Lidia Pocock, Director of Estates, Lord Wandsworth College
I work and live at a school.
Which means I am frequently asked, usually with cheerful certainty:
“So… what do you teach?”
I don’t.
I work in Estates.
My world is buildings, infrastructure, strategy, risk, and the quiet, constant work of making sure a complex place functions as it should. Important work, but not teaching.
And yet.
In my spare time, I put on a different hat with Berkshire Army Cadet Force. And while I’m still not teaching children (apart from those rare and glorious moments on summer camp), I am very much in a classroom.
This weekend was spent teaching Potential Instructors.
Not drill or fieldcraft, but something arguably just as important: how to create safe spaces for young people to thrive. Safe not just in the physical sense, but psychologically. How to build trust, confidence, boundaries, awareness. How to support cadets properly, responsibly, and well.
It’s about giving people who already have a passion for working with young people the confidence, skills, and understanding to do it brilliantly — and safely.
Between sessions, I also slipped into my main ACF role as County Media Officer, capturing moments that matter. Celebrating the commitment of our CFAVs and the achievements of our cadets. Telling their stories, so others can see the extraordinary things that happen quietly, week after week.
So yes — I work at a school and don’t teach.
And then I spend my weekend in a classroom, teaching people how to support, protect, and inspire the next generation.
Life is full of these neat little contradictions.
And honestly — I love it.