A 'Freelancer' since 2011, Annie offers a creative portfolio of services to a diverse range of organisations, and develops new collaborative projects through the Nature Effect CIC. An accredited Action Learning facilitator and qualified Executive Coach, she works with the public sector, voluntary groups and individuals to develop new projects and pathways for learning and development.
Examples of recent work include coordinating a project to transform outdoor learning in a children's centre, establishing and project managing a new fund to enable voluntary organisations to undertake research and evaluation projects, faciitating values-based peer groups and providing coaching & mentoring for individual clients and community leaders. Her approach is to listen, ask good questions, and help her clients to map the territory, clarify their purpose and intention, and find innovative solutions to problems. She is an Associate of Linden Learning and Learning through Landscapes (www.ltl.org.uk) with whom she offers training and development in early years education and outdoor learning. Wherever possible, she works with people outdoors and draws her inspiration and resource from the wider ecological world.
Annie has a background in teaching, lecturing and writing in early years and playwork. She developed leadership skills as Head of a large community centre and by leading an award-winning team within Children's Services for Oxfordshire County Council. She was strategic lead for the development of Oxfordshire's Children's Centres and also established Forest Schools across the county. She writes and sometimes gives talks on the subjects close to her heart - human development, outdoor learning and nature connection. She is proud to have been the generator of the now thriving and established Barracks Lane Community Garden Project (www.barrackslanegarden.org.uk) and author of bestselling textbook "New Playwork". She is a member of the steering group for the national Early Childhood Forum.
She is a mother, stepmother and newly a proud grandmother. She believes her children are her greatest teachers and her community her greatest support. Having studied anthropology she has a particular interest in earth-based wisdom, learning from nature and native traditions. She has participated in and facilitated wilderness and nature retreats in a variety of forms and contexts.