David Gartland

Darlington College Principal and Chief Executive

I started at Durham Sixth Form Centre without really knowing where or what I wanted to do with my life.  From day one, my Personal Tutor, James O’Leary, took a real interest in helping me get my GCSE’s (which I didn’t get from school) and then encouraged me to progress onto A levels. After three years of continual support and encouragement, I had the confidence to go onto University – something that I had never considered throughout my school life.  My subject teachers, particularly Norman Ferguson, my sports teacher, was always supportive and more than happy to tell me when I wasn’t doing as well as I should be and what I had to do to improve.

As well as getting a great education in all the subjects I studied, the social aspect of the Sixth Form Centre was fantastic.  It provided the opportunity to meet so many different people from different areas. I went to University in London, where I studied Sports Science combined with a teaching qualification.  Since graduating, I have worked in an inner-city Sixth Form College in South London for 12 years.  My job has enabled me to travel the world, setting up international links in India and, more predominately, in China.

These links have enabled students from both countries to visit one another and work on collaborative projects linked to the subjects they are studying at the sixth form.  My experiences at DSFC shaped who I am today and gave me the confidence to go on to University and to get a degree, which has enabled me to work with sixth form students. I am thoroughly enjoying doing something that I was inspired to do by my teachers at the sixth form centre – hopefully encouraging students, who are a bit like me, to go on and do things that they never thought possible.