Hi, I'm Laura!
Welcome to my Bio page — otherwise known as the “look, I’m a real human and not a bot trying to sell you a scam” page. Think of it as my certificate of authenticity: part “I promise I’ve actually stood in front of a classroom full of teenagers” and part “please don’t swipe left just yet.”
My Debut Era
This is me, baby-faced at 23 — back when I believed the Ralph Lauren blazer my mum bought me for my birthday and an Honours degree from Durham Uni would get me through my first year of teaching. I was wrong.
My cats soon discovered this was the best way to get my attention, as I burnt through my twenties chasing the perfect lesson plan.
My Feline Intervention Era
Because I was told that the best way to get students to behave was to have them over-stimulated in a large range of highly differentiated tasks.
I soon learnt that if I marked a frankly ridiculous number of exam scripts each summer, I could just about afford a holiday. So that’s what I did. Cue this selfie: visiting my folks in North Yorkshire while still neck-deep in A-Level Tudor papers. My dad suggested I take a break by visiting the local monastery. He didn’t quite catch the irony.
My Hustle Era
Yes, it did earn me money. But it was also the best CPD I've ever received. Forget Round-the-Room and Stand-Up-Sit-Down. What students really want is to know that you know the exam spec inside out.
By my thirties, I finally landed my dream role in a school where I wasn't being judged for my quirks. I’d also made it to Head of Department, running my own curriculum (enter: the entire Tudor dynasty), and even had enough spare cash to start visiting the historical sites I used to just teach about.
My Pink-Haired Era
With this newfound freedom, I set about streamlining an over-complicated curriculum and mentoring the next generation of History teachers who came through our gates for training.
My favourite day as a teacher? World Book Day — when I cosplayed as Snape. Ignore the dodgy costume though, and clock the bags under my eyes. The pandemic had not been kind to this teacher edition of Hermione Granger.
My Burn Out Era
During the Covid year 2020–21, I served as Assistant Head of Year 11. My role was to ensure everyone had their life jackets on, while the Head of Year was busy extinguishing a raging fire in the coal bunker. What I learnt was this: guiding one student to a hard-won Grade 4 in English could feel like a far greater victory than seeing a dozen achieve a Grade 9 in History.
And then this happened — the arrival of identical twin boys! Henry and William - named after two conquerors of England! At the same time, I also gave life to another baby: Socraflix. I call it my triplet tech baby, because the idea for a ‘Netflix-style’ revision tool came to me during my IVF journey. Much of my pregnancy and maternity leave was spent sketching it out, building it up, and tearing it back down again (did I mention I’m a perfectionist?). I was no longer seeing Snape as my Hogwarts inspo - but Molly Weasley!
My Twin Mum Era
