“Your difficult beginnings are not your reason to fail, it is the very reason you must succeed” – Sacha Corcoran, MBE.
Big Creative Academy Principal, Sacha Corcoran, MBE, had a clear message for the new year to the applause of all students. Sacha is very open and vulnerable about her life and delivered an assembly to students about her own humble beginnings and how it has motivated her.
Sacha grew up in a small village near Luton, with a single mum and not much money. Dad had left when she was small. She describes ice on the inside of windows because there was no heating, charity shop clothes and lots of bullying from the more privileged kids at school. When she became a teenager she got in with an older crowd who showed her a more glamorous lifestyle – cars and money and she ended up running away from home, influenced by those around her. Leaving school with not many qualifications her life chances weren’t looking good and she found herself at a dead end.
She fell pregnant at 16 with the dad promising he would look after her. His promises didn’t materialise and she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on her own, and ended up lived in temporary accommodation provided by the council. Now with a baby to look after Sacha realised she needed to make things happen for herself. A good swimmer as a kid, she got a job as a lifeguard at the local pool, earning just enough money to keep her going. She enrolled back into college at 24 and then enrolled at university at 26 to do a Sports Science degree. During her degree she became pregnant and despite the pressures of working and studying looked forward to becoming a mum again. Sacha had hoped that all the promises of her partner looking after her and the new baby would materialise, sadly within 10 weeks of her daughter being born he had left. With Sacha unable to believe she was in the same situation again, she found herself homeless for the second time. It takes some digging deep to come out of horrible situation for a second time, “I had two kids, working part time jobs, doing a degree, surrounded by piles of nappies and piles of books.”
After passing her degree she started her career in education as a PE teacher. This set her on path to becoming the Principal of the Academy, gaining an MBE for commitment to education in 2014. Her story is one of building herself up despite the difficulties encountered, and she believes she would not be in the position she is now, without the life experience she has had. Her experiences were motivating. Really hard, but motivating, and have shaped her as a person and shaped how she leads the Academy and supports the students.
She is empathetic to your young people and the hardship they are experiencing in a turbulent world full of pitfalls. Young people have different backgrounds and make mistakes but growth is about how you use the experience to motivate you. Big Creative Academy is very grateful to the Principal for her vulnerability in sharing her story and hopes students learn from her message. Her credibility and empathy is inspiring.