How did you start in early years?
The school was started by my great-grandmother 65 years ago in 1951 and is now owned by my mum. It began with just one boy and one girl in her own dining room, which is why she called it Jack and Jill. I thought I would not move into the business but joined as a teaching assistant nine years ago to save up to go travelling, and never left because I loved it so much. Very soon I could see how much you can teach a child at this early age.
What do you teach the children?
The most important thing is confidence in their ability to learn. We aim to nurture independent thought and critical thinking, so we have a philosophy lesson every week. Now we are working to become a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) school and are actively teaching the children to tackle challenges by themselves. Our current project is about astronaut Tim Peake.
What other projects are you involved in?
I recently joined Richmond & Kingston’s Local Safeguarding Children Board as the independent schools representative. This involves making sure we access the right training and information, looking at serious case reviews, maintaining the safeguarding profile and reporting to the board. And as a member of the borough’s Schools Forum, one key thing we considered was deficits from the 15 hours funding and how to deal with them. We were getting the lowest funding in London at £3.50 per hour, and we managed to achieve an increase to £3.60 per hour.