About Me
I am a specialist in thinking and learning differences and an education expert. I work internationally with young people, parents, and schools.
After gaining my first degree in Education and English Literature at Homerton College, Cambridge in 1994, I started out my career as a primary teacher. I subsequently returned to complete a Masters degree and then a PhD in Education at Clare College, Cambridge. The focus of my doctoral research was on understanding the experience of parents of children who had additional needs in working with professionals.
I have worked in schools for the past thirty years, across age ranges and sectors. For the past eight years, I have been at Harrow School and for much of this time led their provision for boys who have additional needs.
Social communication difficulties, autism (especially girls), attentional issues, and dyslexia are areas of passion and specific expertise. I particularly specialise in complex situations where the child may not be attending school, or a school placement is breaking down. I also have particular expertise in meeting young people's needs within boarding school settings. I only work with a very small number of families at a time to provide the time and attention required to best support them.
What sets me apart is not simply my expertise and experience, or my extensive specialist network, but the level of support that I provide to young people, parents, and educators. It is important to build real relationships, offering specialist expertise and considered action, but also immense compassion and care.
From September 2023, I will be working solely in private practice continuing my work with families and schools across the world.
About My Mission
More than a decade ago when my own children were tiny, I recall staying up the entire night and writing a mission statement and a business plan on scraps of paper. Of course, back then, I had no clue how to even get started. And the next day the ideas were dismissed to a drawer. And for two years there they sat. But the concept kept calling me. I knew first hand from my own schooling, my doctoral research, and from my work in schools, how important it was for the views and experiences of parents and their young people to be truly heard and understood. I knew too that so much beautiful talent was often being missed or squashed within the systems that existed.
I could also clearly see that we need a world in which all our children feel truly valued and encouraged to use their voices, and where their worth is not defined in any way by a narrow version of success.
So slowly, with many late nights and very early get-ups, piece by piece, my mission has been clarified and the private practice has been built. Although it has been up and running for eight years, in many ways, I am just getting started.
Whichever way you look at it, life is a short trip. Filling it with love, meaning, and purpose, and creating a legacy of true understanding, is what it is all about.
