I completed my undergraduate Geology degree at Durham University. Although it was great fun, I knew I wanted to work with children. I got loads of experience in kid’s clubs, working at Key Camp, Canvas Holidays and Barracudas Summer Camp (ages 5-14). 

To learn about education in a different country, I moved to Kyoto, Japan, to work for the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme for two years. I taught English in secondary schools, ran English speaking clubs and organised cultural exchanges.

I was promoted as 'Prefectural Advisor' to co-run the JET programme across 36 schools in Kyoto Prefecture. This role involved facilitating communication between the English Speaking teachers and their schools and supporting their mental health, particularly with regard to culture shock.

I returned to the UK to live in Oxford, where I earned my PGCE specialising in special needs, and became a Year 5 teacher. I was in charge of implementing the new maths curriculum, making maths accessible to all children and did lots of maths tutoring. I designed and implemented a creative (cross-curricular) curriculum to bring Year 5 subjects to life, set up a ‘Homework Island’, a Japanese exchange, charity week, and eco-club. I went to Toronto to carry out a research project for Oxford County Council about 

I was also the Science Co-ordinator and particularly loved bringing science to life with individually led enquiry, real life experiments, and using drama and play to understand higher level concepts.

I moved to Bristol to complete a Psychology of Education Masters at the University of Bristol where I became acutely aware of the gap between what psychologists know about the brain and what children are taught in schools. 

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I then became totally engrossed in completing a Psychology PhD here at Bristol where I discovered some interesting stuff about the power of placebo. 

I graduated from my Psychology PhD when Covid 19 hit and returned to my original passion: working with children via tutoring. I became very aware of the mental health crisis that was hitting our children and began developing Brain Buddies to bridge the gap. After lots of research, planning, collaboration and piloting, Brain Buddies was born to benefit our children's awareness of how to protect their mental health.

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 I also received an ADHD diagnosis