Mark Redford (BEd) HONS, EYP
I graduated from the University of Greenwich in 1997 as a teacher of secondary physical education and science and spent a few years teaching in inner London in a mainstream girl’s comprehensive school, in a school for junior pupils with profound disabilities and in a pupil referral unit. I found working with pupils who have problems with their behaviour to be both challenging and rewarding and after moving up North to Warrington I specialised in that area.
I spent seven years teaching in schools for pupils with behavioural, social and emotional difficulties, most notably at Chaigeley School in Thelwall. During that time I learned a lot about how children’s behaviour manifests itself because some needs are not being met and the importance of earlier life in shaping them.
In 2009 I became a childminder when I took a break from supply teaching to give Sally a maternity break when she had our son Samuel. This changed my direction to working with children in the Early Years Foundation Stage and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I can now see how important it is to give children a good start in life as I have seen the other end of the spectrum from working with troubled teenagers.
Early in 2012 I discovered Forest School when doing volunteer work for NCMA Local – now PACEY Local. (Sally and I were facilitators and rolled out this DfE/NCMA pilot scheme across Warrington, which has now gone national.) When I invited a forest school practitioner from Delamere Forest to give a talk about it to local childminders and nannies it struck me as a fantastic way to work with children. I was hooked, and attended a teacher training day at Delamere Forest and was inspired further. I took loads of ideas back to my practice and really enjoyed seeing how the children responded to it. I signed up to do the practitioners level 3 award and completed the initial training week in August 2012 completed the assessment in August 2013. I am a member of the Forest School Association. I am currently delivering Forest School for many schools across Warrington and Cheshire and run a forest school group for home educated children.
I was accredited with Early Years Professional Status in July 2013.
In November 2016 we took on Adlington Woods which I now manage with a team of dedicated staff.
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