All change for Firs Hill Schools

by Ingrid Hanson

It will be all change for Firs Hill Nursery Infant School over the next few months. New head Dina Martin takes up her post after Easter, becoming head of the joint Firs Hill School after the amalgamation with the Juniors in the autumn.

I asked Dina what attracted her to the position. ‘It’s very much the kind of community that I like working with,’ she says, ‘a mixed community, and also mixed backgrounds in terms of class. It’s also a very exciting part of the city to work in because of the regeneration. There’s a feeling that things are really going to move.’

Forty-three year old Dina comes to Firs Hill after many years as head of Lowfield Primary. She believes that the regeneration projects in Burngreave, as well as the amalgamation and refurbishment of the school, can be part of raising aspirations. 

‘It’s about a fundamental shift,’ she says. ‘I hope that children at Firs Hill School will be going on to secondary school and thinking, I can go to university, I can get a job. What I want to say in the school is: only the best is good enough for you and that’s what I’m going to get for you.’

Dina plans to foster further links with parents and the community, encouraging participation from a wide variety of people. ‘All links, directly or indirectly, go back to what happens in the classroom,’ she says. 

With the amalgamation will come changes to the building and structures and a new start for the school. Looking ahead, Dina has high hopes. 

‘In the classroom I’d like to see children engaged and excited, lots of creative work going on drama, music lots of sport. I’d like there to be quite a buzz going on, children feeling assertive. I’d like teachers to feel satisfied, to feel, I like working here, and parents to feel that they can have confidence in the teachers - that what they say is going to happen.’