Befast Boys Model School 1964

ACADEMIC

1972 B Sc ( Mathematics) The New University of Ulster

1973 Teaching Certificate in Mathematics

         Dundee College of Education

1973 Diploma in Education (Pyschology & Sociology)

         Dundee University

1989 M Phil Research degree in the Mathematics Education

         Brighton / London University

WORKING LIFE

1973 - 1988 Teacher of Mathematics

                   Hastings High School for Girls/Helenswood School

                   Head of Mathematics / Director of Studies

1985 - 1988 Research Assistant - Mathematics Education

                   Brighton Poytechnic / London University

1988 - 1991 Deputy Director - Nuffield Secondary Mathematics

                  Project - London University

                  Writer Mathematics Text

1991 - 1994 Teacher of the Deaf - Brighton

PLACES I HAVE LIVED

BELFAST

DUNDEE

HASTINGS

LONDON

BRIGHTON

COUNTRIES I HAVE VISITED

UK

IRELAND

FRANCE

BELGIUM

NETHERLANDS

GERMANY

SPAIN

CORFU

THAILAND

AUSTRALIA

NEW ZEALAND

FIJI

USA

DREAMS and VENTURES

In the late 1980's I abdicated family responsibilities and followed a dream of gay lifestyle in Brighton -

I owed and ran an exclsively gay Guest House and Sauna in the city center - and partied hard.

I invested in an Advertising and Desk Top Publishing Company aimed at the gay market

I bought and rented holiday homes near Eastbourne - and

I partied even harder

I had significant relationships and many partners who also liked to party - but

as was the case with many during the early 90's my ventures failed and I became a bankrupt.

Despite efforts to reclaim the glory days I gave up a retail business and many of my social circle - keeping just a those few true friends who remain close to me until this day.

1994 - 1995 THE YEAR FROM HELL

Most people have a particularly difficult learning period in their lives - mine was a period spanning 1994/5 - the timetable went something like this :-

• Bankruptcy - loss of home and business
• Failure of relationship and loss of friends
• Domestic fire destroys everything
• HIV postive diagnosis with poor prognosis

RE-EVALUATION AND INVENTION

As a form of therapy I began painting in 1995 and since then I have exhibited in many venues in Brighton and London developing a style that crosses pointillism and Aboriginal Dream Painting but also exploring portraiture in arcrylic on canvas.

You can find some of my most recent work by clicking the "ART" tab at the top of this page and even more on www.apsgallery.blogspot.com

 EXHIBITIONS

Since 1994 I have exhibited and sold work in London and Brighton

George Street Gallery , Brighton

Fishing Museum , Brighton

Unitarian Church, Brighton

St George's Crypt Gallery , Brighton

Brighton Festival Open House

Royal College of Midwives , London

AN EVERGROWING FAMILY

BORN : BELFAST  Northern Ireland

             22nd April 1951

I am a Belfast boy - brought up in the secartian divide of 1950/60's Belfast

My father was a barman and my mother as was the custom stayed at home and paid more attention to the appearance of the front door step than either herself or the future.

I was the third child and the second son - shy and a school refuser - I prefered to stay at home and dust.

My older brother and sister were successful at school - I failed the 11+ and was condemmed to what was consider a second rate education - destined to me a skilled worker at the best - I hated every moment of school life in an all boys environment.

So I learnt quickly that the way forward was to acquire academic success - I was good at the game - quite reclusive, not streetwise but did acquire an impressive list of early qualifications - and found my passport to the heady highs of University. - the first in the family and the first taste of self-worth.

So as a very childish 18 year old and following the early death of my father I set of to become a student at The New University of Ulster in 1969 to study Mathematics - in those dates little more than hard sums.

I lived through (and it has always lived with me) the worst and most violent years of the latest round of Irish "troubles" in Belfast - was witness to man's inhumanity to man in the name of christianity when life was cheap and history repeated itself in an endless cycle of ignorance and death.

My academic prowess and the possibility of a "sensible" career was my passport out of Northern Ireland and to the half-way destination of Scotland. I survived one year - grabbed my certificates and fled to Sussex in the far south of England - deep in the heart of the heathens' heartland.

Early in my university years I found the weaknesses in my life skills - but did find love. I met and married Heather and for more than 15 years we shared the highs and lows of family life with three children careers and mortgage. We were happy, caring, angry, rich and poor, and sad in those years but a love saw us through hard times and heartaches born so many years earlier and the same feelings happily bind us together today as a family.

The family continues to grow -

DAVID returned from New Zealand a few years ago and continues to amaze and amuse with his circus skills and has settled in Germany with his family - making me a very proud but very young grandfather.

CATHY travelled widely in China after completing her Biology degree and now teaches in London.

TOM is completing his Geology degree in the UK.

 Mum looking startled on her 85th Birthday,December 2007

 JULY 2008 Southampton

 THOMAS JAMES SPENCE BSc(Hons) Geology

DAVID & KEIRA with

JORAN PETER SPENCE

born

26th September 2008 , Koblenz