Adapting and Thriving in the Digital Classroom With Philippa Wraithmell

Join us for an engaging discussion with Philippa Wraithmell, founder of Edruption Education. From a teenager in Nottingham to a trailblazer in educational technology, Philippa's journey is remarkable. She shares how her father's inclusive values and her mother's mental health struggles influenced her approach to motherhood and career, emphasizing kindness, acceptance, and happiness.

Philippa's move from the UK to the Middle East saw her transition from design technology teacher to Ed Tech leader, turning schools into digital learning hubs. She discusses the challenges and successes of achieving Apple Distinguished School status and how the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digital education. Philippa's story is about resilience, overcoming imposter syndrome, and her journey to becoming an independent consultant.

Learn how Edruption Education supports educators with digital strategies, parent workshops, and more, all aimed at effectively integrating technology into the educational landscape. Tune in for an inspiring conversation on innovation, courage, and the future of learning.

Connect with Philippa here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippa-wraithmell-59b07b107/
https://edruption.com

Teach Middle East Magazine is the premier platform for educators and the entire education sector in the Middle East and beyond. Our vision is to equip educators with the materials and tools they need, to function optimally in and out of the classroom. We provide a space for educators to connect and find inspiration, resources, and forums to enhance their teaching techniques, methodologies, and personal development. We connect education suppliers and service providers to the people who make the buying decisions in schools.

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Hosted by Leisa Grace Wilson

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:25

Hi everyone. This is Lisa Grace, welcoming you back to the Teach Middle East podcast, and I am delighted. Should I stop saying delighted, guys? Okay, give me another word. Drop another word in the comment because, even though I am truly delighted to have Philippa Raith-Mell with me on the podcast, founder of Edruption Education and it's Edruption Education Disruption Bit of a tongue twister, but she is going to be talking to us about her journey from teaching to school leadership and even before that, on the podcast.

Speaker 2: 1:03

You are listening to the Teach Middle East podcast connecting, developing and empowering educators.

Speaker 1: 1:12

So back to what I was saying. Help me find another word, apart from delighted. Drop it in the comments or wherever you listen to this podcast, Philippa, welcome.

Speaker 3: 1:23

Hi, thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1: 1:26

It's my pleasure actually oh, that's another word I need to find a synonym for it's my pleasure. It's my pleasure because it is my pleasure.

Speaker 3: 1:33

This should be your thing. The words this should be you.

Speaker 1: 1:39

You know what? I only have people on the podcast who I'm delighted to have and with whom it's a pleasure to speak. So let's just lay that out there as a fact, philippa, how?

Speaker 3: 1:51

are you? I'm good, I'm really good. Thank you. Yeah, I've had a lovely day. It's been one of the more relaxing days since opening Edruption. But yeah, no, good day, a good day to have.

Speaker 1: 2:04

Brilliant, brilliant. And Philippa, like me, is a mom to boys, so the boys are at school, so I know her head is in a good space, the way mine is right now in my office. Let's go back to the beginning. I love to ask this question where are you from? Where did it start? Where did you grow up?

Speaker 3: 2:23

I am from Nottingham in the UK. I'm from a part of Nottingham called Carlton, which my husband would say is the wrong side of the river, because he was from the other side of the river in Nottingham, which is the posh bit, and my parents both well, not both. My mum was from Middlesbrough, but my dad grew up in Nottingham as well, and so it was just where we kind of were. I've lived in the same house for 19, 20 years. I didn't move desperately, wanted to, wanted to travel, wanted to go all over the place, and we didn't really have those opportunities necessarily. So yeah, just Nottingham. Girl born and bred went on holiday to the Lake District every year and came back.

Speaker 1: 3:01

And brilliant, and how would you describe your childhood?

Speaker 3: 3:05

Lots of it was playing in the garden. We were really lucky. My dad was a vicar so he had a vicarage and it had an acre of land with it where he was very handy. I often tell my children about our three-story tree house which was built out of things like pallets but it had like a little underground bit that you could climb up the tree. But yeah, he was very sort of you know good with DIY and making things and building things. So we had rope bridges and things like that in the garden. So it was very outdoorsy, very, you know, rurally, kind of not necessarily out on the streets playing. It was more kind of in the garden.

Speaker 3: 3:36

It was all about my mum and dad were very much like you play here, you know, don't kind of go and hang out on the streets and things like that, which obviously as a teenager I was like desperate to go and do the call with all my friends, but yeah, so quite quiet really. My mum was a teacher for part of my childhood. For a large part of my childhood. She's got lots of mental health issues. So my mum has had a mental breakdown, had a nervous breakdown when I was about five, which probably had a huge impact on who I am now as a mother as well. So, yeah, so I was mainly brought up by my dad and we'd have rainbow coloured shorts that we would wear, both of us with pink shoes. It was very cool, so I was very influenced by him and I was Papa Daddy's girl. But yeah, so I grew up in Nottingham very cosily in a house there.

Speaker 1: 4:20

Daughter of a vicar Like I can't even imagine what that's like. I can't even imagine what that's like. Was it one of those upbringings where you rebelled against it, or did you fall in line with being the daughter of the vicar?

Speaker 3: 4:48

That's really interesting because normally people say, oh, vicar's daughter. Because of the rebellious nature, I guess and I probably was a bit of both. I did do the altar service for a while, probably because of how much I just loved spending time with my dad, but he was really open-minded. One of the things that I've always really appreciated about the way that he brought me up and my brothers up was everybody was somebody to care for everybody, regardless of religion, ethnicity. Where you were like everybody, no matter who you were, who came to the door, he would invite you in. He would, you know, give clothes, food, help, support.

Speaker 3: 5:09

It didn't matter, and that kind of really showed me I remember going to Thailand when I finally did go traveling when I was older and I came back and I was like, oh my god, I want to be Buddhist.

Speaker 3: 5:18

And he was like, oh my goodness, it's my second favorite religion. And you know, you're kind of there as a child, you're like no, you're meant to be like really annoyed with me. And he was so excited about this idea that I'd seen other cultures and other things and and he was just so ready to embrace everything and so I was very much brought up in a place where, as long as you were happy, it didn't matter and that was the most important thing. So as long as you were happy and kind, then you were good and so that was that was really nice. And then I think, obviously as a teenager, yes, definitely very rebellious, definitely lots of things that I definitely don't want my children to do, but I'm sure they will. But, yeah, probably not so much because of the back, the upbringing of my my like the religion side of it, more for other reasons.

Speaker 1: 6:03

Okay, brilliant. So then you grew up in Nottingham. When did you leave and what made you leave?

Speaker 3: 6:09

What made me leave? Lots of things. I again, like I say like I just always wanted to travel. My biggest thing in the whole world was I wanted to fill my passport with stamps. Like I just didn't understand why anybody would would want to live in the same place for the whole of their lives. It just made no sense to me at all. And you know I've got two older brothers who one lives literally a mile away from where we used to live, the other one lives in the same city and they just had no interest in going anywhere or doing anything. It just really baffled me. There was so much to see in the world.

Speaker 3: 6:38

So almost as soon as I possibly could, I went off. I went to Sheffield Hallam for a year, realised it wasn't quite the right university for me. Then I went off and did lots of internships in London, because at the time I was doing fashion marketing, and then I actually came back to Nottingham to finish my degree but didn't live at home. I lived in the city and then then really found myself actually more not stuck there, but just for some for reasons you know lots of different reasons I did go traveling but I just ended up kind of finding a school that I loved that. I worked at there so I was in did fashion marketing.

Speaker 3: 7:11

I went used to commute to Birmingham every day working for Claire's Accessories, an international buyer, and then became a teacher and was working at a school not far from where I used to live, with children that were in a very different upbringing to what I had had and that just seemed for me like really purposeful. And then, not long after that, I had my first son. So it kind of think in some ways tied me there but in other ways also then made me kind of go what's next and what's possible and how can I experience the world in a way that's sort of safe and structured whilst I've got a child?

Speaker 1: 7:46

Yeah. So from fashion to education, why and how?

Speaker 3: 7:55

So I guess part of it was probably the commute Wasn't happy about that. But also when I first started to do buying, there was the recession. It was in 2007, 2008. And all of a sudden, all of the trips that were part of why this job was going to be so exciting, it just disappeared and that wasn't something people were doing anymore. And so all the opportunities for my level and for the levels just above.

Speaker 3: 8:17

So I would have had to have several promotions before I would have even been considered to go on a, on a you know trip out to the far east or to wherever, and I kind of thought I don't, I just don't want to be stuck in an office. But I love fashion. I love like I'm just so passionate about it and like love creating things and drawing and designing. And so I was talking to somebody and they were like you know, you can teach fashion. And I was like what? So as soon as I found that out, I started inquiring about it, worked out what I needed to do, went back university, did my PGCE and then basically went into design technology but led kind of fashion textiles, ended up teaching an awful lot of food and nutrition and leading departments and heading up departments for design technology in Nottingham. So yeah, that's how.

Speaker 1: 9:03

Wow, are you guys following listeners? That's how wow, are you guys following listeners? We're talking to someone who's done fashion, design technology, food tech and now ed tech. How did you make the transition from because this there's a lot of transitions going on here, philippa how did you transition from teaching design technology to becoming an ed tech lead?

Speaker 3: 9:29

well, in my sense, it was quite of a natural progression. When you teach design technology, you have to teach everything. You have to teach resistant materials, textiles, food, like everything, metalwork, everything. I mean I could build you a brick wall if you needed me to like that's how much you wouldn't like end up having to teach. You know, construction was something that I oversaw, so understanding it was just what you had to do. I've got an engineering diploma because of the fact I taught BTEC up to A level for engineering. All of those things are things that you just had to learn because it's so multidisciplinary, and when I moved over here, I think I expected there to be, in the same way that there is in the UK, a real big emphasis on or not as big in the UK anymore, but a real big emphasis on design technology and about physical skills and that these kind of hands-on technology skills that are based around construction, design, engineering, all those things would be really really big here as well, and actually it wasn't. There's only a few schools that have even got design technology departments in them. Um, no, children are going to make incredibly lucky if it's a fantastic subject anyway, and when I came to Repton, abu, dhabi.

Speaker 3: 10:38

I was going to be a class teacher and the reason that I was happy to do that was because, again, one of the things that when we came out here realized really quickly, that to be able to sustain a life out here, I had to be a teacher who worked in a school that my children could go to, and I couldn't work for a school that I just loved passionately because the children needed me there. It was different and I needed to think about my own children as well. So I started working there and it was well, we haven't got a secondary school yet. We are thinking about it, we're planning it, we're opening it. We do want design technology, but we haven't got it yet. Will you be a class teacher? So I sort of set my head into okay, one primary school, scary. But two, having to know everything in the world, not even just like you know, transitioning from design technology to ed tech, actually just transitioning to being a geography teacher, a history teacher, a math teacher, an English teacher, every single thing in the world, right, I mean primary school teachers are incredible to have all that knowledge and wealth of knowledge. It's amazing.

Speaker 3: 11:34

And then to change year groups every so often as well as just you know. So I mean I ended up being called in by the principal at the time and said we need someone to do computer science. Do you fancy doing it? We've decided it's going to be a standalone subject and it's going to be teaching all the children, so you'd be like a specialist subject again. It's really closely related to steam, which is something that I'd done before and I'd held conferences in the uk for, and so that sort of didn't seem so scary. And then they kind of added on the fact that I'd also be rolling out all the devices for the apple distinguished schools program, training all the teachers and doing all the other things. And then it slowly became more and more, but almost in a very scaffolded, manageable way for me who'd already had to constantly be shifting direction from different subjects to different subjects. I mean you could go through a day and you'd teach six back-to-back subjects. They could all be totally different.

Speaker 3: 12:27

So going to then teaching computing, computer science, coding curriculums etc.

Speaker 3: 12:29

It wasn't a million miles away from doing electronics or or anything else in secondary school. So for me there was that was that huge part of it, but it was also understanding and being empowered by what technology can do for children and I just see such an array of skills and support and personalization that it's really hard when you believe in something not to just get into it and just be engaged and be really passionate about it. And I think when you can see the difference it makes the children's lives and even my own life, like the things that I use technology for you, it's really hard not to think, yeah, I can just get on with it, I'll read that book for that night or I'll get through that project and I'll do that and I'll learn that to be able to train people, because it's really important. I'm a big believer in kind of making sure everybody understands why and I think with technology people have to understand why they have to see those tangible links. And so it didn't feel hard. It didn't feel like a difficult transition.

Speaker 1: 13:24

It felt it felt quite normal in terms of the progression it had probably already been through yeah, I can see now how there could be threads there that link, you know, the subjects together back up. Why did you choose the Middle East?

Speaker 3: 13:40

It was a bit of potluck. We applied I say we, my husband and I decided on the morning that we woke up and found out that Brexit was official. We basically I applied for 50 jobs just all over the world and just kind of went where shall we go? Middle East was somewhere that we'd always looked at before because it had opportunities for him to work as well. He hasn't got a degree, but he has his own business and so like we needed somewhere, obviously, that would be suitable for both of us, suitable to bring up the children. We had two children at that point and it was quite nice to be able to be in a place that we could still travel, we could see lots of places, it was safe just lots of reasons. But also, ultimately, there was a job and it was exciting yeah, I think I don't know if it was like me.

Speaker 1: 14:28

I just kind of went I just need to get out. But I got out years before Brexit. I even tried to like vote in proxy for Brexit not to happen. Still happened. So I guess I didn't do anything there. It was not successful. I didn't do anything, there was not successful. Talk to me about the movement between going from you know, helping Repton Abu Dhabi to become an Apple Distinguished School, to then really fully diving into the digital learning space. What was that journey like?

Speaker 3: 15:01

I don't know. Again, it felt like quite a whirlwind really at Repton. I felt like I picked up so many skills and so many different leadership elements and entities because, like I say, I went from being a class teacher to then delivering CPD, which until I got to Repton, I'd never done whole school CPD ever. I'd done small groups, I'd done departmental, but I'd never led a whole school CPD. So that for me was like a whole transition in itself and I remember standing there and thinking nobody knows, this is the first time you've done it, so just pretend it's not, just do it and and it'll be fine, and, worst case scenario, you look what you did and you do it again better next time. And that was kind of how I did everything and then I found that I was, I was doing it. I was like there was, there were things that weren't in place. So we were trying to build out these morals and these like different elements to the digital strategy and there weren't elements in place that needed to be there. So, for instance, safeguarding or links back to behavior policies if a child did something wrong, all of those kind of fundamental things that lots of schools do now as just part and parcel of a digital strategy were not there and it was really important for me to make sure they were so that everybody was involved and everybody took ownership of the strategy.

Speaker 3: 16:13

So then when I had an opportunity to move to another school to kind of take them from not being any technical device really, they had secondary schools at Cranley and Abu Dhabi. Secondary school were BYOD but it wasn't necessarily specific. They could kind of bring whatever they wanted. Really the majority brought Apple devices, so that was quite easy to transition, to streamline them. But the primary school just had a couple of trolleys of devices. So the big challenge was going okay, how do we get them to be a one-to-one device school in a really meaningful way where everyone's bought into it? It's developed into the curriculum and it actually is useful and is extending students ability to learn and integrate, probably quite helpfully with covid in terms of digital skills.

Speaker 3: 16:54

It really boosted it along and I think it pushed that generally probably a year or so ahead of where it could have been, because it could have taken quite a long time. I mean, change is never easy. The school was quite new in terms of setup anyway, so then to be changing a huge element like that already was quite a difficult thing to be doing. But that again let me kind of solidify a lot of the things that I'd learned, but also see them in a different perspective, see them from different people's views, see them from not as a startup, like I started repton at the fry campus and we were the first people there, we were the founding team for that campus, and it's a lot easier to set things in motion in that instance than it is to go into a school and be like, hey, I'm going to change everything, but it's fine, because no one likes that and and so you learn a lot of skills and do a lot of things that way and and so basically it kind of solidified a lot of the foundations that I'd learned already.

Speaker 3: 17:43

And that's where I then wrote the book, because it for me was during Covid, when I was going through that I'd done it before I'd experienced it, and people were saying, asking me questions about it.

Speaker 3: 17:53

I just felt like I didn't have the capacity to to keep answering the same questions, and so that was when it was kind of built into the idea that well, if I do this, then at least people can have like almost like a handbook that they can take away and they can kind of see those different areas of a strategy and and then implement their own and see what that looks like for them.

Speaker 3: 18:11

Because, again, no school strategy for digital learning should be the same, because every school is so different and so so, yes, I kind of got to that point really, and that's where then, from there it it evolved into me going and working with the government and going and working as a subject matter expert and going and working for different companies for ed tech, and just sort of started to broaden things.

Speaker 3: 18:31

And lots of times when you kind of go, people are going to turn around to me, go, you haven't got to what you're talking about at some point and because you do, you have that kind of imposter syndrome. But yeah, so I just kind of slowly built it up and whenever you hear those little niggling thoughts, I tend to go for a run or try and shake it out, and sometimes it can take a few days for you to kind of feel like you're back on track and you know you've got that confidence to keep doing what you're doing. But yeah, so it's been a lot of learning and a lot of development over time and lots of working with lots of different people.

Speaker 1: 19:12

And yeah, lots of working with lots of different people and and yeah, hopefully now I get to share that with multiple people. You will, you will. It's weird, as I listen to you talk, I feel like I've watched you come into yourself. It's weird. It's like I'm going back to like I can't remember if it was 2019 or 2018 the leadership conference, watching you like present for the first time and like let's not talk about the electricity and you know how you trooped through that. And then watching you write the book. And I feel that is how I feel. I feel like I've watched you come into your own, talk to me about writing that book. What was your process? Like how long did it take you? A lot of teachers want to write books, so I think it's good to hear from someone who's done it.

Speaker 3: 19:51

Yeah, I think I drew on a lot of my experience in terms of what I've been doing. So that was absolutely like the framework of it. And I remember writing to Johncat Education because I thought, well, I'm not going to write it if no one's going to do anything with it. I can't self-publish it, no one will buy it, not worth it. So I wrote to them on the off chance that they might be interested, filled out a document and I got the document and it was like what's your book going to be about? And I was like technology and I had to kind of start to think about what that meant. And so that was when I broke it down. And that's when I came the analogy of the digital ecosystem, about it being this foundation for learning and and even calling it the digital ecosystem. I told people I was like, oh, it's going to be called the digital ecosystem. And everyone was like what do you mean? A digital ecosystem? That's absolutely ridiculous. And now all I hear not saying I coined it in the slightest, however, lots and lots of edtech companies now talk about their ecosystem, microsoft's ecosystem, apple's ecosystem and all this, and it must have been somewhere that I kind of picked up and thought about it, but for me it absolutely makes sense. It's this place where there's a buzz of learning and people are creating and developing and growing and iterating and all the rest of it. And so I went through and I think for me, edtech, as a lot of schools, still is a standalone sidecar to day-to-day business. So how do you get an education strategy to be recognized by education lists as you build it into frameworks that are already there? So I basically kind of went okay, well, what, what do schools already do? Because if we talk to schools about what we already do, like governance and policies, tick, we already do that. Oh, okay, we need a policy for that. Okay, got that understand that, okay. Curriculum yeah, yeah, we all have curriculum. We can blend that. Oh, okay, we need a policy for that. Okay, got that understand that, okay. Curriculum yeah, yeah, we all have curriculum, we can blend that. Okay, get it right.

Speaker 3: 21:30

So curriculum becomes one safeguarding humongous area. Oh, yeah, yeah, we do that. Oh, okay, we have to digitally safeguard. Yeah, brilliant, okay.

Speaker 3: 21:38

And so almost became like a how can I get to the really hard to reach people by saying to them this is not ed tech, this is learning. It's not ed tech. This is safeguarding, because until you say it in that way, people just assume it's another thing they've got to add. And it isn't. It's just the way that you've got to blend it into what you're already doing and acknowledge the growth of the world, because it's changed. You know, as soon as someone brings in devices into a school, it doesn't matter what they are. You have to have a thought process around that, otherwise you are going against safeguarding procedures, you are putting children at risk, you're allowing learning to not be focused and to be distracting.

Speaker 3: 22:19

If there's no curriculum agenda behind it that drives pedagogy, if you don't't have governance, who's to say your staff aren't off just watching netflix all day, every day, or you know, whilst they're meant to be teaching those things like that, like you know, those are the things that are going to build the framework, and that's what builds schools into being positive, digital schools where they can, you know, stand there and stand tall and proud and say we, we do tech well, because this is built into our learning, it's built into our ethos, it's built into our vision, and so the book had to be based around things that every educator thinks of as just. Of course it's education. Of course it's what we do instead of an add on. So that was that's kind of where I started it and then, in terms of writing it it was it was calling upon people like yourself, but it was also calling upon other educators who'd had experience bringing in different technologies, technologies that can support, technologies that can also bridge that gap between parents and teachers and schools in saying, actually this is what we do and we do it because it's for education and it's about communication, and so we've sort of threaded in a range of different areas and elements, including things like tech, infrastructure and and leaders from that side as well, of it's a whole piece that that lots of people have to get involved with. It's accessibility, it's everything it's.

Speaker 3: 23:39

There's no kind of strand that someone in your, in your school can say, oh, that's not, it's nothing to do with me, because actually it's to do with everybody.

Speaker 3: 23:46

So try to get some case studies from that, which obviously helped in terms of me not having to write, you know, the full 200 pages.

Speaker 3: 23:52

And then it was my thought process around it and things and experiences that I'd had, and then offering kind of examples and support and and questions around how someone else could do it and and again, kind of reiterating that idea that it shouldn't be you shouldn't be the same as the school next door to you because you don't have the same children, you don't have the same teachers, you might not even have the same funding, and that's okay as long as you don't try and emulate something that you are ever going to be able to achieve.

Speaker 3: 24:18

So it's about looking at your vision and values and and I think that's really important. So it probably took less time than it might have done if I'd had to go out and do lots and lots and lots of research, because I kind of had already done that from talking to people. But I did sit and talk to people all over the world who were governors in schools, who were leaders, who were heads of multi-academy trust associations, both for independent and public sector across the board, because I wanted to have that real balance and showing those different elements and sides of it as well, but a lot of it was from my experience with working in schools yeah, how has writing the book changed you professionally?

Speaker 3: 24:57

That's an interesting question. For about two years I probably didn't even really talk about having written it. I guess probably part of imposter syndrome, of just like, oh yeah, I did that, yeah, yeah, it's there, kind of like not really thinking about it. But I, I, I mean, I use it as a bit of a guide for myself. Sometimes I go to it and think what, what else do I need to do, what did I have to add to that, et cetera.

Speaker 3: 25:18

I don't know professionally, I think in some ways I guess it probably has made people ask me for questions or support or advice and guidance because I've written a book perhaps they wouldn't have before.

Speaker 3: 25:29

I'm not sure whether they've read the book, whether that made any difference, but but it definitely has kind of, I guess, elevated where I am. But I don't know necessarily why I wrote it. I wrote it because I also as a, as a dyslexic child, I struggled massively at school, hugely, and I had there were very low expectations of where I would be, and so I think it was also a bit of a point to prove of kind of like I can write a book, why not? And so professionally, to kind of take myself from the first blog I ever wrote that was published in like a UAE teach magazine out here, to going to writing a whole book that's published globally and is bought globally was incredible. But yeah, I think I definitely was kind of a little journey of like my childhood self kind of going can do that, don't tell me I can't do that would you encourage teachers to write books?

Speaker 3: 26:20

If they are absolutely passionate and dedicated to whatever it is. I think if they're not, I guess it goes to the why doesn't it? Why are you writing it? I was writing it because, fundamentally, I could see there was a gap and I wanted to help people as well who were reaching out to me and it felt like a great way to consolidate it. I know lots of other educators feel a really similar way. They feel really passionately about a specific area of education that they don't feel is getting as enough attention because obviously there are so many different things happening. And I think if you've got that passion and drive, then yes. If you're not really sure why you're doing it and it's just for, like, my secondary reason, which is to kind of promote the little girl inside of I, wrote a book, probably not maybe write a different sort of book you know, I wouldn't encourage someone to write a book because they think they're going to make money or they're going to get some sort of fame and notoriety yeah, no, no, no, not at all.

Speaker 3: 27:15

Yeah, in fact, definitely not for the money, because, yeah, if I had, if it was counted in like how much I would earn if I was just teaching, I probably haven't even made a month's salary yet, so I wouldn't do that yeah, no, I think we need to set the record straight because some people do have in their minds, or people written a book.

Speaker 3: 27:36

They must have made bag from that oh yeah, and I think some people do absolutely, and there's definitely like Kate Jones, I'm sure, with the amount of books she's got and the things that come off the back of that quite possibly is is getting something out of it more than I am, definitely getting more than I am out of it. Most people are. But it I think it depends, it really depends. I think if you've brought out probably more, more than two or three, it's probably been worth it. But yeah, no, I don't think you're going to make millions out of writing a book. I think any author will tell you that.

Speaker 1: 28:08

You keep referring to imposter syndrome. Today I wrote in my newsletter that balance between humility and pride. What is it that causes you to feel as if you're an imposter, and how do you recognize that feeling?

Speaker 3: 28:25

I think initially so. I remember going into my the principal at repton's, the previous principal hey, jillian, no, not jillian, actually it was rob, um, pre jillian, although she was always really good at telling me off. If I ever could, she could see it coming and she'd be like stop it, um, but no rub. And because I said because he wanted me to do um a conference and speak, it was like a spark event and I was. It was like five minutes. I didn't have to talk for very long at all. I was petrified and he literally stood there and he was just like what is it that you don't understand? And I was like. I was like I don't know why you'd want me to do it. He was like you're leading technology for this whole school. You've just taken us through the Apple distinguished school status. You speak to teachers every single day. They come to you and ask for advice and you don't think you can stand up there for five minutes and talk to people about what you do. And I was like well, no, and he was like, in that he was the first person to ever say to me you have imposter syndrome. And I just remember thinking I don't really know what that is and literally he sat there and he explained it to me and he was basically like you, you look up to so many people around you that you don't ever think that you can be the person that people look up to, and so and that that's, I guess, a good thing. I think some, like I meet so many people and they're incredible, like wonderful, beautiful, inspiring people, and you do you kind of think, god, like no one is ever going to look at me and think anything like that. Why would they? Because it's you, you're just the person that you are, and I don't know, maybe some people do kind of walk around with this really big head and think, oh yeah, people are going to want to come and listen to me. I'm great. I don't like, even like.

Speaker 3: 29:57

I had a coffee morning the other day and I was so scared that nobody would come, even though I knew two of the people who were coming were coming from the school and their teacher told me that they had to go because it, you know, it's a best good. You know not that they had to go, but he was like they'll definitely be there, but I was, I was stood there thinking no one's going to come, because why would they want to give up their mornings, come and drink coffee and tea with me? And so you, you do. You constantly kind of think that you can't, you're not one of those people, that that's, that's able to do that and impart that knowledge and that information.

Speaker 3: 30:30

But I think, like I said before, about the CPD standing there and going, what's the worst that could happen and I think that's what I always tell myself is is does it matter who Like? So you'll get back up, you'll dust yourself off and you'll go again, and that, for me, is the biggest part of it. And I think I do question myself a lot. I am very aware. Shout out to Dr Helen Wright, who's amazing. Two deuces for Dr Helen.

Speaker 3: 30:55

Just incredible, like a massive amount of it is to do with the way that my education and my experience at school happened, but also being the third of three children, and you know what happens to the third child they just get on with it right.

Speaker 3: 31:12

And so never quite having that champion and never having people to necessarily acknowledge when you are doing things really well. And I didn't find out I was dyslexic until I was at university. So I constantly was told read what's on the page, not what you think is there. Stop like that's not what it says. You can't read that properly. Standing up and doing my times tables and being screamed at across the room because I couldn't recite my times tables to sit back down again and then just having this horrible fear of going to school. So I think another reason that I went into education so quickly was because for me it was an opportunity to change that narrative for people. But when you constantly have that, you question it, you question who you are and you question why anyone would want to stand there and listen to you.

Speaker 1: 31:55

I get that it's hard to listen to someone that I think is bloody brilliant say something like what you just said, because I've just, like I said earlier in the podcast, I've watched you come into your own and there are a lot of women you're not alone who are you know. They're hesitant to step up and to put themselves forward and it's sad because they're so talented. Every single time I do a conference or a seminar, workshop or webinar, anything, I have to spend I don't know sometimes an hour on a Zoom with somebody because I might have invited them, because I see that, oh my God, this person is like really good and they're like me and I'm like, yes, you, yeah. And then I have to be like on the zoom for like an hour going, you can do it. Yeah, that person over there, they did it. They were afraid this other person, that other person.

Speaker 1: 32:52

Because I'm like listen and I use myself an example. I'm like if I could stand in front of governments and leaders and heads of schools and all sorts of people I never thought I'd be talking to with my half Jamaican, half London mashup accent, I'm sure you can do it like it's. Yeah, it's not beyond you, because I had to get over that myself. I had to get over everything. I had to get over my background, my ethnicity, my gender, everything. Yeah, you know what, lisa? Why not? Like why would you?

Speaker 1: 33:28

be the one to do it like why not? Not in a prideful way, but in a way to say no, but why not?

Speaker 3: 33:35

because you're right, because it's empowering others as well. And I think, to go back to something you mentioned right at the beginning, we're both mums of boys, like for me, having a mum who is getting up every day, exercising, playing, spending time with them, getting them to school, talking to them about the right things, but also having a career where I want them to be proud of me. But I want them to see that this is what women do. They can do anything. Like I was always told that by my dad like you can do anything, and that's what drives me. I remember writing an article actually about it. You said you were going to make me cry and you I wrote an article, I can pause for you no, it's fine.

Speaker 3: 34:14

Yeah, I remember writing an article about my driving force, and they are they. Every time, I think, oh, I can't be bothered. God, do I really have to do this again? Or this hasn't worked? What am I going to do? I just look at them and think I've got, you've just got to carry on.

Speaker 3: 34:30

You do, though, like for me having a mum who and I could have been not saying that I have to be in the workforce at all, but I had to be a mum who was present. I had to be a mum who was there. I had to be a mum who was present. I had to be a mum who was there. I had to be strong and I had to be able to support them no matter what, and I have to have conversations with my 13 year old now that that hurt inside, because you have to have those horrible, difficult conversations.

Speaker 3: 34:53

Unfortunately, you know, I hear a lot of people talk about their kids being like their best friends. I love my children, but I'm their mum and I have to have difficult conversations with them and I have to step up, and all the things that I do in my work and everything else all rotate around the idea that I'm stepping up because I'm their mum, like ultimately, nothing else matters to me and that's what gets me through imposter syndrome. That and and the incredible people like yourself, like Helen, like people around me. I've got an amazing husband who's constantly championing me and asking me why. I question myself and trying to get to the root of it, but ultimately they're my driving force because that's so important to me.

Speaker 3: 35:30

But it took somebody six years ago, seven more than that, eight years ago now, saying to me you are, you've got imposter syndrome for me to even begin to recognize it. And I think that's really important is, people have to be aware and not use it as a crutch oh, I've got imposter syndrome, so I can't do that. It's very much like it's not. You know, I've got to get out of this mindset, I've got to move forwards, I've got to push past that barrier, because it's the difficult things that make us stronger. It's the difficult times in our lives that get us to the next bit and through the next hard time and through, you know, because life isn't always a bed of roses and we just have to keep going. But yeah, ultimately they are the people that get me through it.

Speaker 1: 36:10

Yeah, for sure. And you know, like this weekend I was, I took my boys away and I, we went away because my husband wasn't in the country. Well, he still isn't. Maybe by the time this podcast comes out he should be back.

Speaker 1: 36:26

He should be back because he's gone for work and I was, you know, I had, like normally, when I have weeks, like I had last week, I would sit with him and he would, you know, try to cheer me up or take me out and stuff, but he wasn't here. So obviously, I took the boys out instead and I just marveled at how mature they are and how much they understood. It's weird, because I started to tell them things in baby type things and now they're 12 this year. But they're like mom, seriously, we, we saw, like we know what's going on, like they're very, very aware, and I said to myself it is the impetus that I need to keep pushing, because they're watching, like they're very aware of my ups and downs and they're very aware of what's going on around them. You know, and we, we owe it to them to be our true, authentic selves and to show up. You know how we are.

Speaker 1: 37:25

Let's move on to more happy topics. Now that we've had our cry, mommy, cry. Well, let's, let's talk about so you. Well, hopefully, hopefully, it will be a happier topic. I think it is. You took the leap right, the leap that I think a lot of educators who have been in the profession for a while. They want to take that leap. They want to go independent. They want to do something else. Some may want to remain in education. Others may want to go completely left and do something different. What made you think this was the time to take your shot?

Speaker 3: 38:01

I guess in some ways it goes back to my children. My son's going to boarding school in the UK in September and it was never on our roadmap and we sort of started talking about it about 18 months ago and I'm absolutely heartbroken about the fact that he wants to go. But I know it's the right thing for him. He's got a scholarship, it's excellent. So my selfish mum brain, I, I was like I don't want to miss the weekend events, I don't want to miss dropping him off in September. I don't want to miss all these things. And that was my push point because for years before people have said to me you should do it on your own, and I've always had that lack of confidence of I can't do it, no one will employ me, no one will want to speak to me, no one will want me to do that, or they might, you know, they might take me on for a bit, and then they, you know, then that'll be it and then I'll be floundering in the water and I think, with the progression of my experience and understanding and more people requesting and asking for support and you know even things like the so lovely when people email and ask if you'll be a keynote speaker or do this, that neither, and obviously, when you're tied to a school you can't do things like that. And here anyway, I know in different countries it's different and wanting to support more like when I was during Covid, I had the opportunity, through Cranley, to support hundreds of educators across Abu Dhabi and myself and the team there the IT team were just we down tools and we got on with it because they needed our help and it just reminded me of the education system that I'd come from in Nottingham when I was working in those schools and I was leading those departments of children who really needed the help and people who needed the help and support.

Speaker 3: 39:30

And for me, edruption is all about empowering change. It's about the development of systems, it's about structure. It's about making sure that people have the the capacity to be able to do it on their own. I think I referenced something the other day about give a man a fish. Do you remember that? There was an advert and you always used to go on the TV when I was little? Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and give him the tools to fish and he'll be able to fish forever and that's not quite the same. But you know what I mean, and that, for me, is what Adruption is about. It's about empowering that change and supporting people to get to that point where they can have the capacity and they do have the capacity to be doing all of those digital systems right, to be able to make sure that they are empowering the future of education and changing it and not just stagnating and assuming that it will all be all right in the end.

Speaker 3: 40:18

And so it felt like the right moment in education influx of AI, lots of different things happening, lots of people requesting support and then, with the ultimate kind of personal side of it as well, of me wanting flexibility. I want to be able to work with people all over the world so that I can go and work in London for a week and then drive to his school and take him out for dinner and as silly as that seems and ridiculous, that's what I want to have. I want to be able to do it all. I want to work with as many people as I possibly can.

Speaker 3: 40:49

I want to grow the business capacity to be able to have more people working for me who can also help support that, and not necessarily just technology, about education generally empowering change, empowering and supporting education institutes to just just continue to be better and to support children to have the best education possible, and that goes from schools that can't afford it all the way through to schools that absolutely can and more, and I think that's where I want. I want to be able to be, and I just got. I got to a point where I was like I can do more, I have more capacity, my brain works a million miles an hour with different things that I want to be able to achieve, and I can't achieve it unless I'm doing this on my own, and so that's why I took the leap, but it's very scary and I constantly question it. So, unless you're very resilient and you have a good support network, I would also say be careful what are the scary?

Speaker 1: 41:41

what are the scary bits? What scares you so that people are yeah.

Speaker 3: 41:46

I guess well, I guess it was going and it's interesting because we were talking about this before but going from being like just an educator who someone's hired you and it's your job day to day, to going to kind of having to get someone to buy into you and want to understand why they would need your services and why they would need your help, you know, and ultimately kind of marketing that and getting people to understand why that you are there to help and you're not just a crook trying to sell them, you know golden eggs.

Speaker 3: 42:12

You're actually there because you really want to help and you want to make a difference and you want to support communities.

Speaker 3: 42:18

And yeah, I think the whole salesy side of it like I've had a few ed tech companies talk to me about whether I'd want to go with them and be the education on the side and I'm always very specific about who I work with and like who I support as education, like platforms, because I do think in the past a lot of ed tech platforms haven't necessarily been that educationally driven and I just always want people to be looking out to make sure that they're doing the right thing and choosing the right path.

Speaker 3: 42:43

So I'm a bit dubious of that and I also don't like the idea that I'd be there as like a hook to sell something. But then ultimately what you do as a consultant is you sell, and what you were saying is that you know, in education you sell yourself every day to the children to kind of get them to buy into the knowledge that they're trying to give them, and that's a really nice way of thinking about it. I think that's the scary bit for me is having to push somebody to understand like and actually kind of driving that and and then ultimately I guess what happens if they turn around and say no and then you've got no work.

Speaker 1: 43:11

That's quite no. They say no, but then you say some will, some won't. So what exactly? Who's? Next absolutely so. I'm putting you on the spot before we wrap up the podcast. What do you offer at Edruption? Many schools listen to the Teach Middle East podcast. What, what are your services? See if you can do a little bit of marketing, philippa.

Speaker 3: 43:33

There you go. Well, the most popular thing at the moment is my parent workshops. So I'm actually currently having them registered by Ofqual so that they will be UK accredited, which is incredible. But Digital Bridge workshops, which is about understanding how we can support, as a triangle, a parent, teacher and child understanding how to grow digital natives. So that's a big workshop that I do for schools. Um, I also do vision leadership workshops to look at values and vision driving technology that's going into your schools. So that's either pre or post implementation of devices, whatever that might be. I do a a of devices, whatever that may be.

Speaker 3: 44:29

I do a big project which is going to be a 12-month project, which I'm actually looking for schools, especially in Abu Dhabi, because there may be changes coming into Abu Dhabi in the next few months and by the end of it, you will have everything you need to have a strong and strategic digital strategy that will help you to align your technology and your values within your school and what you need to do for the next five years to be able to help, support and build capacity.

Speaker 3: 44:41

So that's a big thing and that's all about digital governance, safeguarding curriculum, like the whole shebang. Training for teachers just became a microsoft partner, which is very exciting. So we are now a an official global training partner, which means that if you're a microsoft school, we can help do all the integration implementation there. Yeah, I mean lots and lots of things. I do digital mentoring for new leadership. I go in and do some gap analysis, I do a digital deep dive audit and there's an option of just a really short one, which is a week, or I do one that takes a whole month, where we look at everything and we interview all your stakeholders and we do a big analysis and see how prepared you are for academic excellence and rigor with using digital learning and technology.

Speaker 1: 45:25

Superb. That wasn't so hard, was it? If anyone wants to get in touch with Philippa, I will drop her link and her website in the show notes, so feel free to reach out. But it wasn't so bad, was it, philippa?

Speaker 3: 45:39

Not at all. Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1: 45:42

You are most welcome. Thank you for being my guest on the Teach Middle East podcast. Thank you for being my guest on the Teach Middle East podcast.

Speaker 2: 45:48

Thank you for listening to the Teach Middle East podcast. Visit our website teachmiddleeastcom and follow us on social media. The links are in the show notes.