My experience 

I started my career 35 years ago, working with young children as a nanny and a pre-school assistant in my home county of Norfolk. I went on to take teaching and senior leadership roles in London schools, before joining the Lewisham Early Years Advisory team in South London.

During this time I co-wrote a number of publications with my colleagues, including the hugely popular "A Place to Learn', which was frequently described at the time as 'a bible for early years practitioners'. As a result of the book's popularity, my colleagues and I were asked to speak at conferences and provide training around the country.

Meanwhile, in Lewisham, I went on to become a School Improvement Adviser and eventually Strategic Lead for Early Years. The advisory aspect of my work enabled me to work closely with many schools and early years settings in a variety of circumstances and over my 15 years in post, I was able to carry out my own informal action research as to what really makes the difference in terms of helping leaders to raise the quailty of their early years  provision and improve outcomes for children.

Lewisham gradually moved from being a local authority that was amongst the lowest in terms of outcomes for children at the end of the EYFS, to being consistently one of the highest, with  excellent inspection outcomes overall, despite being an area with high levels of disadvantage. I was being asked more and more to speak around the country about what I had learned from working in partnership with these schools and settings and eventually I made the leap to become a freelance consultant, which I have now been doing for almost 10 years.

My core work

Based in England, I work across the UK and overseas, and am particularly passionate about the impact of positive relationships, play-based learning environments, and quality adult interactions on a child's learning and life chances. 

As well as providing keynote speeches and training sessions, I also spend a lot of time working directly with schools and settings to help them evaluate and improve the quality of their offer.

I host my own professional learning platform ‘The Place to Learn’, which provides whole-team access to my collection of self-study training films and my programme of live and recorded webinars. 

I am also co-founder of PressPlay, a global initiative focusing on taking play through the primary years and beyond. 

I've carried out work for The Department of Education, The National College,  Early Excellence and BEAM  (Be A Mathematician) and am proud to be an associate consultant for Early Education, a national charity supporting early years practitioners with professional development and campaigning for quality education for young children. In 2022 I was shortlisted for Nursery World's Trainer of the Year Award.

I am keen to support parental engagement from birth, and have worked closely with SureStart and Children's Centre programmes. I have written articles and appeared in a variety of short films for parents and I provide in-person and online workshops for parents in the UK and overseas on understanding and supporting their child's development.

My extensive work with international schools means that I have developed a strong understanding of this unique sector and have given speeches and provided consultancy support in many countries, including USA, Shanghai, Singapore, Japan, Dubai, Thailand, Myanmar, The Falkland Islands, Kazakhstan, The Netherlands, France and Switzerland. I am an official affiliate of the Federation of British International Schools in Asia (FOBISIA) and British Schools in the Middle East (BSME). I've also spent time observing practice in Finland in order to develop my own professional understanding of the education system there.

My entire career has been focused on supporting young children to thrive and I feel like the luckiest person in the world to be involved in such rewarding and fulfilling work!