About Us
Richard left school at 18 after a fairly unsettled time including a year
when he refused to attend. He started work as a trainee actuary in the
City of London but, after 14 years there, he moved into education,
almost accidentally, but has been there ever since. He's never seen
himself as a teacher, more a mentor, guide or facilitator of other
people's learning. He's worked with EBD primary age children, 16-17
year-olds, army colonels, top managers and everyone (nearly) in between.
He's written over a dozen books on aspects of education. In 1985-86 he
took his own children out of school for a year and travelled the length
of the British coastline. He returned to education but in 1994-95
repeated the journey, though this time only around England, and was
followed by 50 primary schools through a weekly 12 page newsletter (this
was pre-internet times). Following that he home educated another of his
children through nearly all his primary years. He has travelled widely
but has spent the last 12 years designing, coding, researching and
writing the material for Owlbut's website until it is what it is today.
He is way beyond excited to repeat parts of his earlier journeys with
Molly and the resultant learning material will form the basis for the
next part of Owlbut's website.
Despite similar feelings about school Molly was determined to achieve her best and left with many GCSE's,
going on to College and beginning her working career as a lifeguard and swim teacher at various local holiday camps.
Whilst working for Haven Holidays, Molly was given the opportunity to run nature based activities, finding her love and
passion for teaching in the outdoors. For the first time discovering something that she was enthusiastic about, she
then went on to work for a Forest School Nursery where she began studying for her Level 3 in Childcare alongside a Level 3
Forest School Leaader course. After 4 years post graduating from the courses, she was given the opportunity to manage a
Forest School operating on 6 acres of privately owned land. After months spent creating and designing the forest school environment
and obtaining full Ofsted approval, Molly was able to open the school in January 2023. For children and parents it was a total
success but sadly due to finances and lack of support from others, Molly had no choice but to resign and the Forest School closed permanently.
Having met with Richard and been glad of his support at the Forest School, she decided to continue her attempts to improve
the learning opportunities of young children by joining Richard on his Owlbut project. Here, she has been able to continue
sharing her love for nature and her many fun facts and skills in the videos produced for Owlbut. Molly is looking forward to the
chance to satisfy her own wanderlust and explore and travel her own country in the next few years and be able to
share the adventure with, and hopefully inspire, their young followers.
