Rizwana Mahmood Ahmed, headteacher of Carlton Junior and Infant school, on 16 June, Friday, received the honour of being among the ‘Officer of the Order of the British Empire’ by the King for her contribution towards education.
Having dedicated an illustrious 24 years of her life to teaching, she has climbed the ladder to become the head teacher at Carlton Junior.
Rizwana recalls her teaching journey: “I started off as a teacher in the heart of Bradford, Manningham. It was quite a deprived community. I started off when Bradford went into a two-tier system, and we lost middle schools. So originally, I trained for middle school, but then I went and taught primary school.
Image: Rizwana Mahmood
“Speaking of milestone, I think within my second year of teaching, my mentor said to me, you are an exceptional teacher, and you should consider leadership. At that time, I wouldn’t have even thought in my wildest dreams that I had leadership potential. But then soon after, actually within the third year, I obtained a leadership role within the same school. Then I was head-hunted for a more senior position in another school. I later moved on to being a deputy head in Kirklees. So, most of my career experience in teaching has been in a leadership position. Although, I am passionate about teaching, but I was picked up in my career quite early on for my leadership skills, and since then I haven’t looked back.”
“It’s been a learning curve,”, the headteacher added.
“I have learnt about how to deal with different people from different cultures, backgrounds and understanding, throughout all these years, how leadership is actually a service and not a badge. The higher up in the career I have gone, the humbler I feel as an individual”.
When asked by Asian Standard, about her source of passion for teaching, Rizwana quips: “To be honest, it was a career by default. My mother was into teaching, and she was always encouraging me to get into teaching. Being from the Asian community, I often heard my mom say, teaching is the perfect profession for Asian girls.
“I was very much passionate about aviation, my outlook was completely different, in fact I started out in the fashion industry. I was very confused; I didn’t know really what to do.” she laughs.
She continues, “After my first BA Honours, my mother encouraged me to get a postgraduate in teaching. My first year in teaching was so inspiring, I was surrounded by some brilliant educators, and that sort of developed my passion for teaching. It became stronger over the years, particularly with the kind of community I was working with.
“My father too, has a big part to play in the success as well. He is a strong believer in female empowerment and education.”
Speaking about her feeling on being awarded MBE, she says: “It was a bit of a surprise to be honest, I was very humbled, very honoured that I was chosen for the recognition.
“Some people have said to me, ‘why you? There are many great teachers, why have you been recognised’, Of course, my school, a long time ago was considered a school where standards were low, and it was a failing school. Now, we are a top school, we are among the top one to three percent among high performing schools”.
“School on one side, there are other things that I have done, such as I work for several charities. I am doing my doctoral research in neuroscience and how the environment affects brain behaviour, and I am hoping to make a wider contribution to the field of education.”
Passing on a message to the South Asian community, Rizwana MBE says, “I feel that this recognition that I have got, is more of an obligation for me to not only continue serving the community, but also continue inspiring others. If somebody like me, who came from humble beginnings, can achieve this, then so can you and I hope to inspire other younger teachers entering the profession, especially from the south Asian community.
“There have been many opportunities, that I have made the most of, but there have also been times where I have experienced the glass ceiling due to my race and that has always been a barrier, but this is something you cannot pin-point, you cannot evidence it. You only feel it.
“My message to the South Asian fellows is, keep going and be authentic. If you have an authentic vision or mission, you will stay in your own lane and work towards it and somebody out there, will come and recognise you”.
