I never set out to create a method. I set out to understand why some children stop believing in themselves.

I've recruited and trained thousands of teachers, teaching assistants and education professionals. I've worked directly with children in mainstream schools, Alternative Provision and Pupil Referral Units, and I've had the privilege of teaching the Supporting Teaching and Learning qualification at Middlesbrough College.

That opportunity came from one of the college's Heads of Adult Learning. Years earlier, he'd been one of my trainee cover supervisors. He remembered the belief I had in him at the very beginning of his teaching journey, and invited me back to help shape the next generation of educators. That has always stayed with me.

Throughout my career I've noticed something remarkable. Very few people come into education because they simply want a job. Most come because somebody once changed their life.

On my college courses, adult learners would often tell me they wanted to become teaching assistants to put right the experiences they'd had as children, or to honour the one teacher who saw something in them that nobody else did. They weren't joining education for the salary. They were joining because somebody had once believed in them.

That tells us something incredibly important. Relationships change lives.

Over the last twenty-five years I've also witnessed education change dramatically. Schools today are working harder than ever. Teachers are carrying enormous responsibility. Budgets are stretched. The needs of children have become increasingly complex. SEND is rising. ADHD diagnoses are increasing. Anxiety, emotionally based school avoidance and dysregulation are affecting more young people than ever before.

Yet despite all the incredible work happening in our schools, I believe the biggest challenge facing education today isn't finding great teachers. We have thousands of brilliant, compassionate and dedicated professionals. The real challenge is helping children buy into education itself. Because without that buy-in, learning becomes almost impossible.

A child who doesn't feel safe won't fully engage. A child who feels misunderstood will often communicate that through behaviour. A child carrying trauma, anxiety or unmet needs isn't choosing to struggle, they're doing the very best they can with the resources they have.

For too many young people, school becomes somewhere to survive rather than somewhere to thrive. And when that happens, everybody loses. The child loses confidence. Teachers become exhausted. Support staff feel powerless. Parents become frustrated. Senior leaders spend more and more time managing crises instead of leading learning.

I don't believe schools need more committed teachers. I believe they need practical strategies that help children reconnect with learning. That's why I created Regulate to Educate™ and developed The R.E.G.U.L.A.T.E. Method™.

Not because I believe every child can be transformed overnight. Not because there's one magic solution. But because I've seen, time and time again, what becomes possible when we stop asking “how do we make this child fit the system?” and start asking “how do we create a system that helps this child succeed?”

Everything I teach is grounded in real classrooms. Real children. Real teachers. Real schools. No gimmicks. No unrealistic promises. Just practical, compassionate and commercially sensible strategies that help schools build calmer classrooms, more confident staff and better outcomes for every learner.