"Children need to learn in a place that allows them to learn through play and at their own beautiful pace. As after all, it is their education and not ours".

Alice is an Early Years Teacher & Director of Play-Led Places. She is originally from Manchester in the United Kingdom and now lives in Auckland, New Zealand. Whilst Alice grew up she never stopped exploring and playing outside with her neighbours after school.

Today she remains certain that these childhood experiences are the foundations to her own creativity and confidence! Alice’s passion for play and patience within childhood began when she was studying for her A levels at the aged of sixteen. Throughout her studies, she voluntarily worked at a state nursery where her mum taught and coached a group of children at the Sports City Athletic track in Manchester. These hands-on experiences allowed Alice to learn about both the value of play and blossoming children’s self-esteem.

At Leeds Beckett University in the U.K. Alice gained a first-class honour in Early Childhood Education Studies leading to the award of Qualified Teachers’ Status. In addition to this she was also awarded Outstanding Academic Achievement by her university for attaining the highest grades in her year group. Alongside training, Alice enjoyed being actively involved in volunteering for The Children’s Society & The Hearts Project in Leeds whilst additionally teaching overseas in Romania and Poland. Once she had qualified, she taught in the early years of primary school for three years in Manchester before moving to pursue a teaching post in Frankfurt, Germany. After this, she then continued to shape her professional development by moving to Auckland in 2018 to start a teaching post in Auckland. Throughout these teaching experiences, Alice has always taught within a play-based learning environment that fosters child-led planning and creativity. Whilst in her teaching post in Auckland, Alice enjoyed leading and developing the play-based learning curriculum at the school where she taught as well as hosting several local cluster events.

Currently, Alice is teaching part-time, mentoring beginner teachers & students, and delivering her own professional development about play-based learning for teachers in New Zealand. She is also particularly fascinated by The Arts in regard to how children explore and grow with these throughout their play. Whilst she was training at Leeds Beckett University, Alice chose to focus her dissertation research project on the value of singing within an early year setting. She is very much looking forwards to continuing from this curiosity of hers as she will be starting her master's studies next year.

Overall, Alice is incredibly passionate about developing more opportunities for play and understanding of patience across childhood!