Dr Kay Aaronricks is a mum of two and the Head of the School of Education at Anglia Ruskin University. She is passionate about childminding and all things Early Years.

Kay joins us today to talk about the wonderful work she is doing for Childminders and tells us of the fantastic things happening for the community. With information on CPD and The Childminder Cafe, this really isn't an episode to miss!

Essex Childminder Cafe | Facebook Dr Kay Aaronricks | LinkedIn

Lewis openly shares that his passion in life is twofold: to help people reach their potential and to raise the status of the Early Years sector. He does this through being a dad to two young boys and owning the group of nurseries they go to. Lewis is also the vice-chair of TacTyc - a charity that is committed to today’s young children.

Alongside this Lewis lectures at Brunel University in Leadership and Management in Education, and is the Director of Teaching and Learning for the Department for Education.

Lewis’ research activity compliments his day-to-day work as a leader and he has packaged his experiences in an accessible format to help others through Edventurous Leadership, which we will hear more about later.

And finally, Lewis also founded the charity ConnectEd International which aims to connect with local community groups to support the great work they are doing in rural Uganda.

LinkedIn: Lewis Fogarty | LinkedIn

Edventurous Leadership - Start your educational adventure towards leadership excellence Home | Connected Intl

Rob has a background in teaching after gaining an initial degree in music and completing his teacher training. He taught Essential skills in colleges in Wales and England where he worked with a variety of learners. He also gained some experience teaching in prisons for 3 years. After this he moved on to teaching and supporting secondary age learners with Behavioural, Emotional and Social difficulties who were at risk of being removed from school. This was the role that piqued his interest in supporting learners with these challenges.

In 2021 after completing his MSc in Psychology, Rob set up DASH, a company with an aim to support learners with difficulties. He began providing psychoeducation to Looked After children, focusing on educating them on the brain, emotions and behaviours. Because of its success, he was able to leave teaching in 2022 to continue to build on the support that DASH was providing..

In Sept 2022, Rob was asked by a school to support learners who were struggling to attend due to their wellbeing and has since developed a support program, assessments and webinars around the topic, alongside supporting a variety of settings, groups and companies across south Wales and England.

Home_ - DASH Mental Health, Wellbeing & Behaviour (dashmhwb.co.uk)

Facebook: Facebook Twitter: DASH Mental Health, Wellbeing & Behaviour CIC (@Dash_MHWB) / X

Instagram: DASH Mental Health, Wellbeing & Behaviour CIC (@dash_mhwb) • Instagram photos and videos

Parenting a child who has allergies can be incredibly scary. Today we have Tara with us talking about her experience.

Tara works as a freelance social media and business development manager. Working with B2B and B2B companies helping them to win new business and enhance their online presence. Tara has 14 years experience in marketing and has been freelance for the last 6 years.

She is also a mum to two children, ages 6 and 4 and when she isn’t working in marketing, Tara runs a performing Arts school called Ta’Lia school of performing arts alongside her sister. She also teaches private singing lessons and with a passion for crafting, she has also recently started doing children’s craft workshops during the holidays

Follow Tara on instagram at @travelling_withallergies

With a passion for Disney and musical theatre, Ellie left her hometown of Weymouth in 2018, to study Writing for Broadcasting, Media and Performance. Despite her university years being interrupted by the pandemic, she gained a 2:1 which is incredible. She has worked a variety of jobs, including working as an assistant gymnastics coach and an NCS assistant leader. She is looking to build her online social media business, but she spends her downtime enjoying creative arts, gaming online with friends, reading, and attending musical theatre.

And also with us today, her mum Laura..

Laura is married with two adult children and lives in the inspirational county of Dorset. A writer with disabilities and chronic health conditions, Laura has three novels published, and spent five years as the Romantic Novelists Association's Industry Awards Organiser.

Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in her late teens, Laura focuses on what she can rather than what she cannot do which is an amazing mindset to have, and she doesn’t mind one bit that ironing is one of the tasks she cannot do. And in her own words, other than Arthritis, colitis, fibromyalgia and osteoporosis, Laura is a beacon of health …

Join us today as we speak about day to day life and what it has been like navigating a late Autism diagnosis.

Dr Sarah Wall is a Senior Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University with over thirty years experience working in a variety of educational settings, including mainstream and special provision, from nursery to post-16. She has had roles such as SENCo, Senior Teacher and Specialist Teacher and developed a keen interest in children and young people with social, emotional and mental health needs.

Sarah has lectured at the University of Northampton and the University of Birmingham mostly in Special Educational Needs, Autism and social, emotional and behavioural needs and she has worked with professionals from a variety of settings including: mainstream schools; special schools; pupil referral units; secure units; alternative provision and residential schools both here in the UK and Worldwide.

In 2017, Sarah completed her doctorate with her thesis entitled:‘The Attuned School’: the effects, and effectiveness, of developing relationships between pupils with attachment difficulties and significant adults.

And ontop of all this Sarah is also a mum of one, a wife and a friend to many.

Join us today to chat about attachment theory and what it has been like parenting with a Cancer diagnosis.

Rachel Dove is a qualified Post 16 teacher with an MA in Creative Writing. She lives in the North of England (Yorkshire) with her husband and two teenage sons. She currently works part time as a support worker for a charity working with disabled children and their families, writes fiction for various publishers, and is the chair of her local library group which runs various events and projects such as the Bottomboat Little Library and a scheme she set up in the pandemic, The Stanley Santa Scheme which provides a free wrapped children's books for the children and families in her community currently struggling due to the cost of living crisis. In her spare time, she loves to read, crochet, sew and binge watch TV series.

Fun fact: She wants to eventually write a screenplay and see it on the screen

Join us on the podcast today where Rachel tells us all about her writing journey and life battling the SEN system. And see if you can hear our special guest too, who was snuggled on Rachel's lap!

You can find Rachel online: @writerdove.

Sarah Sudea is the founder of Finding The Flex,which is an organisation dedicated to working with Local authorities and schools to enable children to access flexible educational solutions when in their best interests. She is an advocate for finding ways to enable all children to access education in ways that will allow them to thrive and works with families, schools and the local authorities. As an Education Wellbeing Coach, she also supports families to unpick what is going wrong when a child is unhappy at school or struggling to attend,explore their educational options and make a plan to improve things. Previously working as a teacher in secondary schools, Sarah has first hand experience observing some of the struggles children have in schools, and with an MA in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution, Sarah is well equipped to support others to find solutions.

Alongside all this wonderful work, Sarah is also a mum of three children.

Join us today to chat all things flexischooling and family coaching.

To know more about Sarah and the work shes does, pop over to her website(s): Parent Coaching | Sarah Sudea Family Coaching Home (findingtheflex.com) Flexischooling Families UK | Facebook