When the world wide web was in its infancy back in 1998, Scott left the world of finance and started teaching. The UK state sector was urgently trying to recruit people with computer skills. And cross curricular ICT lessons were in vogue. That suited Scott well, and enabled him to utilise an eclectic mix of skills and knowledge which he had acquired working at places like PriceWaterhouse Coopers, The Bank of New York, and the British Medical Association.
During teacher training he once shocked a Year 9 class (and his mentor) by conducting an ICT lesson entirely in French, relenting only briefly to utter a single line in English.
“Listen very carefully, you will be surprised how much of this French you can understand!”
It was the end of the summer term, and so it was intentionally a fun lesson. The students were required to help Mr Rochester find a secondhand car which matched his specific requirements. The website www.pagesjaunes.be is now defunct, although back then it was ideal, because it was not constrained with a block on multiple queries from 30 students all sharing one IP address.
Desktop publishing, spreadsheet skills, programming in Logo or Python or Java, using Lego Dacta and Microsoft Access all fell within his remit. Mini beasts, micro climates, Roman Britain, Flemings Left and Right Hand Rules, MRS GREN, and A View From The Bridge featured in his lessons.
In the late 1990s teaching resources were few and far between for computer classes. In order to ensure that everything on the National Curriculum was delivered in his classes, Scott built specialist materials like The Dinosaur Database and The Fish Farm Simulator. That meant writing the programmes of study and the mark schemes as well.
Scott was creative, even back then!