Rewriting Our Story

In August 2025, I went to Car Fest not knowing it would change the direction of my work.

I met Simon Squibb and, without planning to, I found myself telling him the truth. I told him I had left early years education — not because I didn’t care, but because I cared too much. The system was upsetting me. Watching children squeezed into boxes, measured too early, and misunderstood felt wrong in my bones.

I told him that I now teach adults in the community instead. Adults who are unemployed for many reasons — mental health, physical health, prison, homelessness, caring responsibilities, missed diagnoses, or simply a need to change direction. Adults who are capable, curious human beings — yet terrified of learning.

And then I asked him the question that had been sitting with me for a long time:

How do I reach more people?

Because the hardest part of my job isn’t teaching — it’s getting people into the room. So many carry deep scars from school. Classrooms feel unsafe. Learning feels like judgement. Education feels like something that already decided who they were.

This blog is my response to that question.

That conversation at Car Fest made something click for me.

I realised that so many adults don’t lack ability — they lack permission. Permission to learn differently, to start again, to believe they’re not “too late” or “not clever enough.”

This blog is my way of changing that story — one conversation, one reflection, one unlearning at a time.