Meet Sarah

We caught up with Sarah Garvey for our ‘where are they now’ series.

Tell us about yourself

I studied a mixed degree in Biology and Arts, and how art is used in illustrating science. One of the modules I studied was medical photography, and I loved it so much that I went straight into a medical photography job after graduating. That became my career for 20 years and my company was very good at letting me work part-time. Unfortunately however the company then got bought out, and the new owners changed our roles. The new role that they gave me didn't really fit in with one day a week, it was just too much pressure and the hours were longer so that's when I started looking at alternatives.

How did you find out about Digital Gum?

I saw the Digital Gum event post on Facebook. At this point the boys were 10 & 11 and I started thinking about when they went to secondary school because they’d be more independent, I'd be available to do more hours in London where our office was based. The company wanted me to take on more hours and so I had to make a decision whether that was what I wanted to do. In the end I decided not to - it wasn’t the prospect of working more hours, I quite liked that idea, but I didn't want to go into London. I wouldn’t get to see them everyday because of the early starts for the commute and I'd often not be home in time to have a family dinner, so I started looking at other things.

What brought you to the course? 

Digital Gum came along at the right time, I hadn't had an interview for 16 years, I hadn't updated my CV and I’d only ever had one job. I felt very stuck in what I was doing, I didn't really see how any of the skills I had would be transferable. I was just stuck in a rut, not really knowing where to go or what to do.

How did you feel day one? 

Day one of the course I felt very, very nervous but also excited about the fact that this was something new and something for just me. I’d spent so long putting my husband and the boys first and although I do a lot of work with Girlguiding, this was going to be my space away, and actually for me.

Making the decision to sign up made me think a lot more about what I was doing, what I’d achieved and some of it was emotionally raw, but in a good way, because it made me think. Actually, I've achieved a lot even though I’d not been in full time work for a while. It made me realise that I still had things to offer. I'd not been doing nothing, I was managing a household, looking after children - we all know the endless scheduling they entail. All these things that you do with kids are actually transferable but you don't really realise it until you stop to think about it  for a moment. 

Tell us about your experience on the course, what did you learn, who did you meet?

My Digital Gum cohort was all women, it would be quite nice to have a bit of male influence as well but I think the team worked well. We all had quite different backgrounds and experiences. In previous life some had held very senior positions and some not so much. The connection was however that we all had different things to offer to the course, and to each other. I think we learned a lot from each other, as well as from the course. I think for me, that's the real value because you can sit at home and do an online course and that's fine, but it's the other people and having that bond, working as a team that really adds the value.

How did you manage to find the time to attend the lessons?

The format of the course meant that it fitted in perfectly with life, because I could do the school run and it was not too far to drive, and I'm always happy to find ways to avoid housework.

Now you’ve had time to reflect what was the biggest benefit of going on the course?

I loved the diverse course content and I think I learned a lot from all of it. I enjoyed the social media sessions. I'm not quite sure that that's my thing but it was good to have a greater appreciation of it. I really enjoyed the gadgets, the virtual reality apps and playing with a Micro:bit. I think I got the most out of the websites sessions, and I quite like the idea of coding. That still intrigues me, it might be something to look into more in the future - watch this space as I'm a bit of a closet geek. 

Lastly, I'm still loving Canva - I showed my son how to use it the other day. He had a piece of homework to produce as an infographic, he didn't know what they were so we Googled it and then opened Canva to produce it. He got quite into it so that was really good. 

Were you one of the students who did their homework straight away or the night before? 

I enjoyed the homework and like school the bits I enjoyed were produced in advance and normally over-delivered. The subjects I wasn’t as confident in were sometimes a little last minute. I often sat with the boys and we did our homework together which they thought was a bit weird - their mum back at school! It all depended on what was going on with life and the boys as to how the homework was delivered. Our Charity was Dingley’s Promise, which has a bear for a logo. As part of my social media homework the cuddly bear came to the Isle of Wight with his wellies for a photoshoot, in fact it is still sitting in my lounge. 

How did you feel about the pitch back to the charity?

I never thought I’d have the confidence to stand up in our final week and pitch our digital audit and ideas back to the Dingley’s team. It was very much like the first day, I was very nervous, but also excited as well, and definitely felt unprepared but actually the buzz was really good and the sense of achievement was immense. Once we’d done it, I felt amazing, it proved that I could actually do this, and hopefully it benefited the charity in some way and helped us with our confidence and skills as well. 

I loved the feedback from the charity. They were blown away by the fact that people would do something like that for them, in terms of giving them all the content - it's such a positive experience for everyone. It was also really good to have the previous Digital Gummers come along as well - I liked the fact that they were still involved. After the pitch it was great to get to talk to them about what they've been through and what they've gained from it. 

What are you up to now? 

Following the course, I did change my career. I now work in a school in the office. Lockdown has been business as usual for me as a key worker. I’m so busy at the moment, dealing with all the admin for starting back on the first of June but we've been open the whole time, with about 30 key worker children. On a personal level my boys are being homeschooled, we made the decision that they'd stay at home. My husband's office is closed so he's working from home every day, the boys are getting work set everyday by their teachers. They do it, almost like a school day, they do the lessons they would have had that day at home, do the work, and actually they're doing really well and don't need much input or guidance from us. 

James my youngest sometimes comes into school with me and sits in one of the empty classrooms and does his work there where it is a bit quieter. 

Are you taking any time at the minute to learn new things? 

I’ve continued with learning, at the moment I’m studying with Open Learning a course on supporting children's development which has got some really good modules on children's behaviour which I think will help me with the lunchtime aspect of my job and how I help my colleagues deal with playground behaviour. 

As well as doing my office work at school I also set myself up as self-employed. I have a client that I work with 20-30 hours a month. I produce their monthly newsletter, update their website, and I manage their membership database - it's a charity. So that's going well as well, but I don’t have any plans to expand that at the moment . It’s nice to have on the side because the school obviously doesn't pay as much as my old job did so the two combined works really well.