A New Life: Former teacher Cara Lloyd tells Sylvia Thompson she was finding the classroom less and less appealing
As teachers across the State get ready for another school year to begin, in the Dublin suburb of Terenure there is one teacher who won't be dusting down her German grammar notes and foraging for her French conversation tapes.
After years of teaching languages at second level, Cara Lloyd has turned to baking delicious French cakes and tarts which she sells alongside her husband's freshly baked bagels and speciality breads in the Corner Bakery in Terenure, Dublin.
"It's a complete liberation," says Lloyd frankly. "As a teacher, you can never do enough. Your job is never finished because once the school day is over, you've got to plan for the next and you're also reflecting on what you could have done better. But, in a bakery, you make a cake, you put it out for sale and it's finished."
Lloyd's change of career came rather suddenly after years of dedicated work in education. "My mum was a teacher and when I was little, my friend and I ran a school for the children on the streets whose parents used to say, 'the children learn much more in Cara and Karen's school than they do in real school'", she says with a laugh.
Following her Leaving Certificate, Lloyd studied French and German (with a little Dutch and Irish drama thrown in) at Trinity College Dublin, followed by the Higher Diploma in Education.
"I found the approach of communicative language teaching and use of authentic materials rang true for me but it's incredible how years later in many schools, the method of teaching languages is still the very traditional chalk and talk approach," she says.
Lloyd's first job was as a language teacher in St Peter's College, Wexford.
"I had a great year there and have memories of interpreting between the French bus driver and German police during a minor bus crash while we were on a school trip to France and Austria."
Following her year in Wexford, she was offered a permanent job in Jobstown in Tallaght, Dublin.
"I was delighted to get the job. The school was a purpose-built shiny new building with a music room, home economic and woodwork facilities and a really dedicated staff. We had terrific staff meetings where we discussed self-esteem for children and anti-bullying policies. It was electric. I taught mainly German and French but also had to teach other subjects such as history, English and do team-teaching which involved working with specific students in a colleague's class."
After eight years of teaching, Lloyd took a career break. "I was finding it was getting more difficult. I wasn't good at discipline and I found there were very few supports in the school to help teachers deal with these issues. I also started looking for courses which might help but there doesn't seem to be anything out there to help teachers deal with discipline."
During her career break, Lloyd looked after her son, Sam and also completed a Diploma in Curriculum Studies. Meanwhile, her husband, Dave Brown had set up and was running the Big Cheese Company gourmet store in Andrew's Street, Dublin. "Dave was doing all right with the shop. We did our sums and he got my tax-free allowance so we didn't lose a lot of money while I stayed at home."
Three years later, The Big Cheese Company was sold and the couple switched their home/work roles. "I had to go back to work although I dreaded it. I had a temporary transfer to another VEC school in Blanchardstown which I liked better but I still found the discipline issues difficult to deal with. Then, back in Jobstown, I managed a year-and-a-half and couldn't take any more. Morale was very low in the school. Some teachers were coping well and seemed to get great things out of children in difficult circumstances but a lot of teachers were sinking like me.
"If I'd been able to transfer out of the disadvantaged school, I might have spend 40 years teaching and been quite happy," she adds.
After several applications for other jobs in education and a diploma course in Italian for teachers , she began to set her sights in other directions. "Last summer, I started a pottery course with the view to doing it as a career but I realised very quickly that it would take years before I could make a living out of it."
However, opportunity sprung from a familiar source. Dave was edging to get back in the workplace and having learned how to bake with the French baker at the Big Cheese Company, he started looking for a premises to lease.
Six months later, the couple signed a 20-year lease on a single storey premises on Terenure Road North and began the task of transforming a former mobile phone and car battery shop into a clean, stylish New York-style bakery.
With Brown ready to do the early baking shift, Lloyd decided she had to learn some fancy baking techniques quickly so she went to Paris to attend short courses in making traditional French gateaux and sweet and savoury tarts. "I have always done home baking but this was different. There are about nine stages to making French cakes and at each stage, there is meticulous attention to detail."
So, what's it like working all day long with your husband at close range? "Very good actually. We've got our own areas we are in charge of and the banter goes back and forth. We can get a bit narky with each other if he crosses the line into the front of the shop or I go into the back of the shop while he's taking something out of the oven, but I love it.
"It's very sociable and we've already built up a lot of regulars which is nice. People are delighted to be able to buy homemade breads and cakes and we bake everything from scratch on the premises every day."