Meet Our Director
Contact UsMeet Our Director
I live in Brackley with my husband and three beautifully different children, two of whom have been diagnosed with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). My eldest daughter has dyslexia, is on the ASD/ADHD pathway and attends a mainstream secondary school. My son has autism, ADHD, sensory processing disorder and we suspect dyslexia too. He was non-speaking until he started school. He has an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP), and attends a specialist school. My youngest daughter is also showing signs of ASD/ADHD and has extremely restricted eating (ARFID). I am also neurodiverse and have been late diagnosed for combined type ADHD.
I have always had a passion for working with young people, and after leaving school, I trained and qualified as a teacher. I loved teaching and never felt more at home than in my classroom having fun learning with my students. We had the best lessons! I saw it as my mission to really know my students, what interested them, what their strengths were and what they found challenging. Using this to nurture, engage and support them with what we wanted and needed to achieve together.
I taught for over 10 years in a range of mainstream primary and secondary schools. In that time, I was a Curriculum Manager, Head of Year, Head of Science, outdoor trip leader organising Year 7 camps, multiple Duke of Edinburgh expeditions and even led an expedition to Swaziland with 12 students. Following the success of my after school Rugby club, which meant those training weren’t up to other questionable activities, I worked with the RFU and Met Police to move their joint Rugby project, Hitz, to the London Borough I was teaching in. I guess I always favoured the child/young person who didn’t have it easy and making sure they had experiences which enabled them to see what they could achieve with a little self-belief.
One thing I was always proud of as a teacher, was the relationships I was able to form with my students, they were founded on trust and mutual respect. They knew I was a safe space for them, an adult who cared and would listen when no one else would. The person they could rely on to have their back when they needed someone in their corner. In fact, I still see students I taught now, and am surprised how many of them remember me.
So why did I leave teaching as this was clearly my passion?
I wanted to be more available to my family at home and truth be told had building frustrations with the education system and its inability to see the student as an individual rather than a number… I needed to step away. So I did, and built up a successful cake business which enabled me to work around my family. This was great but it just didn’t give me the buzz I got from teaching.
We then started our SEND journey with our son. During which, my thirst for deeper knowledge and understanding of the Special Educational Needs and their effect on children’s learning and daily activities, both at school and home was ignited. Numerous hours of research, courses, workshops, and multiple qualifications later meant I had a far greater knowledge of these needs, but I also had the first-hand experience of how my son’s autism impacted on his understanding and interaction with the world, as well as my own!
That was when it struck me that I needed to combine my passions for baking, teaching, and empowering those who need extra support, to create something truly unique…
The SEN-ED Kitchen.
A place where families can leave their apologies at the door, relax, and not have to police every move.
A place for children to come and have fun, feel safe, be themselves and feel a sense of achievement.
A place for parents/carers to feel heard, supported, understood and gain creative ideas and strategies to help their children.
I truly believe that unless you have been in the storm, even with a different boat and journey, you just can’t understand as a professional. And that’s where I am different.
You see I get it. I’ve seen the looks, the eye rolls. I’ve heard the tuts and whispers. I’ve experienced the relentless paperwork and endless waiting lists. I’ve felt the frustration at the system not supporting in the way that it should. I have felt the need to continually apologise for my child just being themself and trying to cope in a “normal” situation. And I understand the resilience and patience required to keep pushing on.
I know that the journey through education can be overwhelming, particularly for SEND families, and occasionally they don’t receive as much support and advice as they need when it comes to helping their young people.
I believe this information should be more accessible and available to all, so my mission with the SEN-ED Kitchen is to bridge that gap and truly empower SEND families. By helping them navigate the tricky path of their child’s education journey whether it be through school, home education or indeed a more flexible approach to education. Sharing with them practical advice and tips from not just my experiences as a parent and teacher but also from professionals I have connected with along our SEND journey. That’s why when I was approached to become an alternative provision to support those students finding it challenging to access education I jumped at the opportunity.
I believe the SEN-ED Kitchen is a truly special and unique place. It isn’t something you can describe or explain, it’s an experience.
As one of the families I have supported said, “I do more than just baking in my kitchen!”
I look forward to welcoming you into the sanctuary that is the SEN-ED Kitchen.
