I was born at the end of August 1976, in Rotherham — a town that carries the memory of steelworks, coal mines, and the working-class backbone that once powered Britain’s industry. From the moment I took my first breath, my life has been stitched into the social fabric of a community built on resilience, pride, and a deep sense of solidarity. Like many from South Yorkshire, my sense of fairness and loyalty was forged in the shadow of the miners’ strike, the steelworkers strikes and the slow decline of local industries. These weren’t just news stories — they were the conversations around the kitchen table, the picket lines, the harsh lessons that taught me that when systems fail, you stand by your own. Growing up with inattentive ADHD, though undiagnosed for decades, meant my mind was always wandering — always half-here, half-somewhere-else. At school, the labels stuck: lazy, away with the fairies, not living up to potential. My handwriting — “less legible than if a spider had run th...
My educational ruminations blog (plus other random crap)