Here’s my story:

I am a teacher. I have always wanted to teach. I graduated from Edith Cowan University (ECU) in 1997 with first class honours and taught in schools for the next 20 years. I began as a generalist primary teacher but after five years switched specialise in maths. I worked with staff and students in primary school and lower secondary maths, at a support and extension level.  During this time I also worked in teacher education providing professional learning for the Association of Independent Schools of Western Australia and pre-service teacher education at ECU. Currently, I’m out of the classroom. I work with Paul on various projects, continue to develop Bond Blocks, run professional learning and homeschool one of my children.

 I first came up with the idea behind Bond Blocks in 2016. In the classroom I had been struck over and over with the stark contrasts between those who ‘got’ maths and those who found it really hard. I kept noticing students using inefficient methods, such as counting in ones on their fingers to complete simple calculations. I looked high and low for resources to help. In comparison to literacy there was a complete lack of high-quality resources to choose from. So, I got inspired and set about working to ‘be the change’.

During this time in my personal life my son had been diagnosed with an overwhelming number of challenges including Level 3 High Functioning Autism. I was head and heart deep in therapy and learning how to best support neurodiverse children.

It was the colliding (honestly, quite painfully) of these worlds that led to the creation of Bond Blocks. With the support of my husband (going to Bunnings to buy wood) and help from my two kids (I still remember them sitting outside sanding the protype blocks with me, getting sawdust up their noses) Bond Blocks were born. They have become my third child. I took the idea to Paul and as they say the rest is history. Well not quite – after extensive trialling, revising, learning a bunch of new skills including website development and making hundreds of videos – after an 8-year gestation period of labour and love, Bond Blocks were born.