Claire recently returned from Thailand after a four-year period teaching at an international school in Bangkok where she was the Head of Learning Support, SENDCo and DDSL. She is passionate in her belief that the emotional wellbeing of young people is of paramount importance if they are to be the best that they can be. Claire has a broad spectrum of experience resulting from extensive educational practice in both mainstream primary schools and specialist provision gained over the last 23 years. She has been a senior leader in both the EYFS and Primary teaching phases but has always maintained her classroom practice, supporting the children to be the best they can be.

Claire has worked in higher education as an ITT mentor and later became the programme lead for the ITT School Direct programme. She taught on both the under and post graduate teacher professional development programmes. Utilising her coaching skills, she supported the wellbeing of the students on placement and championed the teachers acting as mentors. As a teacher governor she led on the beginning of a project to create a happier, healthier workplace by developing a wellbeing strategy for the school.

She is a very proud Auntie to her nephews in Australia and God Mother to four children in the UK. She enjoys attending the cinema, concerts, and the theatre – and once flew to Singapore for the day to see Aladdin on stage! Claire engages in regular yoga and mindfulness sessions which really help her to maintain a balanced sense of wellbeing and she is a trained mindfulness teacher. Her passion for young people’s wellbeing led her to begin her second MA – the MA in School Leadership of Mental Health and Wellbeing through Minds Ahead and Leeds Beckett University – which will be finished in August 2021. Claire now lives in the UK with her partner whom she met on a steam train in Lancashire during one of her trips back to the UK. It would seem it is now full steam ahead as she acclimatises to living back in the UK and starting her new role with Minds Ahead.

Shelly started working with young people as a youth leader in her synagogue as a teenager and continued throughout university as a mentor leading her to become a teacher with Teach First in 2008 after finishing her degree (BSc Psychology) at the The University of Leeds. From 2015 she has been a Deputy Head of 6th Form supporting 16-19 vulnerable learners via the schools pastoral processes. As a Psychology teacher whilst teaching about mental health as part of the exam modules and supporting vulnerable students she was aware of the need to open up the discussions about mental health at a younger age. She started those discussions lower in the school via teaching Yr 9-11 about mental health through the citizenship classes at her school. Shelly has also been an NQT and PGCE mentor and supported members of staff to improve department processes (such as data and marking) through whole CPD she has delivered.

In two of her summer breaks from teaching she co-led a team of 16 teachers from England to Uganda (2014) and Cambodia (2016) for create and run a teacher training programme for up to 150 teachers in country based on the needs and limited resources available. Within this month the aim was to produce the best CPD possible for in country teachers whilst also supporting her team in their observations, effective coaching and feedback for the Ugandan and Cambodian teachers.

Shelly is the Learning and Development Manager at Minds Ahead and is excited to be part of a team that supports and enable educators to have a positive impact on young peoples mental health.