TREE HOUSE LEARNING - Key Persons
I grew up on the West Coast of Canada in an area of great environmental wealth. I spent my early years in the forest building clubhouses, playing make-believe and climbing trees. I spent my summer vacations camping in the wilderness, which meant that as a child I learned how to make a shelter from the rain and cook food over a campfire. Through these experiences I have learned an appreciation, respect and love for the natural world, and these values have stayed with me throughout my life.
I graduated from the University of Victoria in Canada with a five-year degree in Elementary Education and a specialisation in adaptation and modification for students with special needs. During my University years I learned how to rock climb and found yet another level of connection to the natural world. Obtaining my degree and subsequently becoming a teacher led me to London where alongside classroom teaching (in both traditional and alternative education settings) I became a mother.
Becoming a mother meant that I began searching for something for my children that was similar to the what I experienced in my upbringing - a way to instil in them the same respect for the natural world that I had learned at such a young age. The environment that they are growing up in is so different from my own that I was forced to look a bit harder. This was how I discovered Forest School. My two beautiful children were my motivation for qualifying as a Forest School Leader and creating Tree House Learning.
I earned the Forest School Leader Level 3 qualification in 2010, through which I also earned a certification in outdoor paediatric first aid. I now run one of the few independently run Forest Schools in Kingston upon Thames / Richmond upon Thames, Surrey, and not being affiliated with a school allows me to design and implement curriculum to suit the needs of the individual children in my classes. I feel that the combination of my personal experience in and understanding of natural environments, my background in classroom teaching and my knowledge of adaptation and modification to suit individual needs makes me ideally suited to lead Forest School. More than that, I believe in it and am very passionate about it, which I believe rubs off on the children in my classes.
I was born in North London and moved to the countryside in Surrey when I was 8 it was there that my interest in the natural environment started. I learned and played with my brother, sister's and friends in the natural woodland near the house and then as we grew with experience and confidence we travelled further into the pine forests of Alice Holt and then the Heathlands of Frensham common. Little did I know what a lasting effect this would have on me. It would be fair to say that my time in school was not the most fun however by the time I had got to
Job Titles:
- Founder and Forest School Leader
Job Titles:
- Bushcraft Instructor and Forest School Leader