Our Teaching - The Learning Circle

inspiring teachers

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." Yeats

Incredible teachers, who really know and support the kids and make them feel equally respected. The kids are left with the impression that the teachers want to be there as much as them! That they absolutely love their job.

All of our teachers are interviewed by students before joining the community.

our teachers

Our teachers are all qualified with years of experience. They can teach their subjects up to 16 years old (GCSEs mostly). They are creative thinkers who are looking for a more student-centred way of working with young people. Coercive learning is an anathema to them. They seek to inspire children through their classes to enjoy learning, so creative planning is a must. Listening deeply is a priority to help young people feel understood whether in the class room or as a mentor.
Our teachers understand that they must be learners themselves if they wish to inspire others, and our teachers need to embody the values we wish the students to learn. That’s why mindfulness and self-developmental CPD are key to our approach.

Angela Eastham

Angela graduated from the University of Lancaster in 1994 with a BA (Hons) Degree in History with English Literature and went on to complete an MA in Later Medieval Studies. In 1996 she followed her ultimate ambition to become a teacher when she completed her PGCE at the Institute of Education, London.

Since 1996 Angela has worked in a variety of educational settings across the UK. She has taught children in inner city schools in London and Bradford, trained as a Tutor and Outdoor Education Instructor for the FSC in Cumbria and worked for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in London, as a teacher in their pioneering therapeutic educational provision. Angela also took some time out of the classroom to work for Pearson Edexcel as an Assessment Leader and then she embarked on a gap year travelling around the world, rediscovering yoga in India and learning to meditate in the northern tip of Thailand.

In 2014 Angela left teaching to start a family. It was during this time that she became more interested in self directed learning and thus became increasingly involved with the home educating community in West Yorkshire. In 2017 she started to offer creative, child focused, accessible and hands on science sessions for home educated children. She is now better known as ‘Asteroid Angie’ to many. Working with home educating families has been one of the most enjoyable periods of her teaching career so far. The children never fail to inspire and challenge her and creativity knows no bounds!

jo Hurley

Jo graduated from the University of Wales, Bangor in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology. From there she worked as a seal handler on the Cornish coast rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing grey seal pups. With her love of the Sea, Jo decided to train as a SCUBA instructor and then take this one step further by starting her own business doing what she loved most… bringing the wonders of the sea to children, through snorkelling, SCUBA and rock pool safaris.
Her love of teaching led her to gaining her PGCE in 2007, where she went onto to teach Marine Biology at Falmouth Marine School in Cornwall. Jo also set up a weekly youth club for the over 5’s. It was here that she co-taught along with her very own college students, who volunteered their time once a week engaging the children in fun marine biology-based experiments.
After sometime teaching, Jo got the travel bug and with a deep personal practice in yoga she decided to take this a step further in Costa Rica and train as yoga instructor, where she worked for a year before emigrating to Canada.
Canada offered untold adventures of the wilderness… Teaching yoga in remote communities was a wonderful experience that she will never forget.
In 2015 Jo returned home to settle on the island of Anglesey in North Wales. Since then she has returned to teaching Science both as a home tutor and at local college lecturing in BTEC’s Biomedical Science and A-Level Biology and Chemistry.
Living in North Wales Jo loves to swim and snorkel, rambling coastal walks and taking care of her array of farm yard critters. She does all of this accompanied by her partner of many years and their mischievous 9-year-old daughter.

Sarah Sneddon

Sarah has taught for over two decades in a career that encompasses primary education, secondary education, home education and further education. She graduated from the University of St Andrews with an MA in English Literature and History and then stayed in St Andrews to complete a PhD in English Literature. While she was there, she also completed a LTCL clarinet teaching diploma. Over the years she has taught in the state sector and the private sector both in the classroom and as an instrumental instructor. She began her working life teaching Music, English, Latin and Social Subjects in a prep school, then taught primary in the state sector before teaching for six years in the Music Department at St Andrews University. She was an Associate Lecturer with the Open University for many years teaching interdisciplinary arts courses and the knowledge she gained there encouraged her to move all her teaching online in 2016. For the last five years she has been teaching IGCSE English Language, IGCSE English Literature, A Level English Language and Creative writing. She has been on an ever evolving (and always interesting!) home education journey with her children since 2008. Sarah’s interests include musical theatre, reading, knitting, ice hockey, camper vans and yoga. She qualified as a yoga teacher in 2019 and is working hard on maintaining a daily practice!

Verity Wyatt

Verity grew up surrounded by the moors of West Yorkshire drawing everything she could see and went on to study Fine art in London where she delved deeper into the world of painting and drawing. She went on to teach art, first in England and then in Mexico where she studied both dance therapy and narrative therapy while learning Spanish. In Mexico City she started working within mural and community art projects and leading experimental drawing workshops with children and adults, later going on to create and guide art and history tours with a focus on female artists around the historic center. Verity is a practising artist constantly experimenting with new materials and techniques, whether in printmaking or making natural pigments and is currently studying a postgraduate in art therapy. She is interested in alternative education with a special interest in learning difficulties and the importance of art in education. In her free time she enjoys walking, birdwatching, drawing and dancing.

Hannah Rye

Hannah grew up in the rural county of Shropshire where, inspired by the romantic writers and the magic of the rolling Shropshire hills, she quickly developed a passion for literature and writing. She went on to study English Literature at Oxford Brookes University, graduating with an MA in English Literature in 2016 after writing an Ecofeminist Recovery dissertation of the twentieth century Shropshire author Mary Webb. During her time in Oxford Hannah volunteered at the Gatehouse Soup Kitchen and raised money for children and schools around the world with the charity Childreach International, which concluded with her summiting Mount. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in the summer of 2015.

Determined to continue nurturing her passion for the English language and education, Hannah began a GCSE tutoring and teaching assistant role at the local secondary school in Oxford, before embarking on her teacher training which she completed in 2018. It was here she taught GCSE, A Level and IGCSE English Language and Literature, and supported teaching within the EAL and refugee student programmes.

In a bid to follow the footsteps of some of her favourite writers, the Brontë sisters and Ted Hughes, Hannah relocated to the small town of Hebden Bridge in the beautiful Calder Valley of West Yorkshire in 2019, where she spent two years teaching GCSE English Language and Literature at another local secondary school. She now lives in the market town of Ludlow on the Welsh Marches with her partner and their baby boy, where she has most recently been an AQA examiner for the 2022 GCSE Literature exam series.

Hannah has now turned her attention to alternative education with a particular interest in creative writing and the importance of cross-curricular teaching. In her spare time she attends the local creative writing group in Ludlow and her interests include home cooking, listening to and writing music with her family, yoga, theatre, long walks in the countryside – but is also just as happy curled up with a good book of course!

Lindsay Gale

Lindsay grew up in the Lake District surrounded by mountains, woodlands and water which fostered a lifelong love of the outdoors. As a teenager Lindsay was introduced to Yoga by her mother and at 18 she deferred her entrance to university to study for a year with the International Centre for Yoga Education and Research. Yoga, meditation and breathwork has kept Lindsay company during her life and she has taught and practiced for over 30 years. Lindsay read English Literature and Language at the University of St Andrews before going to the University of Newcastle to complete her PGCE in English and Drama. Her teaching career began in the leafy suburbs of Northumbria and has since taken her to Kendal, Leeds, Guatemala and Portugal. When her son was a baby, Lindsay trained to be a birth and postnatal Doula supporting many women on their journey through pregnancy, birth and early motherhood. As part of her commitment to positive birth experiences she co-created Birth Positively and antenatal course and programme for new mothers called ‘Mindful Mamas’ which utilised mindfulness techniques to help with the often challenging times of early parenthood. Lindsay loves to be in nature and resides on the wild coastline of the Costa Vicentina natural park in the South West of Portugal. She is a regular cold water dipper and enjoys trekking in woods and hills. Lindsay is a self confessed bibliophile and always has a huge pile of books on her bedside table.

AARON KETCHLOVE

Aaron graduated from Cardiff University in 2005 with a BA (Hons) in Astrophysics. After a couple of years working in the finance sector he decided to train as a teacher and graduated from Cardiff University with a PGCE in secondary education in 2007. In 2009 Aaron and his partner, Lucy, decided to pursue their mutual ambition to travel so they moved to Nanjing, a city in the Jiangsu Province of China, where Aaron taught physics, chemistry and mathematics to GCSE and A level students at international and Chinese schools. By 2011 he was the head of science at one of the most prestigious schools in Beijing. During his second year in Beijing Lucy had moved back to the UK to train as a teacher, he missed her dearly and so he made the decision to go back to the UK during the second year of her qualification. During this year he studied at Cranfield University and in 2013 graduated with a Master’s degree in Aerospace Dynamics. They then both moved to Chengdu in the Sichuan Province of China, close to the Tibetan region. Aaron and Lucy are major ‘foodies’ and Chengdu is a UNESCO site of Gastronomy. This allowed them to explore their mutual love of cuisine while continuing their teaching careers. In 2016 they left China, got married on the West coast of Wales and moved to Portugal to start a family. Before the pandemic Aaron was teaching at alternative educational establishments, including a Forest School and a peace research village in the Alentejo region. When the pandemic hit he switched to teaching online and has since transitioned to teaching entirely online. As well as teaching online he is also an examiner for GCSE, A level and the IB Diploma Programme in physics. During his spare time Aaron practises Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, he organises stargazing/astronomy events in his local area and spends lots of time with his wife and two young children.

Cara KeaM

Cara loves finding out how things work and being outdoors. This led her to study physics at Somerville College, University of Oxford, where she graduated in 1995. A PGCE at the University of Manchester the following year began her teaching career. Cara has over 25 years of teaching experience and has taught in a variety of settings including mainstream secondary school, sixth form college, a PRU for pupils with medical needs, a forest school and for the last 10 years in special schools where she was the Assistant Head for 3 years. She has loved the learning for life and personalised curricula special education provides. Highlights have included taking students on residentials including Duke of Edinburgh expeditions and watching students who have difficulties in one area of learning find a passion and succeed in another area. Cara has also volunteered for Forest School Camps for over 30 years. FSC is an educational charity which takes children camping and follows an ethos of teaching by being and learning by doing. This inspired Cara to explore alternative education for her children and they have flexi-schooled at times and her eldest daughter attended Brockwood Park School for sixth form. With both daughters now living independently Cara has started a new chapter of life, living and travelling in a big red van called Tengy which stands for ten gap years. She is vegan, enjoys open water swimming and has two springer spaniels.

ALICE KEMP

Home-educated from the age of five onwards, Alice’s childhood inspired her academic interest in the creative arts and a fascination with independent learning. From the age of thirteen, she began collecting a portfolio of GCSE-level qualifications; she now continues her journey in education, being two-thirds through her BA in English Literature, and aiming to complete a diploma in Musical Theatre in December 2023. Alice has a great belief in the power of independent, hands-on learning, and has long advocated for and been inspired by youth-led activities. Her greatest achievement in this field so far has been the time she spent hosting a virtual creative writing course, run by and for children 11-16, which saw over 500 applicants per session under her management. She has already spent time as a Teaching Assistant at a local Montessori Flexi-Friday group, furthering her understanding and enjoyment of student-led, democratic schooling. In her spare time, Alice is a keen gardener, potter, and musician – and tries to complete NaNoWriMo (national novel writing month) every single year.

Sean Corrigan

Sean graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 2007 with a BA (Hons) Degree in Psychology & Sociology with Media and Cultural Studies. After graduating from university, Sean decided to do something a little out of his comfort zone and went to live in South Korea, teaching English as a foreign language. From 2008 – 2012, Sean lived in Seoul, South Korea, and had a wonderful time experiencing the Korean culture and developing his passion for teaching. He spent most of his time teaching in a Montessori school with children from kindergarten ages up to Year 2.
Whilst in Southeast Asia, Sean was able to travel to Japan, The Philippines and Jeju Island (a small island from off the coast of Korea), taking in amazing sights and life experiences which he will always treasure.
In 2012, Sean returned to England to study for an MA in Writing for Performance and Publication from the University of Leeds. This venture was taken on in no small part due to his fascination and love for creative script writing and admiration for UK comedies such as, ‘The Office,’ and ‘I’m Alan Partridge.’ During this time at the University of Leeds, Sean wrote and directed a play named, ‘The Life Lottery,’ at the New Stages Festival on the university campus.
After achieving an MA, Sean decided then to jump straight into a PGCE in Primary Education in 2013. After completing the PGCE in 2014, he qualified as a Primary teacher and from then, has taught in three different primary schools in North Lincolnshire.
As a father of three, and step-dad to two, free time is hard to come by, however, Sean is most happy at home with his family and partner, Charlotte, where they enjoy family times, movie nights and board games. On Sean’s to-do list is to get into hiking and improve his golf skills! Sean enjoys watching football, especially his favourite team Manchester United.

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