I am 50 years of age, originally from Glasgow in Scotland and left school in 1989, with 8 O' Grades (GCSE’s) and 5 Higher (A Levels). Desperate for a new adventure and to start working and earning, I applied for a job in Television Production in London.
I successfully worked for an independent company in Soho, initially as a Production Runner, progressing finally to Production Manager. I returned to Glasgow for a year, to work for BBC Scotland as Production Manager, before taking time out to travel in 1999.
I travelled throughout Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and America for 2 years.
On return, I moved to Brighton, East Sussex where I worked for American Express, a lifestyle magazine called Venus, and as a volunteer for the Brighton Unemployed Family project, between 2001 and 2012.
Brighton is where I met my husband and went on to have two children, a girl, and a boy. Ava who is now 15 years old and Lochlan who is 13.
8 years ago, my Husbands job transferred to their other site near Leamington, bringing the family to the midlands. We now live in the village of Weedon, a half-hour drive, west of Northampton.
Since living in Weedon I have completed 7 years working in primary education. I began working in Special Needs as a 1:1 and in my 5th year at Weedon Primary, I completed an HLTA course through Northampton University, qualifying me to teach years 1 to 6 in primary school.
I have trained in Autism, Attachment Disorder, Dyslexia, Speech, and language among others. I ran nurture groups and introduced a kinaesthetic approach to a lot of my teaching, after researching its efficacy in primary schools.
During my school career, I have been fascinated by how children learn. Some by doing, others by seeing. I have come to love the continual questions from children and the challenge and adventure of not always knowing the answers.
Throughout my working life, I have loved interacting with people, obsessing over human behaviour and how the mind works and influences decisions. My favourite literature often tackles aspects of psychology and I find it an extremely exciting and alluring subject.
Throughout the lockdown period, it became apparent that I was not fully satisfied with my career and felt I was ready to learn and take on a new challenge.
My initial thought was to go into Educational Psychology but with more investigation, I decided it was time to move away from education and start something new. My next thought was counselling, which I am still very much keen on exploring and could see a possible future career. As a volunteer in Brighton Unemployed Centre Family Project, I assisted low-income families and homeless people, realising my ability to listen sensitively and offer solace.
Completing a course for the British College of Journalism a few years ago, I gained skills in reporting and analysing as well as fuelling my curiosity in psychology. I wrote articles on social, biological, and cognitive psychology. From a piece on music and memory to another on psychology in pain management.
Having completed a year of the single honours psychology course I now feel the career direction I want to go into is counselling psychology. I have recently secured a part-time job locally with the group of Northampton psychiatric hospitals (NHFT) and ideally, would love to complete my master's within the NHS but if not I will probably stay at the University of Northampton to complete my master's in counselling.
Sunrita
University of Northampton
Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Hello, I am Sunrita Bhattacharyya, and I am currently pursuing an MBA at the University of Northampton. Previously, I have studied Civil Engineering and have also worked in the real estate industry. I am looking forward to working in sales and marketing. I absolutely love traveling and meeting new people. I am an enthusiast for simpler joys in life.
