaped my understanding of teaching most.

That is what I hope to bring to English by Cheryl. A place where children are known, where their learning is taken seriously, and where they can become stronger in English while developing a better relationship with learning itself.

The right answer matters. But so does how a child feels about themselves while they are learning to find it.