Back to the Start

No one said it would be easy!

When I set out to be a teacher over 20 years ago, I was going to be the one who would change the world for so many little people.  I was going to be the best teacher children ever had, I was going to be that teacher who would have the most vibrant happening classroom ever. We'll see.

According to some children I was the best teacher they ever had, it said so on all the cards and I did have the most funtastic classroom.  Did I change their world, I do hope so, only time will tell.

What I didn't bank on when becoming a teacher were the twists, turns and hairpin bends on the journey, I didn't know I would be subjected to an ever changing landscape of policies, procedures, trends,  pedagogies, governmental interference on a grotesque scale and the pack mentality of humans.

Teaching is a bit like Minecraft you start off with an ideal of what you will be i.e. Jesse.  You get to be part of an unwritten narrative driven plot, you get to collect things, in a teachers case: pencils, handkerchiefs, stones and hair bobbles!  You get to solve puzzles, learn about stories and make choices over what's happening next.

We all know Jesse doesn't have an easy task though she gets hassled by mobs, hoping for a diamond she sells her skull to a rip off merchant, never quite sure who she can trust etc. What about those jolly Wither Storms, we could call them ideology policies created in offices by folks with no idea of what school terrain is really like...

So my blogs are for all the Jesse's or Petra's out there who are still in the game, changing the face of education for millions of little people.

I will walk you through the landscape of my learning journey: good, bad, happy, sad, exciting, hilarious, fearful, warts and all. My journey taught me much more about what not to do. Let's face it as soon as you learn what to do some mob will change the goal posts anyway.

So be strong stay with the adventure and learn to be your own Jesse.

About Me

Way up high in the mountains of Pai, Thailand

So this is me trying to look calm whilst terrified, nothing new there. Life can be quite scary, especially when you have so much responsibility. We'll come to that later...

I'm 5 foot and half and inch tall, I like shiny shoes and flowery dresses.  I pretend to like bees but secretly still terrified.  My favourite thing is food, most favourite bit is the eating bit. I'm trying to eat my way round the world and starting to pack a few pounds on, who cares I'm over 50.

I love my husband, my kids, my family, well almost all of them and I love life.  When you boogie with the grim reaper from time to time you learn to love life.

Outside of all of the above I am trying to identify my passion, my real passion, the one that I think about an awful lot of the time, the one that wakes me in the night with new and brilliant ideas, they seem brilliant in the middle of the night.

My passion is undoubtedly education, whether it is being done brilliantly or appallingly, I adore education.  My links with education include being a child at school once, being an adult at university a couple of times, teaching children and adults about education and running one or two schools.  There were bits in-between like working in specialist education places, all in all though same same, people trying to get others to think their way.

Every establishment thinks it has it right and many of them have loads right and I'm not talking Ofsted right, I'm talking education right.  Every establishment has something unique and something of value and my aim is to help you understand you don't have to dance to someone else's tune because that's all will be someone else’s tune.

I want to help you find your own style of teaching and grow it till it is so infectious it fizzes over and makes others giddy.  I can do this only by sharing from real life experience, the highs and lows, the mountain tops and the snake pits, oh yes there are snakes pits out there...

I've gone on too long, this was only ever going to be an introduction.  Stick with me, come with me and enjoy the ride and if you happen to pick up a few driving hints along the way all the better for the little people and of course your amazing self.

Lots of love Jools.

British Values in Early Years

British Values: intrinsically interwoven through the EYFS and requires no real additional planning. Nevertheless a current hot potato and tangible 'evidence' of it's implementation is required by the powers that be.  So let's have a go at applying them to our ever popular Mud Kitchens.  I have uploaded 5 slides which I prepared for a conference recently - enjoy.