We celebratedthe Coronation of King Charles III on Saturday 6th May with activities and events in school on Friday 5th May. I think that for children to reach their full potential within education, it's important that there is a diverse pool of educators who are creating and leading the curriculum and who also understand the social-economical situation in which their learners are coming from,” Alexander says.

His favourite character is the “Spaghetti Connoisseur”, who is loosely based on his teenage self, when he had a weekend supermarket job. Mr Alexander is hoping his book will be used by other schools and has already received supportive messages about the book from headteachers and librarians and the impact it has had on their learners. The aim was to write a book that would offer hope and benefit children’s mental health, said the author, who said he discussed the characters’ feelings with his pupils, teaching them vocabulary to express their own emotions with more accuracy. Banji’s teaching career started as a student at IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, where he undertook a placement in a school with disadvantaged pupils - an experience that Banji says prepared him fully for his career in the classroom. “I think the opportunity to train and do my placement at a very challenging school really set me in good stead for the rest of my teaching career and gave me the skills needed to teach anywhere,” he explains.

Alexander’s parents were strict when it came to academics, and as a result, he devoted most of his time to schoolwork. Even when he wasn’t in school, he spent much of his free time reading rather than getting in trouble. His motivation for becoming a teacher was to inspire the next generation. Growing up, he did not have many teachers that looked like him and came from where he was from. Alexander wanted to be a teacher that kids could relate to.

Mr Alexander tells the story through the eyes of a primary school aged child and gives credit to his friend Reggie for the inspiration. While juggling teaching and writing amidst a pandemic brought its challenges, Banji reflects on that period with pride. “By writing the book, I was able to turn a negative into a positive and inspire and motivate my learners in a creative way. It was a real career highlight for me,” he says. Laying the groundwork The important messages in the book are of kindness and resilience, patience, gratitude and adapting to change.One of Alexander's main joys from teaching is inspiring the next generation. He hopes to inspire future doctors, writers, musicians, scientists, etc. There is also an emphasis on teaching his students not to limit themselves to one part of life. He says everyone can do amazing things, but it is just that people don’t lean into that side as much as they should. Alexander says, “I think more personally to me for what I've taken away from writing the book is that anything is possible because writing this book has changed my life completely. One minute I was teaching, the next minute, I was on the biggest news stations here: BBC News, ITV News, Sky News, Guardian Newspaper. It literally changed my life overnight.” Mr Alexander is hoping the book will help children to learn how to manage their expectations which positively impacts their mental health.