The Alternative Path with David Robson David Robson

In this podcast, Jack and I discussed his journey through education and his experiences. Jack was excluded from mainstream education in his middle school years, Jack discussed his experiences through his school years and throughout our conversation, he speaks about the work that was done to turn his life around once he moved to specialist provision.

As someone with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) he discusses the fact he was aware that mainstream wasn’t for him and holds no hard feelings and is pleased that he was placed into specialist provision.

Jack also talks about his passion to start a career within education where he wants to follow his dream to help others who may be experiencing similar journeys to himself.

I hope you enjoy it.

In this episode, I had my second chat with Stu Evans who is the Headteacher of New Leaf Inclusion Centre in Walsall. I first spoke to Stu around the first lockdown and it was great to speak to him about the ongoing work that has been in place since he arrived at what was, at the time an 'Inadequate' rated Pupil Pupil Referral Unit.

In this podcast, James Lowe and I discussed his journey into education and the journey he has been on so far as the Founder/Director of both EdStart and Next Level Learning.

After teaching sport, public services and social policy in different sectors across Manchester, James registered the school alongside Chris Irwin and a small team. From there he has been responsible for the growth of the school from its original site, to the several centres across Greater Manchester. Having led the school to successive 'Good' Ofsted inspections his aim is to further strengthen the offer to the region's young people. James has supported several local authorities in developing the landscape of alternative provision, most recently working on the successful DfE 'Alternative Provision Innovation Fund' bid for Salford City Council.

Established in 2014 Next Level Learning was aimed at ‘closing the gap’ in education. Our founding Directors identified a need for outreach tuition in the alternative provision field as students were not attending any education offered to them for several reasons. Our first approach was home or in school support tuition and from there it has developed into sessions being delivered in various settings to young people with a variety of different needs. Now we cover areas across Greater Manchester and the North West, delivering to students from KS1 through to KS4. We have grown purely through hard work, commitment and recommendation which gives us pride in what we have achieved and ambition for future goals.

In this episode, we had the pleasure of talking to Joe Cole who is the Founder of The RightPath. Having recently met Joe it was great to chat to him about his journey through education, the influence people had on his childhood and his vision for helping young people through their journey.
“The RightPath delivers a variety of bespoke social and emotional wellbeing provisions that aid personal development and support a positive approach to challenging behaviours. The core aim of our work is to enhance the emotional wellbeing, mental health and life opportunities of children and young people in our society.
We deliver in some of the most deprived and disadvantaged areas across the UK, supporting an increasingly high number of children and young people experiencing relationship issues, disengagement from education and a rise in mental health conditions.”

Rebecca Harbord – Social Channel and Brand Manager at Woodmor Foundation C.I.C

In this episode I chatted to Rebecca Hardbord who is the Social Channel and Brand Manager at Woodmor Foundation C.I.C. The foundation provides unique employment initiatives which showcase employability skills for our participants. We do this by creating a digital CV called a ‘Me Movie’ which supplements traditional CV’s and helps gain purposeful paid employment for disabled, disadvantaged or vulnerable individuals.

In our conversation Rebecca discusses having Bipolar Type 2 her journey through education as a young person who was suffering from depression. Rebecca is proud to be part of a foundation that has such strong values and beliefs when it comes to helping those with a disability.

Natalie Reardon – Deputy Head Teacher and SENCo at Kedleston Group

In this episode, I had the absolute pleasure of talking to Natalie Reardon who is a passionate member of the Kedleston Group SLT team. Natalie is currently Deputy Head Teacher and SENCo at a SEMH / Autism School in Bury, Greater Manchester.

In our conversation, we spoke about the benefits of giving young people more autonomy, respect, trust and help create pupil lead learning, which in 2021 is something most of us look for and appreciate. Natalie’s passion for bringing the best out of learners is evident and it was refreshing to also discuss the area of self care and being the best, we can be.

We also discussed the importance of making sure we all have our own free time outside of work, in a world that is becoming more adaptable to working from home, we both feel strongly that this is an important part of looking after our own well being.

I hope you enjoy our conversation.