I am the mother of a wonderful little girl. She is gentle, playful and loving, and thrives in the company of other children of all ages. My background is in teaching children aged 6-14 how to sew, and working with the local council to help support the wellbeing of women experiencing mental health difficulties, use craft and sewing. I have completed a degree in psychology. After having had my daughter this interest and experience in psychology has led to a passion for child development and emotional wellbeing. I then went on to approach my own parenting in a natural, gentle and respectful direction. These perspectives are a part of my childminding practice too. I am an Aware Parenting mentor and help support families using therapeutic play and holding of emotional expression.

TreeBug Childcare utilises alternative approaches in our settings. We run on democratic and consent based governance This means we take into consideration the wants and needs of the children, we ask for consent before acting and encourage and facilitate the children to hear everyone’s voice of consent and give their own consent. The children’s learning is self directed and child led. We as practitioners follow the work of Anna Ephgrave and we plan in the moment following each child’s interests, needs and stages of development. We create enabling environments to encourage child autonomy and confidence. We consider children to have an innate desire to learn and explore their world. We support free emotional expression and use play discipline to support children to be stress free and able to engage contently and purposefully in their environment, learning and development and relationships.