Mr Couzens is a 40-year-old Englishman from Chesterfield in Derbyshire. He studied at Durham University, and achieved a BA (Hon) degree in Science and obtained a Teaching Diploma.
 
His first school was a tough ILEA school called Bacons, with a spell in a small private school in Renfrewshire following, He then spent a spell in Durango Colorado on an Anglo American Teacher exchange scheme, and enjoyed it so much, he stayed for five years. His trip back across the pond then took him to Rodney school in Nottinghamshire, a very strict private establishment where the cane and slipper were used in equal measure.
 
He is a firm but fair person and is not afraid to use the strap and cane when necessary. He makes his lessons as interesting as possible, feeling that the information in an interesting lesson will be more readily absorbed.
 
A widower, with a 14 year old son at boarding school, he is a keen cyclist and golfer with interests in cars and old steam locomotives.