Question: What is the worst situation you've had to deal with?

Donna Johnson answered on 12 Jun 2017:

Some of our students have some quite bad personal circumstances and that can be hard to deal with. We have to know when to step back and then all we can do is hope that they go and see the proper support services and try and be there for them as best we can. It’s often the student who doesn’t say anything and just gets on with all their work without any apparent problems and then one day they’ll just tell you a whole load of problems and issues that they’ve been dealing with and we never knew. Most of the time we can help them to sort things out or at least point them in the direction of someone that can help but it’s always horrible knowing what other people are capable of doing to each other and hearing that one of your students is having a bad time.