A BLACKBURN mum has left the school kitchen and become a teacher.

Mum-of-one Georgina Hughes, 38, of Mill Hill, who left school without qualifications, has spent the past nine years taking herself from school kitchen assistant and parent-helper to a graduate trainee teacher at Witton Park High School.

She has followed a handful of students on the Government's Graduate Training Programme where trainee teachers are based in school and receive a salary, rather than attending university full time.

To make her dream come true, Georgina has studied alongside school pupils, taught herself about computers, battled with maths and taken exam courses on top of working full time.

"She really is an inspiration to her pupils because she has never given in despite setbacks and difficulties and she has always kept her goal in mind," said Witton Park High School head teacher John Gosling.

Georgina's road to a new career began when her son Daniel, who has dyslexia, started at the school in 1995.

She started helping him and other children with special needs at a weekly family literacy group and was soon offered a job as a special support assistant.

"The school said I was a natural and encouraged me to qualify as a teacher, so I did a year at college to get more qualifications and then studied IT at Salford University," said Georgina who graduated with a 2.1 honours degree.

"My son Daniel, who has developed strategies to cope with dyslexia through school, college and university has been a real inspiration and the support and belief in me from my family has been boundless.

"I've one more set of exams to pass in ICT, literacy and maths. It has been a long, hard slog but it has been worth it."