People, places and tools I trust
Parents ask me all the time who I know, where I would look and whether there is someone I trust with a particular part of the picture.
I do not want this to become a giant directory. The people, places and tools here are included because I have a genuine personal or professional reason for putting my name next to theirs.
Schools and learning environments
A PERSONAL RECOMMENDATION
Barbra Robinson and Orion College ↗
Barbra has a particular place in our family’s story because she was one of the people who recognised that what was most visible in James was not the whole picture. She saw the child behind what was presenting at school. I have never forgotten that.
Why I trust her: being able to recognise ability, difficulty and the person underneath both is important to me. Barbra did that for us.
Worth exploring if: you are looking at a supported school environment and want the conversation to include who the learner is as well as where they are struggling.
FEATURED SCHOOL AND PATHWAYS RESOURCE
EDU360 Integrated Education ↗
I know EDU360 professionally and through my work around different educational pathways. I value it because when a school is no longer working, the answer is not necessarily another version of the same school.
EDU360 brings School, College and integrated therapeutic support into one specialist education setting. Its School supports learners who need moderate to high levels of academic and emotional support. Its College is for learners with academic potential who learn differently and need structured support towards an academic or vocational qualification. Depending on the learner and programme, pathways include ASDAN, Cambridge and Pearson BTEC.
Why I include them here: school fit can involve the environment, support level, curriculum and eventual qualification route. EDU360 gives families somewhere to explore those questions together.
Worth exploring if: your child learns differently and you are questioning whether their current school model, level of support or qualification pathway still fits.
Assessment and medical support
EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
Naledi Mokoena, Leeto Child Development Centre ↗
Naledi is an educational psychologist whose work I have seen through other families. I include her because there are questions where good educational observation can take us a long way, and others that need proper professional assessment.
Why I trust her: I want somewhere credible to send a family when assessment really is the next piece we need, rather than recommending another assessment simply because a child is struggling.
Worth exploring if: you need an educational psychologist or psychoeducational assessment to understand the learner more fully.
FAMILY MEDICINE
Dr Moray Shirley ↗
Moray is our family doctor and somebody I trust with the complicated bits. That is a fairly high bar in our family.
Why I trust him: he is comfortable looking at attention, mental health, physical health, sleep and school functioning as parts of the same child. I value that enormously.
Worth exploring if: you are looking for a family doctor comfortable working with children, adolescents, ADHD and mental-health concerns.
Parent and family support
PARENT AND FAMILY SUPPORT
Lauren Fischer and Harmony at Home ↗
A child can have an entire team around them while the parent is still carrying an extraordinary amount alone. Lauren gives me somewhere I am comfortable pointing families when the person who needs some support is the parent, or when the strain is showing up in the family around the child.
Why I include her: sometimes adding another intervention for the child misses the person who is actually running on empty.
Worth exploring if: you need support for your own wellbeing, parenting or family relationships.
Tools and platforms
FEATURED TOOL AND PLATFORM
Dalza ↗
Dalza solves a problem I know from both sides. As a parent, I know what it is like to be the person carrying the reports, the history, the school conversations, the therapist updates and all the small pieces that never seem to live in the same place.
As an educator, I also know how much gets lost when every person around a child is working from a different piece of the picture. Dalza gives the parent one place to keep that picture together and decide who gets access to what.
Why I trust it: I did not come to Dalza because I needed something to recommend. I became involved because I recognised the problem it was built to solve. It is practical, parent-controlled and built around something I care about deeply: the people supporting a child should be able to see the child more clearly, without Mom having to spend her life joining the dots for everyone.
Worth exploring if: you are carrying your child’s history in your head, forwarding the same reports again, repeating the same background to new professionals or trying to keep several people around your child connected.
Why the list is short
I would rather recommend six people, places or tools and be able to explain why than fill a page with names I barely know. I will add to this collection as I find people, places and tools I am genuinely comfortable putting my name behind.