“Introductions – G”:

Hello, welcome to our blog. My name is George and I’m the writing half of this business. I wanted to introduce myself and talk a little bit about our workshops and the inspirations behind them.

I was born in North Yorkshire and lived in a small countryside village for 15 years until I moved to a seaside town. I enjoyed growing up in the countryside and from an early age learnt all about nature and was taught to care for, respect and appreciate all living things. When I moved to the seaside, I missed the open fields and views of the village. I also missed the wildlife; songbirds, deer, foxes, even farm animals! Whenever I would think about the village and what I missed, I’d remind myself to appreciate the town for what it is and what it offers. For instance, there is a nature reserve in the town which is the only freshwater marsh in the area where many migratory birds flock to; it’s also home to a variety of small mammals, plants and amphibians – isn’t that awesome?

As Jesse shared, we are second-generation friends and do, in fact, share the same middle name, which is pretty cool, though our education couldn’t be more different! At college, I studied 3 A-levels; English Language, Psychology and Philosophy & Ethics. For me, language is fascinating. I enjoy learning about etymology (where words come from) and how language has changed and continues to change over time. Studying philosophy and ethics was thought-provoking and I engaged a lot with the material. It was all about learning different ways of life, politics, and beliefs from across the world, throughout history to the modern-day, as well as listening to and sharing our views on both our beliefs and those of others. In psychology, I learnt a lot about human behaviour and how memory works.

The reason I’m part of Suttwick is because of Jesse. She created Suttwick and invited me into her creative process, which I’m extremely grateful for. Jesse has always been an inspiration to me; she’s constantly working hard, faces any challenge head-on and doesn’t give up when things get difficult. We’ve been friends for 20 years and every time I’m with Jesse, she manages to amaze me with how creative she is; from problem-solving to her way with words, Jesse puts her everything into what she does, and it shows! We’ve spent a lot of time (and had a lot of fun) creating our workshops and activity boxes, so we hope you enjoy them!

I agreed to join Suttwick because from a young age I’ve always been curious about the world around me. So much so, when I was growing up, I used to read a couple of pages from my encyclopedia every night before I went to sleep. I was always completely in awe of new information about and experiences with nature, from planting flowers with my mum to learning about leaf types at school. I’ve always had an appreciation for nature but my want to learn turned to other subjects like poetry and philosophy; I neglected my knowledge of nature and forgot much of what I learned. Thanks to Suttwick, though, I have recently got back into researching and learning about nature which has provided great insight and inspiration for workshop ideas. Jesse and I are planning a nature walk near us so we can explore the wildlife and get inspired to create resources for future content; hopefully one day we’ll be able to do nature walks with the children too!

I am dyslexic, so making our workshops accessible for children with learning difficulties is incredibly important to me. I am designing our worksheets and all written information with customisability in mind so it’s easy for us to change any text or paper to suit the children’s needs. I believe it’s essential to provide workshops that facilitate different learning styles for children, so they can learn together and in their own way at the same time.

You made it to the end, thank you!
Sorry, it’s such a long post, I won’t always write so much… probably 🤭
– George

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