Clive Thompson

After graduating from our BA (Hons) English Literature degree Clive passed his PGCE and has taught English literature to Secondary School pupils for six years.

Where and what did you study before ARU?

I took intensive A-Levels at MidKent College – Sociology, Psychology and English Literature and Language, which helped prepare me for further study.

Did you always know that you would go to university and if not, what changed your mind?

I didn’t consider university at all and worked for six years prior to university. I’d never considered myself the kind of person that would be able to attend university. It just wasn’t in my narrative, so to speak.

I came from a working class background, and was a cleaner and barman for years before eventually someone at work told me that I was wasting potential and I should go and study. I’d never considered the possibility that I could actually do that. But then, after further conversations with people, including students, who came into the bars that I was working at, I then thought maybe I might have a go. And it turned out pretty well!

Why did you choose to study at ARU?

Partly because Cambridge is such an amazing city. I had a choice between Cambridge and another city, and decided Cambridge had the richer English literature background. The idea of walking the same streets as Byron was quite an amazing thing.

The feel of the university was particularly important for me as well. It’s a very approachable campus and everything that I’d seen online about it, not just the university but also Cambridge as a city, was extremely approachable and seemed like the best fit for me.

What inspired you to get involved with English literature in the first place?

It was a late decision in life to study English literature. I was 23 when I came to university and I didn’t read when I was a child, so my interest in literature came from work actually – spending a lot of time doing mundane tasks. In order to take my mind off of that, I started reading, and friends started recommending books from a variety of different authors.

A particular book, which was fantastic, was Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, which I then went on to study as part of the course. It completely opened my eyes. It made English literature approachable, but then also made me realise that I could think about the world in a critical way, which I hadn’t done before then. It became a catalyst for creative thinking and approaching life. You know, seeing that literature wasn’t just about storytime, it wasn’t just for entertainment. It became more of a political comment on culture, which fascinated me, and led to me wanting to continue to study English literature and later to teach it as well.

Because English is everything. Beyond all the other subjects, you get a taste of the whole of society. It’s amazing.

What’s the most valuable thing you took away from your course?

I think the most valuable thing I picked up from Anglia Ruskin’s English literature course is to be critically curious of the world around me, and the literatures which we consume in society. It’s extremely important and has very much been of value in the current role I play, because it’s about educating children to be critical about the world in which they live, and to not just accept narratives that society might push upon us.

Which aspects of the course most helped your career development, and why?

Some of the skills that I picked up, like organisational skills, have had a massive impact on my later career. Effective time management has been extremely important for completing projects at work.

I also went to see the Employability Team at ARU, which helped me to consider the type of transferable skills I was picking up on the course – which at the time, only being young and a student, I wasn’t fully aware, so that helped. Particularly, the idea of picking up critical thinking skills and realising that actually applies to a lot of other roles. Communication skills being the primary transferable skill, which applies to all the jobs I’ve done since university.

Also interpersonal skills have been extremely important – being able to not just communicate, but able to relate to other people as well has helped drastically in my current role.

What piece of advice would you give to other students in your field?

To appreciate the critical curiosity which the course inspires. It’s important to do so because the type of questions that we ask about ourselves and also society become even more valuable as you go out into the world and employment.

Society is based upon feedback from individuals, and English literature – above all other subjects I believe – encourages that type of critical reflection that is beneficial for a better, and hopefully more rounded, society.

What was your favourite thing about studying in Cambridge, and what did you learn about it that you didn’t know before?

Cambridge was an eye-opener, and a complete change from the type of environment which I was brought up in. The city was extremely diverse, and I still can’t believe that on my first trip out on a bus in Cambridge I heard at least twenty different languages, which was completely different to where I came from, where there was one language spoken and that was it! So my appreciation for those around me, because of the diversity, was enhanced as a result of going to Cambridge.

Additionally, I knew that Cambridge was extremely rich in terms of the history of the city, I didn’t realise how wide and vast the impact was of the city on the rest of the world.

What projects are you currently working on, both at work and outside it?

I’m currently starting to write some short stories. I took a creative writing module as part of my degree, which has given me a bit of confidence with my writing. That’s something I can take back into class as well, because almost half of the GCSE English Language is based upon creative and transactional writing now.

I’m also running an enrichment programme at work with sixth formers, which is all about enhancing cultural capital and ensuring that they have the skills and knowledge that they need to succeed later on.

Another project I’m working on at school is running a creative writing club, encouraging students from Key Stage 3 and 4 to share their experiences through creative writing – that’s directly related to the ARU course as well, because I was the Vice President of the Creative Writing society, and I’ve carried that passion for the written word on to my career.