In new news, I have reached maximum rage capacity this week. My son has had 4 hours of teaching since the 15th of December and literally no one cares. Not our case worker, not our head of children’s services, not our MP. No one answers emails nor phone messages. It is good for me to reach maximum rage capacity because then I go into problem solving mode. I become stoic. From the smouldering embers of my rage I birth solutions I can control. I have wanted to set up an alternative education provision for years, and now, do you know what? It has my full attention. I had a 3am epiphany on an idea ..read more

This is a gift my younger son gave me in January. Because he is 10 now, some family members had given him money for Christmas. When he came home from his Dad’s he threw himself into my arms and said “I got this for you Mimi!!!” He had been taken on a day out to an aquarium. He saw this in the gift shop. He knew how much I loved sea horses and in particular sea dragons and he bought it for me. I take it to bed every night and whisper my affirmations in his non-existent ear. Being a mother means feeling all of life’s emotions at full volume. Joy, love, fear, guilt, anger, pride and sometimes al ..read more

We seem to have needed both snow boots and sun cream this week and little signs of spring on the horizon seem drowned out by the howling wind yesterday. One week everyone is huddled by the fire pit and the next week the kids are all bare foot and squelching in the mud. This term, at SENsory forest school, we have been focussing on Metal work with making clay moulds for pewter casting and using the embossing set to make aluminium dog tags. The food has been slightly less “weird” of late as we now have a few veggie and Halal families. Trying to work out a vegan version of Kangaroo was giving me ..read more

I was a teacher for 18 years before I set up INTO THE WILD. I worked in leafy suburbs, inner city, post 14 University technical college, private school, all girls, all boys and finally applied to alternative education where I did not even get graced with a response. In November 2019, my younger son was diagnosed with Autism spectrum condition, and I did not see it coming at all. In truth, I had no idea what autism was. I had taught loads of kids with Autism, but I had zero concept of what it meant, never mind how to meet their needs. In my last teaching job I had a GCSE class of 15 students ..read more

Since I have started working in Nature connection and woodland therapy, I have had to get used to the fact that people often cry on me. In fact, I don’t think I ever go a full week without tears. This is not because we are uncovering some deep hidden trauma within them, because I am not a counsellor, but it seems the act of being in nature creates some kind of mental release. What does crying signal? It can mean frustration, it can mean sorrow, it can mean grief. But it signals some kind of end. “I am at the end of what I can tolerate.” It should be a big social que to those around that says ..read more

I have re-discovered a number of “visual journals” I have kept since I was 18. In one today I found this… I need no carpet. I want to feel the cool grass between my toes. I need no roof. All I long for is a canopy of stars. No bath shall wash me. I will lie in a deep green river and feel it flow. I do not need a Michelin star. Nothing tastes better than bacon, cooked on the fire. I do not need to watch the X factor. The bird song brings me to tears. I do not need i pads, and Starbucks, and McDonalds, I do not crave apple TVs. I crave a juicy apple. I do not need a new car or a foreign holiday ..read more

Today feels Autumnal. I love the changing seasons as each day brings surprises. It can be hot and sunny one day, lashing with rain the next. Because I have always worked in education, September feels a little like New Year’s eve: Full of hope and optimism and rebirth. This year I will be sooo much more organised. This year I will not wait till the eleventh hour to meet a deadline. This year I will not get stressed and we will totally eat health nutritious food and I will definitely NOT rely on Deliveroo for grocery shopping. This September has an added layer of anxiety and change. My oldest s ..read more

I have worked as a qualified teacher for 16 years and in the last 2 years have branched off into the world of independent education. This idea began when I decided to take my 7 year old out to “Flexi school” two days a week. Within 3 months he had gone from a reading level 6 to 23, his confidence had grown and he now enjoyed learning. For years I had been told by school that he was not very capable and that he was getting further and further behind his peers. He has started to spend 80% of the school day out of the classroom and had refused to write anything down. Using the i pad to research i ..read more

I think I have read about 20 articles with this title in the last week. Here’s one with a difference. Don’t start baking banana bread. Don’t learn something new. Do NOT decide to start running marathons. Screw zoom family quizzes. That shit is bad for you. Sitting around with too much time on your hands can lead you down the road of the big three: Fear, guilt and shame. The big three will lead to depression and anxiety. They will shred your self esteem and rob you of joy. They will wreck your sleep and disrupt your relationships. The big three are the single most destructive emotions and can ..read more

I shall refer to these as “The pre-therapy years” I have not blogged for a long, long time. The daily fire fighting of surviving 2020 with my mind intact has been enough to cope with. But since we approach the end of the year, I want to reflect on what has happened and look forward to the future. This time last year I was doing a lot of really fantastic voluntary work with some incredible outdoor education veterans. I was learning and loving my new work every day. I was married. I had financial security and life plodded on. In the last 12 months, all those things have gone up in smoke. Being l ..read more