I subsequently moved to an 11–16 school in Nottingham and then into specialist education, initially to cover the Head of English’s maternity leave. I expected to remain an English teacher. Towards the end of that year, however, I was encouraged to apply for the vacant Head of PSHE post. It hadn’t occurred to me to apply; as far as I was concerned, I was an English teacher. I got the job, and my career began to broaden.

Over the following years I completed postgraduate certificates in PSHE and Citizenship Education and took on responsibility for careers. I led the school’s work towards achieving the Career Mark award, and what had initially been an additional responsibility developed into a substantial part of my professional work. In time, that led into careers leadership, a Level 6 qualification in Career Development and my becoming a Registered Career Development Professional (RCDP).

I continued teaching English throughout this period, including after becoming a Deputy Head. In specialist education, that could mean teaching GCSE English Language and Literature, but also adapting the curriculum for young people for whom significant literacy difficulties made Literature inaccessible. Some of the students I successfully entered for GCSE English Language had reading ages of around six. My responsibilities had broadened considerably, but I never really stopped being an English teacher.

During this period, my school to develop a broader approach to positive behaviour for learning. I wrote EDR — Engage, Disengage, Re-engage — and went on to deliver EDR training across primary, secondary and special schools. Elements of the approach remained in use in some schools after my direct involvement had ended.

Later, I was designated a Specialist Leader of Education (SLE) following a formal application and assessment process. By then, working beyond my own immediate role or setting had become a recurring feature of my career. It also meant encountering the same apparent problems in quite different contexts. What worked well in one school did not necessarily transfer neatly into another, and understanding the context became increasingly important to understanding the problem.

My own route makes me particularly interested in how we talk about careers and progression. I didn’t leave school with a carefully constructed career plan that involved residential care, teaching English, PSHE, behaviour, safeguarding, senior leadership and eventually professional careers guidance. Indeed, at more than one important point somebody else identified a possibility before I did. My mum found the advert that took me into special education in the first place; years later, somebody encouraged an English teacher who had never considered becoming Head of PSHE to apply for the job.

That doesn’t make planning unimportant. Good careers education and guidance helps young people understand themselves, understand the opportunities available to them and make informed decisions. But a pathway is not a prediction. Looking backwards, careers can acquire a coherence they did not possess while they were being lived.

It has also left me with a question that runs through much of my professional thinking: what is education for? Qualifications and destinations matter, but so do independence, relationships, safety, participation, confidence, agency and the capacity to make decisions about your own life. How schools balance those purposes is rarely straightforward.

When I work with a school or trust, I want to understand the question and its context, examine the available evidence, test emerging explanations and be clear about what the evidence does and does not allow us to conclude.

That is the thinking behind Ardea’s three areas of work: Audit, Investigate and Reflect. They approach different questions in different ways, but the underlying principles are the same: respect for the people involved, rigour in examining the evidence, independence in reaching conclusions and sufficient humility to recognise the limits of what can be known.

Sometimes that process will confirm what you already thought. Sometimes it will challenge it. Independence requires me to be equally comfortable with either.