New Teacher Feature- Meet Marc Broughton

Welcome to our New Teacher Feature Series. Today we meet Marc Broughton, our Interim Head of Senior School who started his role with us here at Downsend last January.

English is my main subject but I also have taught sport, predominantly Cricket and Rugby. In terms of who inspired me to teach there have been a number of people along the way. My old housemaster when I was at school was also my English teacher and I certainly liked the way he approached life. Some humour and was quite relaxed but you knew where you stood with him.

A good question for an English graduate: I am a big fan of Shakespeare and the fact that he has covered off the whole range of different elements of life and that we still can gain so much from his work, all these years after he was alive is testament to the genius that he was.

Kind, optimistic and authentic.

a. Really enjoy reading books on how we as humans behave and how we can get better, so anything by Malcolm Gladwell is worth dipping into, he has a great deal to say about what it is to be human. Really enjoyed reading ‘Legacy’ by James Kerr as well. b. In terms of literature, Captain Correlli’s Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres holds a special place for me.

“Whatever the question, education is always the answer” Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

When I was 13, I cycled from Lands End to John O’Groats.

I would love to catch up with my grandparents again because I could learn so much from them all. It would be great to show them the world we live in now and the various advances in technology. I am a big fan of what Clive Woodward did with English Rugby in the lead up to 2003 so he would be on the list. Emily Bronte because she was a writer who made it in a man’s world and ‘Wuthering Heights’ remains one of my favourite novels. If she couldn’t make it, I’d gladly have Charlotte Bronte instead. Billie Jean King, because she did so much for equality in sport and continues to champion women in sport and what they can achieve. We still have some way to go on this but it’s certainly moving in the right direction. I think I would also like to meet Churchill, he was a leader who had to make some difficult decisions but in crisis seemed to get it right!