Why did you decide to come and work at Shebbear?
Maximising our Potential SPORT & OUTDOOR ED
We spoke to Mr Giles, who joined Shebbear College in November 2020 as the Head of Sport and Outdoor Education, about how he plans to take the department forward over the next few years.
Shebbear College represents the values my family and I hold dear, with a focus on developing creativity, curiosity and resilience in the pupils and our children. Shebbear has huge potential and it did not take long in looking at the College to see how incredible the pupils and staff were. I am excited about making some positive changes while enhancing the outstanding work of the current staff and student community. What do you enjoy doing in your free time? I love spending time with my family; although I spend a lot of time outside and coaching sport in school I usually end up dragging my family outside and do even more outdoor education based fun activities. I love learning, so I often have a book on the go that challenges my current perceptions (I would strongly recommend James Kerr’s Legacy, a personal favourite).
What is your background? In my early years I took part in many sports, playing county level hockey and rugby, competing at many national schools athletics competitions representing the South West and was lucky enough to compete for Great Britain U16s Rowing. After leaving school I moved to New Zealand for a year out and ended up staying for 2 years to play rugby. On returning to England I achieved a Masters in Aeronautical Engineering at Loughborough University where I began my coaching career, working with senior mens and womens teams as well as Premiership academies and coach education programmes with the RFU. I started my teaching career at Uppingham School while coaching the 1st XV and Midlands U18s. I then moved down to Eastbourne College where I took on the role of Director of Rugby, Head of Athletics, Head of Sports Scholarship programme and teacher of Maths before moving to Dubai to take up the role of Director of Rugby and High Performance Sport at Dubai English Speaking College, the leading sports school in the UAE. While working in Dubai I began working with World Rugby and am now a Trainer specialising in Coaching and Strength Conditioning, delivering courses across Asia. I also continued with my Rugby 7s coaching with the UAE Senior Mens 7s team in the Asia 7s Championship, competing against teams such as Japan and Hong Kong.
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THE SHEBBEARIAN 2021
In the time that you have been here, what has struck you most about the school and the pupils? In my first few weeks at Shebbear I was astounded with the way in which the stronger sportsmen and women support the less confident athletes; encouraging them and helping them improve. This is such a rare quality and I believe this is a product of the small year groups, in which the pupils aid the development of others. I have never seen this at this level before, and it was completely unprompted. This is clearly a superb attribute that is unique to Shebbear College and is something that is extremely hard to coach.
