Heather has worked with vulnerable children and young people since the age of 17, when she volunteered as a befriender with Wigan Children’s Fund. This early experience laid the foundations for a career rooted in advocacy, relationship-building, and a deep commitment to supporting young people who face significant barriers in their lives.

She began her teaching career in 2013, training to teach in mainstream secondary schools as an English teacher. Her first teaching placement, however, was in a specialist setting supporting children with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD), an experience that helped shape her understanding of equity, inclusion, communication, and the importance of meeting learners where they are.

Alongside her professional work, Heather is a parent to three children, all of whom have special educational needs and disabilities. Navigating the systems required to secure appropriate support for her own children led her to recognise her own neurodivergence, further deepening her insight into the lived experience of neurodivergent young people and their families.

This personal and professional journey ultimately led her to change the direction of her career and retrain, with the aim of offering children and young people in Devon the kind of provision her own children — and so many others who cannot access mainstream education — urgently need. Her work is grounded in trauma-informed, neuro-affirming practice, with a strong emphasis on emotional safety, flexibility, and dignity.

Heather is driven by the belief that education and support should adapt to the child, not the other way around, and she is committed to creating spaces where young people feel safe, understood, and able to thrive on their own terms.