I started the company in 2009 when Charlotte was very small. In 2014, Alistair quit his job in IT to join me as a director and was our family business up until its closure in 2023.

Prior to Flying Start, I was a primary teacher for twelve years, teaching in both the state and private sectors, with a stint as a senior manager before leaving on maternity leave.

I truly loved teaching but returning to the classroom as a new mum just wasn’t working out for me. The stress of juggling work and motherhood and the cost of paying for the associated childcare just made the whole situation seem somewhat pointless.

So I took a chance, quit teaching and set up as a private tutor. Fortunately, the tuition took off and I soon found myself at the helm of a rapidly expanding business.

Around that time, I came across neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). Intrigued, I signed up for a practitioner training course and qualified in 2010. That week changed my life in many ways - both on a personal and professional level. Not only did it change the way I perceived myself and the world around me, it also reignited my passion for learning and set me on a path of personal development that is still very much ongoing.

But it wasn’t all about me. All through that week I kept remarking how I wished I’d known this stuff when I was a teacher…and I couldn’t stop wondering what an impact that would have had on my students.

Keen to find out, I began to introduce elements of NLP into the lessons at Flying Start. As I’d suspected, the children were very receptive and the benefits, both to their learning and their wider lives soon became apparent.

Over the years that followed, we embedded NLP into our lessons and it’s become a fundamental element of what we’re all about. Flying Start has continued to grow and has evolved into a company that I’m very proud of. I feel lucky to be part of a fantastic team and we’ve won a number of awards for our unique approach to tuition.

In 2012, our second daughter, Ava, was born and not long after, we decided to pull Charlotte out of school to home educate her. She is now thirteen and shows no signs of wishing to return to formal schooling.

Apart from a brief stint in school last year (during a global pandemic - perhaps not the best timing!) Ava has been home educated throughout her life. We are still on that journey today and it continues to be a steep learning curve for us all!

Life as a home educating family can be both wonderful and stressful (as with any type of life!). Every day is different and it’s given me a totally new insight into learning and childhood development. It’s also caused me to seriously question the schooling system in this country. (To find out more about my views on education, take a look at my blogs.)

Rewarding and exciting though this journey has been, for much of it, life has felt like a constant juggle. Running a business, home educating, looking after our pets (at one point we had a dog, a cat, two rabbits and three guinea pigs…now we have two dogs and a different cat!) and everything else that comes with the life choices we’ve made, often left me feeling frazzled and overwhelmed.

For the best part of ten years, I lived under the constant shadow of an invisible sand timer, spreading myself too thin and lurching from one deadline or appointment to another…All the while carrying a niggling feeling that I was never doing anything as well as I wanted to. Inevitably, I was a (mid-life!) crisis waiting to happen…and it all came to a head one fateful bedtime about five years ago…

To find out what happened, read my story: Taming my jackal

The pandemic effect

In March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic hit our shores and life as we’d known it changed forever. As the ramifications of the pandemic unfolded across the globe, I experienced a rollercoaster of emotions as so many of my previously held thoughts and beliefs were challenged and shifted.

In my quest to understand what was going on – both around me and within me, I’ve spent much of the past year on what’s felt like a rapid programme of self-discovery!

I’ve read books, watched webinars, taken online courses, undergone coaching, continued my NVC journey and, during the brief pause between lockdowns last year, I completed my NLP Master Practitioner training.

The outcome of all this? I’ve experienced a noticeable shift in the way I view life and in how I show up each day. It’s helped me to make the shift towards what I like to call ‘big hearted living’: showing up each day from a place of compassion and with an open heart and my compassion glasses on. I feel much more acceptance and greater empathy for myself and others as a result.

Those pandemic years were really tough but I’ve now come to understand that the life we experience each day is all about choice. I can choose what to focus on and how to react to what happens around and within me. Thanks to my previous NLP and NVC training, I’ve understood this in theory for many years but it’s taken a global pandemic to help me to fully take it on board!

That’s not to say I’m a ‘finished product’ - I don’t believe any of us ever are. I still have my daily battles with my jackal but I’m learning to listen with my giraffe ears on and my giraffe heart open wide…And I’ve come to realise that I’m most able to do this when I prioritise looking after my own needs. If you’re a parent too, you’ll understand how hard this is to do! But I really can’t stress this point enough: in order to fully embrace big hearted living, it’s essential we look after ourselves and learn how to nurture our inner giraffes.

How I nurture my inner giraffe

At heart, I’m an introvert. I love spending time with my family and friends but I also need plenty of time alone – time to reflect, reconnect with myself and to nourish my soul. In my ‘me’ time, I love going on clifftop walks, swimming in the sea, learning about other people’s perspectives on life, walking barefoot on the ground, listening to music, singing with my choirs (and by myself all round the house!) and playing my ukulele.