Question 1

Tell us about your background of working in the early years setting?

Accepted Answer

I currently work as an early years Improvement Officer and if I go back into my journey, I started off doing admin in a primary school.  Going into the nursery room, in an environment surrounded by kids, I felt like that's where I found my life's purpose.  Immediately, I knew that this was the place for me.  I was so intrigued by the way that the practitioners were setting up activities and resources to support the children's learning and development.  I really wanted to be a part of it, to make a mark and a difference in raising the future generation.

After being given the opportunity to gain experience as an early years practitioner, I completed a two-week trial in another nursery and became a room leader.  I started to progress in my career and clearly remember the nursery manager commenting that I would make a fantastic early years lecturer.

I decided to pursue an initial teacher training qualification, training as an early years lecturer and later landed in my dream job, working as an early years Improvement Officer for the local authority.

Question 2

What three words would you use to capture your creative self?

Accepted Answer

Innovative, entrepreneurial and passionate.

Question 3

Tell us about your early experiences with literacy as a child.

Accepted Answer

The first story book that I learned to read was The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  I had a very strict home learning programme and my mum used to make me read for half an hour and play for half an hour on rotation.  People would tell me that they only ever saw me with a book in my hand, as a child.

My secondary school experience of literacy was not great.  In my year nine SATs, my English teacher predicted me a grade three, which was the lowest SATs grade available.  When I saw my prediction, I thought, why even try?  On results day I was sitting there, the disengaged learner I had become, ready to receive my grade three.  The teacher called us out individually and holding the paper she was reading the results from, said “you've got a grade seven”, the highest grade.  My confidence had been dented greatly by my low prediction and I ended up coming out and smashing a grade seven.

Question 4

Did you have a favourite teacher at school and what was it about them that made a mark on you?

Accepted Answer

My favourite teacher at school was Miss Thomas, my secondary English teacher in year eight.  I didn't have a very positive experience in secondary school education because I was out of the box - very creative and very innovative.  I didn't fit into your typical classroom environment and needed constant stimulation.  I ceased to get bored with the boring.

By the time I got through the first term of year 7, I was put on a behaviour report and with Miss Thomas being new to the school, had been warned to behave myself.  I was a good student and was never rude to teachers, so could not understand why I was labelled so early on in school.  Miss Thomas was our form tutor and told me she had heard about me.  Although taken aback I was glad that she had been honest because it made me say to myself, you know what?  I'm gonna show you what a good pupil I am and be one of your star students.

At the end of the year Miss Thomas told me that despite all the things that she had been told about me, I had turned out to be an absolutely amazing student.  She also taught me English and I engaged very well in her lessons.  This experience left me with a lot of questions about my time at secondary school.

Question 5

Where did the idea for your book, My Invisible Superhero Vest, come from?

Accepted Answer

On the day I wrote the book, I woke up with the thought of making myself a cup of tea and before I knew it, I'd written a children's story book.  Previously, I ran a children's party entertainment service.  Due to the lockdown in 2020 I was no longer able to connect with the families and was missing the children.  We used to get as many as three party bookings a weekend.  So when the whole world came to a halt and the lockdown hit, I was asking myself what I could do to ensure that the mental health and well-being of the children was safeguarded.  I wanted to still make that connection and started producing worksheets and character sheets for children, sending them out to parents.

I started thinking about what the right story for the book could be and played around with words, recorded myself into my phone and just allowed the words to flow.

Needing a publisher, I put out a post on Facebook and was approached to contact Daniella Blechner from Conscious Dreams Publishing, who absolutely loved the concept and vision behind the book.

My Invisible Superhero Vest challenges the conventional stereotype of a superhero, by encouraging children to recognise their own individual superhero powers.  The book is designed to raise the next generation of world leaders, frontline superheroes, innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs.

Question 6

You’re offering an international product in the book and the Academy, how is it shaping up?

Accepted Answer

I thought perhaps we could add on a service to Design A Party Greater London and that we could start running an online Saturday School throughout the country where I could create the curriculum and train the teachers.

I was approached by a head teacher in Africa, who suggested training up teachers on the curriculum, internationally, as the whole world was on Zoom.  We had children from Africa, the UK, and the USA in our classes.  My sessions are delivered in the character of Super Mel, from the Superhero Academy, and we have Superhero Academy teachers.

Question 7

How is your Superhero Academy contributing to increased diversity in education in the UK?

Accepted Answer

Different characters reflect different races and backgrounds, because I want children from all around the world to be able to connect with this book and with the Academy.

I also feel it's vital that young people have heroes so they have people they can look up to, who they can aspire to be like, who also reflect and look like them.  I heavily embed teaching the children about inspirational world leaders, innovators, inventors, and entrepreneurs, who reflect all different colours, races and backgrounds.

Question 8

You are an entrepreneur having started up the Design A brand.  How did that come into being?

Accepted Answer

I have the Design A Party, Design A Gift service and Design A Bauble.

This stems back to the passion behind the book and the Academy.  Design A Party was a childhood dream that I carried with me in my rucksack.  You can see me in the book, thinking and dreaming about it.  I always had this vision as a child of setting up a children's party entertainment service and thought we could do princess parties, action hero parties and themed parties.

The service was created to provide children with rich early learning experiences, knowing the impact of childhood on future life chances.  I wanted to create a service that was affordable where, as it says in the name, parents could design their own party.

At the age of 17 you don't have the finance to pump into a business.  I didn’t ever refer to it as a business.  It was a service and the main focus was on making a difference.

I bought tonnes of arts and crafts resources from my local Pound Shop, picked up the phone and started calling around local councils.  The vision was to go into deprived communities, and deliver arts and crafts workshops, providing children with the opportunity to access resources that they might not have at home.  A door opened when I was asked to deliver workshops in a local community.

As we started getting more and more bookings, I developed a community project at Queen's and King George's Hospital in East London.  We would go onto the wards with the characters and provide play therapy workshops.  Play therapy has impeccable benefits on speeding up the recovery process for children who are in hospital and we were able to spread a smile or bring some happiness and enjoyment onto the wards.

Question 9

You've shared your gratitude of those who have been on the journey with you by creating some very special characters in your book.  Tell us about them.

Accepted Answer

When coming up with the idea of Design A Party, Greater London and the gift service, I also had the vision of these services creating jobs for young people and developing employability skills.  So some of the characters: you've got me, Super Mel, then you've got Empathetic Elisha, who I run the gift service with.  You've also got Determined Daniela, who is my publisher.

I truly believe that it’s the role of parents, carers and educators to quickly identify those skills and to encourage children in the areas of strength.

We've got Marvellous Michael, one of the young boys I’ve employed on the team.  We have Clever Carlos, who is my son.  Carlos has autism and his character in the book is an autistic superhero.  I want the Academy and the book to be inclusive of all children. 
We've got a class of children with ADHD and if you look at some very successful people, entrepreneurs and innovators, some have ADHD.

The book reflects the fact that each and every single one of us are born with unique talents and gifts, and it's about fine tuning that.

Question 10

What challenges have you faced along your professional journey and how have you overcome them?

Accepted Answer

If we didn't have challenges, we wouldn't have this book.  It's called My Invisible Superhero Vest because it's been a tough journey.  Not everybody looks at creativity so positively. People look at you and question why you are trying to step outside the box and I've been asked so many times why I’m doing this, and told that I should quit.

Stop being passionate? Stop being creative?  Stop doing the things I enjoy?  Stop making a difference?  Why?

I experienced a lot of pushbacks in setting up these services.  You realise who's for you and who's not for you.  I would say one of the biggest challenges was support and that's why I’ve always put up a post on social media by Albert Einstein that says ‘I'm thankful to the ones who said no’, because I said yes to myself.

Question 11

What legacy would you like to leave in the future, in relation to your current work and your creativity?

Accepted Answer

I truly believe in life, we should follow our passions, and that we should use our education to make a difference.  I truly believe in doing good for others, in the power of mindset and giving out gratitude and positivity in order to attract positivity into our lives.

Image Courtesy of Melissa Titre

MELISSA TITRE

A Dream In My Rucksack