This year has started with a whirlwind of change which I am really excited about and it is time to share some of those changes. Life and our work roles are constantly evolving and the same happens when you are self-employed. For the first couple of years after becoming self-employed I chased the money, I needed to prove to myself that I could financially leave the job security of teaching.
I left teaching for a number of reasons but it wasn’t because I didn’t like teaching or working with young people. The opposite is truer – I don’t like working with adults!! I didn’t enjoy the responsibility of Head of Department anymore, I didn’t enjoy the target setting, the constant admin that sucked the joy out of teaching. Yet I was a great teacher and over the years my classes academic results showed that. It is also highlighted when I bump into former students and they want to chat to me rather than hiding and pretending we haven’t seen each other!
When I trained I genuinely thought it was for the long haul. My route into teaching came after years of working with children and teenagers that started when I was a Sunday school teacher aged about 14. I then went off to University to study social policy and whilst there signed up to be a volunteer youth worker with young people in vulnerable families, some were carers, some in care and some facing poverty. I gave up a night a week to understand the challenges these children faced and when I was ready I then would take the children out and be a safe adult for them to talk to.
After graduating I went on to be a support worker in a residential home for life limited children. I adored those extra special children and my time working there. It was an absolute privilege to care for them, even when they were very poorly. After having Chloe I then started work as a teaching assistant and was also a trustee of a local charity setting up a facility to support teenagers excluded from school.
I started working in the school’s behaviour unit and completed a LEA authority qualification in advanced behaviour management. I was then encouraged by the schools deputy head to do my PGCE which I did in English – I was proudly awarded a distinction too!
I always intended to go down a pastoral route in education as I like the challenging kids, I build strong relationships that last, but I ended up falling down the academic route! I also have a great understanding of current issues around children and young people as I read and enjoy psychology and sociology.
Since leaving teaching I have stayed active as a school governor and take an active role meeting with LEA consultants and undertaking training where necessary. My experience and professional qualifications are coupled with my own parenting experience, I have a 20, 15 and 10 year old which means I have been through all the parenting stages including choosing primary and secondary schools, after school clubs, tutoring through exams, GCSE’s and A Levels and onto university life.
This all makes me a parenting expert and it is a title I have scoffed at, feeling that it describes other people and not me. I recently looked at doing another qualification as a parenting coach, only to be told the qualifications I already have are superior to what I was looking at. I am already an expert in my field.
I have been doing more media pieces lately, both online, on the radio and on TV (did you see us on BBC Breakfast) and I explained on my instagram that things are changing a little! These opportunities have come to me because I am an expert and I am a specialist in teenagers. This year I will be doing more media bits as I have been asked to be Childcare.co.uk parent expert, you might have seen their new TV ad and online presence. I have a shiny badge and will be providing parenting tips and working with them this year.
I feel really comfortable with this role and I have to get used to the label ‘parenting expert or specialist’ because it is what I am. I have been writing less about my children and writing more generic pieces about parenting teenagers and children because my knowledge can be applied to way more than my own kids and my experiences. My tips and advice are based on more than parenting just my three, it is supported with years of working with children from all backgrounds in a variety of settings.
I am really excited as to what the year ahead will bring and I wanted to share the changes with everyone. This post feels a little self indulgent but if you see me being referred to as an Emma Bradley parenting expert or specialist I wanted to take a page to share why. It isn’t a title I have awarded myself it is a title based on my qualifications and I just need not squirm about it!
