Richard Cousins started his teaching career in 1988, and he came to KSYK in 2002. He started out as a regular teacher before becoming the vice-principal for ten years, and then on to being the middle school principal. What was he like before all this? How did he get here?
Richard with his mothers old copper hat.
Richard Cousins was born in 1966 in northern Singapore to a British family. His father was in the RAF (Royal Air Force) and because of that Richard and his family had to move quite often, and he lived on many airforce before settling just outside Lincoln. His mother worked with the telephone communications in the police force. The copper hat, known as custodian helmet, in the picture is from her time as a police officer, and she gave it to Richard when he moved to Finland to teach, as a memento.
As a kid, Richard wasn’t very good at History, English or French but he was exceptional in Math, Physics, Geography and P.E. He ended up doing his Bachelor's degree in Physical education and Maths (with honours), and he has a Masters degree in educational management. He decided on becoming a teacher after he found out that he was a bit too small to become a professional football player. Richard's parents were very happy when he decided to go to teacher training college, and supported him throughout his journey
Before he moved to Finland, Richard taught physical education in a school outside Cambridge for two years. After that he met his wife and moved to Finland where he taught at ISH (International school of Helsinki) for 12 years. Later on, Richard wanted a change in his life. He came to KSYK as a PE, maths, physics and business studies teacher. Since Richard was familiar with the British Education system, he tried to take all the best qualities from that education system into the Finnish one. After a while, he became the vice-principal, and now, as you know, he is the middle school principal.
Richards' love for sports has continued since his childhood.
Richards Plans For KSYK
Richard brought in multiple new ideas to improve the atmosphere at KSYK. A few things he imported:
TMU - test make up day
“No-Phone” Monday
Community service to replace detention.
The reason Richard wanted to bring No-Phone Monday to KSYK is because he noticed students paying more attention to their phones than their friends. To stop this from becoming a regular occurrence, he applied this rule.
When it comes to punishments, the worst one you can receive from Richard is the high school exchange. The high school exchange means that a middle school student is sent to high school classes, to learn correct behaviour from the older students. He hopes that the high schoolers can set a positive example to the younger students, and to show that it is ‘cool to be good’. The exchange can last up to five days, depending on the offence. If the same offences are committed many times, Richard may keep students there for up to two weeks. Richard adopts the three strike rule.
1 strike is merely a warning
2 strikes is the final warning
On the 3rd you are sent to either the principal's or vice-principal's office.
Richard is often seen at lunch supervision.
Richard knows many students by their names. He remembers names for the students' own benefit. For example, if Richard spots a few students not following rules, he will address them by their names as a form of respect. He doesn’t appreciate people referring to him as ‘hey teacher’, or “ope’’.
We asked Richard about his opinions on what a good student is, and to him good grades don’t always define a good student. There are many other principles of a good student including good social skills, emotional availability, caring, compassion and always doing your best. As we know, good grades and scores never define a person for who they are, that includes Richard himself. Trying your best goes a long way, and you should not compete with anyone, your biggest competitor is yourself.
According to Richard, it is very important to have a positive environment or atmosphere for learning. This shows in all the K and R side classrooms. All of them are colourful and themed. His favourite classroom is K26 because of the artwork. What image do you think he drew on the ceiling?
To Richard, positive feedback from the students is the ‘good mornings’ and ‘good afternoons’, and the smiles on their faces. They don’t need to go and tell him that he is fabulous, but he gets that by how happy the students are to talk to him.
Richard hopes to retire in the next 7 to 10 years and during retirement, he hopes to be healthy and happy, and wants to spend time with his wife, his family and his dog.
All in all, this is the story of a boy born in Singapore, raised in the U.K., and later becoming a principal of one of the best schools in Helsinki. He is an inspiration to his own students to never give up and always follow their dreams. Remember: ‘Never Settle For Being Average’.
Written by Fareeha Umer and Amalia Maununiemi
Photos by Peppi Järvelä and Richard's home album