I’m a connector.

A letter from Kirsten

I grew up internationally.

I attended some of the early international schools in Kenya, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Geneva and Athens. This sector has always been my home.

Why this initiative now?

After more than 25 years working in international schools — leading professional learning, building programmes and curriculum, and training, coaching and mentoring teachers — I have learned that improving learning rarely comes from one approach, framework or initiative.

I’m tired of systems, processes and repeated packaged PD. I want to get back to what matters: working with schools, leaders and educators to make sense of learning and improve it.

My work is shaped by purpose, connection, growth, support and inspiration.

I want to understand what we are trying to improve and why. Connect ideas in ways that make sense. Create the conditions for people to grow. Provide the right support along the way. And bring enough inspiration to open up new possibilities.

I connect people with people, ideas with ideas and people with ideas.

That has always been a big part of how I work. I listen, notice connections, bring different thinking together and introduce people and ideas that might be useful to each other.

I’m often asked why my work covers such a diverse range of areas.

I don’t want to be pigeonholed. I refuse to be limited.

I want to showcase the breadth of what I can bring because it gives us more places to start.

But I construct in the same way I did in the classroom: designing what meets the needs, based on my experience and knowledge.

I build deliberately with clients. We work out what matters, make the connections and shape the learning around the people, the context and the purpose.

I draw on deep experience and a wide knowledge base.

My training in Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction and Cognitive Coaching, my experience facilitating IB professional development, and years of working alongside teachers and leaders around the world all shape what I do. Add to that a slightly ridiculous number of books, and there is always another idea worth connecting.

What matters is making sense of everything in context, selecting, connecting and adapting it to provide the best learning possible.