Jayne is the founder of Home Education Wales who has three children and is currently bringing up her 8 year old grandson Luke.
Her sons were in primary school and struggling badly one with unrecognised additional needs and the other with needs they were unable to cater to. Jayne tried all the usual things meeting with teachers, going in to school to read with my children and getting so called impartial bodies involved to help.
Eventually she realised that school just wasn’t the right place to educate her boys and after some research she deregistered them and began their journey into home education.
For a while I travelled to Port talbot each week to meet with the closest home education group that I knew existed and to ensure my boys had friends in a similar environment educationally and socially. After a while I decided there were enough families in and around Cardiff to start a local group so together we launched our group and quickly registered as a Home Education Charity.
So the original charity was called New Foundations Home Education and was established in 2008 then in 2013 we changed our legal entity to become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation which gave us more flexibility and less paperwork.
Founder of Home Education Wales
Ianna is a home educating mum of 6, whose family lives and learns intuitively (also known as radical unschooling).
With children from age 26 down to 6, she has had many years to watch and learn from her children!
She began home educating in 2009 when her middle son tried nursery and wouldn’t speak (selective mutism). It became clear school couldn’t meet his needs so she gave up her then career manufacturing skincare and started her home Ed journey.
Within a few months she had stepped in to take over zone 7 home education charity in Wales as the previous chair left and her two older children came out of school. Within a few years she adopted a home ed teenager whose mum passed away.
She then added two more children so while the eldest 4 are now adults (3 are currently living and working across the other side of the world) she has started over again with a 9 and 6 year old!
For a time the family have worldschooled living in several countries across Europe for extended periods, but on returning in 2021 she reconnected with the welsh home education scene.
Currently Chair and project manager at Home Education Wales, while growing her love of being a children’s story teller.
Around that, she is developing ‘Numina Family Learning’ based on her belief that families learn best together. Most recently she has been focused on bringing together the local Cardiff school children and home ed children to do cooperative sessions on harmony, inclusion and community in a pilot project.
Chair of Home Education Wales
Donna is a trustee for Home Education Wales and project manages events and trips for SHEW.
She has been home educating for 10 years with her husband and has two teen children, one of which is currently studying music in college.
Their home ed journey all started when they were living in Cornwall and they wanted to go away during school term time. Donna researched the choice and her husband was on board with them trialling home education which was only going to be for a year so they could continue to travel.
Donna, who is also a keen photographer, decided to close her photography business in 2014 to focus on home educating her 2 young children and went on to world-school spending her first year of their home ed journey traveling around Europe in a motorhome and then onto Costa Rica. Donna went back to her part of the world and made a base for her children in Barry Vale of Glamorgan. It was during their first year in Barry that Donna set up Home Education Barry, that later became a registered charity.
Donna is a big advocate of community and believes that bringing her children up surrounded by a community will be enriching, rewarding and sets a good example. Donna enjoys helping and supporting others in any way she can and finds it hard to say no to people!
Although Donna continued to travel for a few months of the year whilst running a charity she was always on the other end of the phone to support the HEB volunteers and was always organising stuff for the community remotely.
In 2022 after the covid times and a short time working with Mountain Movers Donna decided to close her charity based in Barry and Joined Home Education Wales. It was then during this time she co-developed Spirit of Home Ed Wales around the belief that home education is a normal choice and should be as well-known as other educational options. This has also led to the ever-growing events and home ed holidays with 2024 aiming to be the largest.
Donna who also enjoys themed crafts, has never looked back from that time 10 years ago when she was just trialling home education, it has been one of the best decisions she has made for her children, and she plans to continue to help and support those who are on this wonderful journey to.
Trustee of Home Education Wales
Project Manager
for Caerphilly Borough Home Education
Aimee is a mum of 4 and embarked on her home education journey during lockdown in 2020.
The decision was a collective decision since the children found the ‘school work’ set out boring and there had been a significant improvement in her children's well-being.
Despite home education being the best choice for the family, it came with its challenges due to lock down restrictions and not being able to join groups to make connections with other home educators.
However, the family continued on with their journey.
As lockdown restrictions lifted, Aimee was able to take her children to forest schools and socials but found these groups were up to a 2 hour drive away and struggled as the children couldn't form a solid friendship circle and the cost of travel was taking its toll.
So, Aimee decided to form a Facebook page, local to her Borough (Caerphilly Borough Home Education) and started a Thursday forest meet at Forest Fawr, Caerphilly.
The meet became well established and her children formed friendships that were consistent however, she need to look for a new space due to tree felling in the area where she was introduced to Sirhowy Valley Country Park.
The group continued to remain and build so Aimee started to explore what other sessions she could offer to the community.
The group started to grow organically, and her children started to flourish in each group setting.
Following this, Aimee was invited to join the SHEW crew in 2021 where the launch for the first SHEWFEST took place at Pontypridd Park.
Since, Aimee has joined the HEW committee and is now project manager for Caerphilly Borough Home Education.
Aimee uses child-lead approach for the familys’ home-ed provision and blends in Waldorf philosophy.
Her children are kinesthetic learners therefore plenty of time working with their hands, movement, and time outside offers enriching learning experiences for all.
Forest School Leader & Trustee
For HEW and SHEW
Rhi is a trustee for HEW and home ed mum to two young children who runs forest school for Home Ed Wales and SHEW.
Rhi embarked on her homeschooling journey during lockdown after seeing the huge improvements to their eldest child's education at home. Feeling that sending them back would be a step backwards in their development, they made the decision to continue. Since then, she has had her second child who has been home educated from the start.
With a degree in early years development and nearly 20 years of working with children and their families, Rhi has provided countless families with aid and education surrounding speech and language, play, and safeguarding.
She has spent the last number years with a focus on her passion for forest schooling and outdoor learning where she focuses on introducing kids to tool use, outdoor cookery skills and bush-craft.