About Me

Qualified Teacher

I'm a qualified teacher from England with over 1 years of teaching experience, mostly in international schools around the world. My my most recent school role was as Head of Primary English at the British School Manila.

A Change in Direction

Like many teachers, I became interested in the things that affect student happiness and progress.

Why do some children struggle to believe in themselves? Why do anxiety, self-doubt, strong emotions, and negative thinking so often get in the way of learning? Why do some children feel unworthy of friendship?

After the pandemic, I left the classroom and set out to explore these questions more deeply.

Learning in a Buddhist Monastery

I spent two months living in a Buddhist monastery and a further four months studying in the surrounding community. During this time, I spent my days learning from monks who’d dedicated their lives to supporting others. They did this by showing love and kindness, and by teaching concentration, awareness and attention practices - all of which help regulate the mind and body.

Young Monks in Training

What surprised me most was not only what I learned from the monks themselves, but what I observed in the children living and studying at the temple. Many had come from challenging backgrounds and had been adopted into the monastery's care. Alongside attending mainstream school, they regularly practised attention training, awareness exercises, and concentration techniques as part of their daily lives.

I saw children who were calm, focused, emotionally resilient, and capable of managing difficult feelings with remarkable maturity. It made me wonder what might be possible if these same skills could be taught in modern classrooms.

Bringing These Ideas Into Schools

Over the following two years, I adapted these practices for schools, testing and refining them through volunteer work, small-group programmes and online sessions. My goal was simple: to create practical attention-training strategies that teachers could use within real classrooms, with real students, and within the realities of a busy school day.

The result is Teach Attention Like a Monk.

Today

Today, my work helps teachers develop students' focus, self-awareness, emotional regulation, and independent learning habits through simple, practical attention-training activities designed specifically for schools.

Because before students can manage their learning, they first need to learn how to manage their attention.