Puzzled pupils find their newly-qualified teacher has more than a few tricks up his sleeve. Adam James reports
FORMER magician David Prout has conjured up a new career - one that he can perform without the aid of his lovely assistant.
Earlier this month he became one of 600 newly-qualified teachers in the fast-track graduate teacher programme.
In the 1980s, David and his wife were two halves of a successful magic act - Emerson and Jayne and the Magic Flying Carpet.
The highlight of their act was to convince the audience they were watching a flying carpet, with Jayne on it, floating above their heads.
The pair performed all over Europe and also in Syria.
The pinnacle of David’s career was when Emerson and Jayne performed at the World Magic Convention at The Hague in the Netherlands, compered by television magician Paul Daniels.
The couple divorced in 1989 and, after rolling up his magic carpet for the last time, David became a school technician, working first for Launceston College in Cornwall, and then for Oakwood high school in Chorlton, Manchester.
In his spare time David, now 47, studied for an Open University degree in natural sciences and physics, and while still at Oakwood high, embarked on the graduate teacher programme - which means he gets paid to train under the supervision of Manchester Metropolitan University.
At a time when teachers are leaving the profession in droves, David is delighted to be moving in the other direction.
He said: “I’m proud of what I have achieved. It took a lot of commitment and dedication, and meant turning my back on a life and a job I had enjoyed. But I’m really glad I chose to do it and I love every minute of teaching.
“The graduate teacher programme is very good for people like me who are mature and who do not want to give up work.”
David believes that his familiarity with the highs and lows of school life, gained through his work as a technician, was ideal preparation.
“I knew what school was like and how kids could be,” he said.
“It wasn’t a big shock when I found myself in front of 30 or 40 children.”
As a former magician David is used to much larger audiences, of course, and now and then cannot resist tucking a pack of cards into his briefcase for a quick performance in class.
But despite hundreds of puzzled pupils pressing him to reveal his secrets David, loyal to his former profession’s code, will never tell. And he is quick to point out an irony of his new job.
He said: “I spent years trying to keep things secret. Now as a science teacher I have to explain how things work.”
