Tony McAteer, 55, is head teacher of Holy Cross Catholic Primary School, which was formerly Holy Rood Catholic Junior School and recently expanded to include younger children from reception age. It will soon begin moving to a new site nearer to St Joseph’s Catholic College. He once worked as a lollipop man nearby. Tony is married to Ceri, a local authority early years safeguarding officer, and the couple have a daughter and two sons

“It’s not an easy job,” says Tony McAteer of teaching.

“I think it’s something people often have misconceptions about, that it’s short days and long holidays. But it’s not easy, it’s very intense, requires long hours and will often eat into your evenings and weekends.

“But it’s also a very rewarding job. The rewards are seeing the children make progress, the fact that you belong to a learning community, the fact that you yourself are engaged in lifelong learning.

“It’s those moments when children suddenly have something click and fall into place, and you realise that you’ve actually helped them to that point. You see children coming happily into your class, really happy and delighted to be there.

“I’ve been in the game a long time, nearly 30 years, and I’ve had children who are no longer children, who are young adults, come to me and say, ‘Mr McAteer, I absolutely loved it in your class, and you were the best teacher I had.

“That makes you feel good.”

Tony was born in Newry, County Down, and is the second oldest of a family of five boys. His father was a labourer and his mother a housewife.

As a child he attended Abbey Grammar, a Christian Brothers school in his home town. There was no early ambition to teach.

“I wasn’t a great lover of school. I always did well academically, but I wouldn’t say that I totally enjoyed the experience. I think that, certainly back in Ireland, it was a different regime. It was a very formal approach to education.”

How has this coloured his own career?

“I suppose in a sense it’s about doing everything in your power to ensure that school, for children, becomes an enjoyable experience, and that school is a happy place to be.

“If children feel happy and safe, then the more inclined they are to learn.”

School was followed by a degree in history and religion at Roehampton College in London.

Tony said: “The advice that I was given by my careers adviser was to go to Queen’s University and become a solicitor. I was very keen on history and religion, so I chose a different route.

“When I finished at college – I had a 2:1 degree, so it was a good degree – the country in 1983 was in a little bit of a recession, so there weren’t a huge number of opportunities around.”

Tony met his wife at college. Her father, Steve Williams, was the then head of St Joseph’s Catholic College in Swindon, and it was he who suggested a teaching career to Tony. The young man returned to Roehampton for post-graduate training after a year out. It was during this time that he worked at St Joseph’s as an assistant caretaker and a lollipop man.

He says now of the caretaker role: “That has stood me in good stead over the years as a teacher and a head teacher, because I think that, doing that job, you see a different side of school management.”

After college, Steve taught at a small Catholic School in Croydon for two years before spending two years at St Catherine’s in Stratton and a decade at Holy Rood Junior School. He was then deputy head of Holy Rood Infants School and head of St Joseph’s Primary School in Malmesbury before coming back to Holy Rood Junior School in 2009.

In his spare time he plays golf – he’s a member of the Irish Golf Society – and pool.

As his CV suggests, he is a great believer in the value of faith schools.

“People do need a sense of belonging, and we’re also promoting gospel values. In a faith school we do what we do not simply because it’s the right thing to do but because it’s what Christ asks of us.

“I think we’re very fortunate here because we have got a faith community, and not only is it something we have to develop in school – it’s also something we know the parents support us in at home.

“I think you can have a massive impact in giving children the right direction in life. We’re very fortunate in this school because we’ve got a very diverse school population in terms of nationalities and cultures.

“I think last year we had something like 18 or 19 different nationalities represented among the pupil population, and I think eight among the staff population.

“We’re obviously preparing children for life in what has become really quite a small world. The children here are growing up with knowledge and respect for people from other countries and cultures.

“Not only are the children lovely, but the parents are very supportive and I’ve got a very talented, committed and loyal staff working for me, and a fantastic senior management team.”

Tony relishes the ongoing changes at the school.

He said: “This school was built in 1968 as a junior school with a neighbouring separate infants’ school.

“All the research evidence points to the fact that separate infant and junior education is not as successful as all-through primary education.

“The obvious reason is that continuity does not exist. So it has long been an aspiration of mine to somehow have this school as an all-through primary school.”