Teacher. Parent. Autistic.

Hi. I’m Chris. I’m an experienced teacher, parent to two fabulous autistic children and I was late diagnosed autistic. I founded The Green Shoots Project after fourteen years of working as a class teacher in various primary schools. I have led schools in English, Maths and Science and worked as a Deputy Head. During my years as a classroom teacher, I found myself specialising in working with autistic children and, as I better understood my needs, was better able to read and respond to theirs.

I set up the The Green Shoots Project to support Primary and Secondary school aged autistic children across Brighton and Hove because I am passionate about education but acutely know the challenges of our current education system. A plethora of factors mean that mainstream schools so often are unable to adequately support autistic pupils (and autistic teachers) to thrive and, more than this, a lack of accommodation and support means autistic children are far too often traumatised by the experience. I know, for myself and autistic children, that in the right environment our natural curiosity, love of fact finding and problem solving means we can be accomplished learners and thrive in education. As an autistic adult, I am keenly aware of the importance of providing a supportive and structured learning environment that lacks the over stimulation, demand and narrow focus that classrooms and schools insist upon.