Devizes Dad wins physics teacher scholarship (From This Is Wiltshire)

Devizes man Mike Adams is one of only 100 people picked to receive a £20,000 scholarship to train to become a physics teacher.

Mr Adams, 46, was awar-ded the scholarship by the Institute of Physics (IOP) after he aced a range of tests on subject knowledge and aptitude for teaching.

The IOP received 800 applications for scholarships across the country. The scheme, between the IOP and Department for Education, aims to arrest the shortage of specialist physics teachers in English schools.

Mr Adams, who is married and a father of four children ranging in age from 18 to one, had always wanted to become a teacher but not straight out of university.

After graduating from the University of Bath with a degree in electric and electronic engineering and a Masters degree in engineering, Mr Adams was a software engineer for 15 years.

He worked in various industries including hospitality where he wrote a voice- mail system for four and five star hotels across the world.

When he moved to Devizes five years ago he changed career and, after studying photography, and became a professional photographer with his own business. But he decided to return to the subject he loves and applied for the IOP scholarship. “When the IOP told me I had been successful I was really chuffed,” he said.

Mr Adams has just begun his year-long teacher training course at Reading University. He spent a week at Wansdyke Primary School to acquaint himself with the level of knowledge children leaving primary school have.

The IOP estimates that 1,000 new physics teachers are needed every year for 15 consecutive years in order to overcome the shortage of specialist physics teachers. However, it says there has been a resurgence of interest among A-level students, put down to the TV presenter Brian Cox, although girls are still lagging behind boys in studying physics.

Mr Adams said: “I’d like to see more girls studying physics. For children, physics is an exciting subject.”