I grew up in the Lake District, UK which inspired my love of the outdoors, spending most of my teens and 20s rock climbing, caving and exploring the world. I have an Archaeology and Prehistory degree from the University of Sheffield, and I first worked as an archaeologist in New Zealand before sailing to Tonga and heading back to the UK where it was suggested that I “got a job”, so I trained as a teacher (PGCE University of Bath, 2005) and headed back to Sheffield to teach Science and play in the Peak District. Never truly fitting into the system, my first Headteacher called me a ‘free spirit’, I retired at 27 and spent 7 years having fun supply teaching and retraining. I worked in Special Needs Schools, Steiner Waldorf schools, teaching outdoor education, leading expeditions overseas including almost to the top of Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, leading Forest Schools, teaching at an International Boarding school in Switzerland and qualifying as an Early Years teacher, a Steiner Waldorf teacher and picking up an MA in Learning and Teaching (Sheffield Hallam, 2012). I also travelled a lot, often with the focus of exploring new caves in India, China, Nepal and Morocco. In 2014 I was given a PhD scholarship in Freedom to Learn from the University of Hull and I had a wonderful three years travelling the world, living from a van when in the UK, Searching for the Ideal School Around the World (see publications). I did not find the Ideal School but I did fall in love… with an Australian when at a party whilst on a School Tourism trip to Melbourne in 2016. Bozz and I now live in the intense heat and humidity of the Central Queensland coast with our 2.5 year old, Ginny, and hope to return to the UK one day soon. I work online as a Casual Academic and I am also an independent scholar involved in lots of international collaborative research projects. Get in touch if you are keen to connect!