{"id":12621,"date":"2019-04-21T07:54:09","date_gmt":"2019-04-21T06:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=12621"},"modified":"2019-04-21T07:54:09","modified_gmt":"2019-04-21T06:54:09","slug":"following-in-his-mothers-footsteps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/student-stories\/following-in-his-mothers-footsteps\/","title":{"rendered":"Following in his mother\u2019s footsteps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For Marva and Adrian Rollins, a passion for education and helping others is something which runs in the family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marva, who recently received an OBE from the Queen in recognition of Services to Education, has spent over twenty years as a Headteacher and continues to be an active and inspiring member of her community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite her successful career, Marva didn\u2019t realise her teaching dream until her early thirties, studying for her Bachelors in Education at a local Polytechnic. After completing her degree, Marva went onto achieve her Masters through The Open University, juggling her family and work life while studying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere were many challenges to overcome on my journey. However, I\u2019m proud that I have been able to represent my community in the way that I have, because it would have been easy to give up in the early days when it was hard. Even now, only 2.8% of Head teachers are from BME backgrounds.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

An inspiration to many  <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy mother has been an inspiration my whole life,\u201d said Adrian, who also took his own Open University journey and followed in his mother\u2019s footsteps to become a Deputy Head teacher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI owe everything to her. I was both influenced and inspired by her journey, taking a course through the OU was a no-brainer.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As a professional cricketer, Adrian had started to think about life after sport and study with the OU, when injury sadly forced him into early retirement. After discovering a love for mathematics, Adrian switched his degree to a BSc (Hons) Open degree, which would allow him to pursue a career as a maths teacher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Change lives for the better <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Though Adrian\u2019s journey wasn\u2019t always easy \u2013 having to juggle working full-time and the unfortunate breakdown of his relationship \u2013 Adrian said thinking of his children kept him from giving up. \u201cThey needed to see their Father working hard for them at what was a very difficult period,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adrian achieved his degree in 2007 and then went onto complete a Masters of the Arts in 2012. His advice for OU students or those considering changing their life through education? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI like to test myself, so I would think to myself, \u2018someone else has done this before, so why can\u2019t I?\u2019 and that certainly helped.  I would say to anyone thinking of the OU, go for it! What have you got to lose? Pace yourself, start slow and when your confidence builds, go a little harder. The course will change your life for the better, and the time will pass quicker than you believe.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Celebrating 50 years of changing lives <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Marva and Adrian feature as part of a new photography collection taken by renowned British photographer Chris Floyd<\/a>, to mark the OU\u2019s 50th Anniversary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travelling around the UK to capture the remarkable stories of the OU today, Floyd\u2019s 10 portraits have been released alongside a never seen before collection of images from the OU\u2019s archive. See the rest of the inspirational students and alumni featured in our collection at
50.open.ac.uk\/photography<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guest Author: Carly Sumner <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\"Photograph<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Carly Sumner is a Digital Content Officer in the Development\nOffice at The Open University. She loves telling stories and has spent the past\n10 years writing about everything from nappy bags to balance transfers. She\nholds a BA (Hons) in Journalism and Media Studies from Coventry University.\nWhen she\u2019s not writing, Carly enjoys reading, sharing good food with great\npeople, and all things colourful. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Marva and Adrian Rollins, a passion for education and helping others is something which runs in the family. Marva, who recently received an OBE from the Queen in recognition of Services to Education, has spent over twenty years as a Headteacher and continues to be an active and inspiring member of her community. Despite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,18],"tags":[375,388,761,1525,2176,2210,2403],"class_list":["post-12621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-student-stories","tag-carly-sumner","tag-case-study","tag-education","tag-news-home","tag-teaching","tag-ou50","tag-wels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}