It feels as though my whole life has been preparing me for setting up this school. From a very young age, I’ve worked with children and in fact, have never had a job where I wasn’t working with them in some capacity. I’ve been lucky enough to teach in many schools and work with children all over the world - from the shantytowns of Buenos Aires, Argentina to New York City to Saltpond, Ghana, and of course, London. I qualified as a primary school teacher in 2010 and adored being a teacher. But I burnt out so quickly and felt so frustrated by the system. It didn’t feel set up in a way that honoured children, or in a way that looked after teachers. So over the course of the last 12 years, I’ve left teaching in schools 3 times (once to go to Ghana, once to teach yoga, and the last time to set up this school) but I also kept going back, because my love of teaching was so strong.

Over the years, I’ve studied developmental psychology, yoga philosophy and mindfulness and most recently, I got my Level 3 Forest School Leader qualification. I have a deep personal understanding of trauma and healing through different modalities which have taught me how important it is for each of us to truly know and take care of ourselves. All of these combined have shown me that a new way of educating children is not only possible, but absolutely necessary.

The planet is calling out for us to return to our natural ways of being; being in nature so that we can honour and protect her is not only good for Mother Earth but for our children, and us too. Becoming a mother to my son, Otis, and seeing his connection with nature has been a huge catalyst for me - I didn’t want him, or any other children, to lose that connection with nature and with themselves.