Royal praise for Troops to Teacher student

Harry, the driving force behind the sporting event for wounded and sick service personnel at the former Olympic Park in London, congratulated and posed with Andrew after he collected his second gold for cycling.

Andrew said: “Harry is such a genuinely nice person.”

Andrew is in the first year of the Troops to Teachers (TtT) programme, a government-funded project to train former service levers to become teachers.

The university of Brighton leads the programme and is working with a consortium of six other universities as well as a range of primary and secondary schools to support its delivery.

Andrew spent 12 years in the military and served in the Falklands, Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan before a severed anterior cruciate ligament ended his career.

He won the one-lap time trial and the 40-minute road race at the Games: “They were amazing and I have lived and breathed cycling in the last six months in preparation for them It has not only helped the competitors themselves get over their injuries and illnesses, but I think also inspired many more people with disabilities to take up sport as a means to recovery.”

Andrew is equally impressed with the TtT course: “I am extremely excited by the project. I have been working at a private school for the last three years and relish the chance to get an actual teaching qualification and a degree. That, at my stage in life and with a young family is hard to achieve on my own.

“I have just had my first intensive study week and am extremely impressed with the layout, structure and the excellent lecturers. I have that great feeling that they are all really behind me and willing me to succeed and I couldn’t ask for a better supporting brain trust of knowledge when it comes to trying to become an outstanding teacher.

“My placement is at East Barnet School in London and I have been blown away by the level that the school is operating at.”

In between teaching in London and studying in Brighton, Andrew intends continuing to compete in British Cycling road races for his club, the Finchley Racing Team.