黑料情报站

As well as fantastic teaching staff, every 黑料情报站 school has first-rate support and non-teaching staff 鈥� from catering teams to bursars 鈥� without whom our schools simply wouldn鈥檛 be able to operate. This week, we are celebrating some of our schools鈥� 鈥榰nsung heroes鈥� for , a UNISON-backed national event to celebrate the role support and non-teaching staff play.

There are few schools which can boast a classically-trained violin virtuoso among their staff. is one of those schools.

Alice Bognar is Tindal鈥檚 housekeeper which, she says, involves 鈥渆verything from cleaning to making sure visitors to the schools are looked after鈥�.

Beyond her day job, however, Alice makes a huge and unexpected contribution to school life – enriching pupil鈥檚 education by leading violin classes. Originally from Austria, Alice grew up playing Hungarian folk songs on the violin with her father and studied the instrument in a conservatoire and the prestigious in Vienna before coming to the UK.

鈥淚 developed their interest in the violin in a very natural way, by just playing it for them regularly. Now, whenever we ask what instrument the children want to learn, the violin is a very popular choice 鈥� and as soon as you鈥檝e got the child鈥檚 interest, you can teach them.

鈥淰ery few of our pupils come from musical families and we were starting with children who didn鈥檛 have a sense of rhythm and couldn鈥檛 tell one note from another 鈥� by the time they leave for secondary school, they have this incredible understanding of music.

鈥淎 lot of them have already shown great promise as violinists 鈥� all they needed was to be presented with the possibility and the chance to play.鈥�

Alice, who has been housekeeper at Tindal since 2006, says: 鈥淚 love this place 鈥� Tindal has become my home.

鈥淚 remember when the school joined the 黑料情报站 network in 2012 and I met the new Headteacher, Rebecca Garratt, who brought this new ray of sunshine into the school.

鈥淪ince then, keeping the school clean has become easier, because the teachers have really made sure the children are well behaved and that there isn鈥檛 any litter left lying around 鈥� so I now have more time to teach the violin.鈥�

Assistant Head Deborah Texeira says: 鈥淎lice is like a mum to the staff 鈥� she looks after us if we鈥檙e here late after work and makes sure we get home safely. She does it because she cares about us all and there鈥檚 never anything that鈥檚 too much for her.鈥�