I’m a Northerner, I come from Manchester, like Oasis and support Man City. People say, ‘it’s grim up north’ and they’re not wrong, but seriously, I’m proud of where I’m from.

I was raised on a grim council estate where things were pretty miserable if I’m being honest.  I used to regularly truant from school, because I couldn’t fit into the rigidity of what my old ‘grammar’ school thought was education.  I am now in a privileged position, where I can hopefully have a positive impact on reducing the number of years ‘in the wasteland’ our Young People might otherwise face when they leave school. 

I believe that everyone deserves an equal opportunity to succeed in education and I feel that exclusions from school can seriously hamper or stunt the progress of our young people. 

I’ve been a teacher now for about 14 years, and I’ve taught across a range of different education providers, starting with teaching young offenders, then adult prisoners, also post 16 education and most recently teaching GCSE English in alternative provision, which is remarkable considering how badly I did at school!

Getting a second chance at education allowed me to realise that I could study lots of new things and proved to me ultimately that I wasn’t stupid or ‘thick’.

That’s why I’m here, because I don’t want any of our young people to miss out on their education just because they can’t fit into the often-suffocating mainstream model.