Teacher Austin Smith about hockey and the ISE

(10-09-2019)

I’m Austin Smith and I grew up in South Africa, Cape Town. My parents had a children’s home and we had a lot of space.. I have lived in Den Bosch since 2011 and have just a bought a house with my girlfriend. As you might know I play professional hockey, so when I joined the hockey team in Den Bosch as a defender, I decided to live nearby.

Austin Smith ISE

When I was a little boy, I always knew I wanted to be a teacher and a professional hockey player. In my Primary School my coach/teacher M...urray Anderson inspired me immensely. I went to University in South Africa, then in England I started my teaching career at a secondary school where I was also the director of hockey. Naturally I combined my teacher with a lot of hockey training hours. During the final year of my studies I decided to return to Den Bosch. My first meeting with my new school was quite funny. In England teachers wore black suits. So I made sure I wore a black suit too when I had my first appointment with Marcella Watts (Head of Secondary). The clothing style turned out to be very different. Not a problem for me, but good to know. I felt a bit overdressed……

In addition to my hockey career for which I train 5 days a week, I work for a travel organization and do volunteer work and… yes, this travel organization involves hockey as well. I’m the link between South African schools who want to visit the Netherlands.
I like my work as a teacher for the primary international department of the ISE a lot. The children are so warm and welcoming for new students. They know each other’s situation and give a lot of support. It works from both sides. And of course, our staff has different backgrounds. A great value for a school, because we do not only represent a world school, we share all together a lot of stories and experience. And it’s a good thing that we share this stories. I didn’t knew for example that the ISE had an Instagram account. Good to make people aware of it. Show people what we do!

??Good to know: Austin’s will play hockey in Tokyo during the Olympic Games in 2020. Of course we wish him good luck and will of course watch the tournament!

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