Teacher Feature - BIC Sa Porrassa - Miss Mayes

Growing up, alongside being a keen student in school, I had an incredibly busy extra curricular life, mainly focussed around the Performing Arts. I was part of a professional dance school by the age of 14, where the agency attached gave me great performance opportunities. I was heavily involved in music at school and all school performances, and alongside my drama studies I also attended a theatre club. After college this all opened the doors to some amazing professional performance work - I performed at the Edinburgh Festival, at The Royal Albert Hall, I was part of the parade and show team at Disneyland Paris and I performed in hotels here in Mallorca and elsewhere in Europe. However, what I was always passionate about was all of this leading into teaching, and helping to inspire passion and provide opportunities for future generations.

I started working in schools at 18, running dance clubs, and after gaining my dance teaching qualifications with the International Dance Teachers’ Association I did peripatetic dance teaching work in between performance contracts. When the time had come for me to hang up my own performing shoes, a school in Kent offered me an amazing opportunity to finish my degree and complete my teacher training whilst working for them. It was in that school that I helped to build a hugely successful Performing Arts department. Some students I have taught there have gone on to amazing careers in Performing Arts of their own - past students have trained at the top performance colleges in the UK, and some of their credits and jobs include dance captain at Butlins UK, professional lighting technician, entertainment manager for an events company, a world tour of the musical ´Cats´ and the blockbuster film ´Rocketman´ to name a few.

I feel incredibly lucky to be able to combine my passion for my subject and my passion for providing opportunity and nurturing talent and inspiration through teaching. I firmly believe that a good school career for students is one that is well rounded, allows students to find what they are passionate about and encourages academic progress but also creativity, critical thinking, and many other essential life skills. It is why I am also very passionate about the pastoral elements of a school, and I am thrilled to be Head of Roosevelt House. I believe that the House system I is an integral part of our school, rewarding and recognising students for their successes, encouraging active participation in school life, and giving students a real sense of team spirit. I can't wait to see what amazing things the future alumni from our school go on to achieve. They say life imitates art, for me my art was always teaching and I am blessed my life has followed this path.