About Nicola
I’ve spent years on both sides of the school meeting table.
First as an educator, including years working with gifted learners. Then as a parent trying to understand a profoundly gifted neurodivergent child in systems that did not always make sense of the whole picture.
Teacher first
My professional background is in primary education, gifted education and learning support. Teaching taught me how much information a classroom gives you when you know what to look for: the child who understands the concept but cannot organise the output, the child whose behaviour changes when the task demand changes, the learner whose ability is obvious in conversation but much harder to see on paper.
It also taught me that schools work inside real constraints. Teachers have classes, timetables, curriculum demands and assessment requirements. Useful support has to make sense in that world too.
Then the parent side of the table
Parenting changed the questions I asked.
My son is profoundly gifted and neurodivergent. His story belongs to him, especially now that he is an adult, so I am careful about which parts I tell. What I can say is that being his mom taught me what it feels like to arrive at a meeting with reports, observations and a child you know deeply, and still struggle to get all of those pieces understood together.
The report matters. So does the person the report is about.
What I do now
My work starts by understanding the learner before recommending support. I bring together the evidence that already exists and look at what it means educationally: reports, school history, teacher feedback, parent observations, the learner’s own experience, strengths and the places where ability and performance do not seem to match.
From there, the work may include Report to Reality, gifted and twice-exceptional support, school fit and learning pathways, parent-school communication or a bespoke academic support guide.
What I pay attention to
I want to know what the professional evidence says, what the parent has noticed over years, what the teacher sees in the classroom, what the learner says about their own experience and where the child’s strengths are being overlooked or carrying too much of the load.
I am an educator, not a diagnostician. I do not replace educational psychologists, doctors, occupational therapists, speech therapists or other registered professionals. My role is to help translate what is known into something useful for learning and school life.
How the different parts fit together
The Neuroparenting Hub is my professional home. BABS is the collaborative practice I share with Lauren Kyte and Kate La Trobe. The Neuroparenting Newsroom is where my longer-form writing lives. The Other Way In is my collection of learning resources for learners who need a different route into the material.
I will not always have an immediate answer
In fact, I am suspicious of anybody who can look at a complicated child and promise one too quickly.
What I can promise is that I will look carefully at the information in front of us and ask whether the explanation we are using actually accounts for the child we are trying to support.