Dr Marta Hawkins
believes that children deserve ultimate attention when they learn and play. She has been a teacher for more than 25 years and she knows how difficult it is to give that attention to students within the mainstream education system. As a mother of two daughters, who are adults now, she has experienced the pressures of exam-oriented school curriculum and of early choices imposed on them regarding subject specialisation and future careers.
From her own experience as a teacher and a parent, she knows that the greatest offer a school can give to a child is ample time and space to grow in the child's own rhythm and in alignment with their own abilities and changing mind and body.
Throughout her own career, she wanted to secure that time and space for all students. And she often failed due to the shortages and constraints of the mainstream educational systems.
She has established her teaching career at the University of Glasgow in 2000, from where she moved on to teaching at other universities in the UK (University of Edge Hill, University of East London, University of Hertfordshire, University of Plymouth, London School of Science and Technology). With three degrees and a Phd, she was teaching English language and English literature, Media, Philosophy, Religious Studies, History, Human Geography, Sociology and Psychology on different levels.
She has also consulted many primary and secondary schools in Greater London, sharing her unique vision with headteachers and subject leaders on curriculum development within the Humanities and creative methods of teaching and learning.
After many years of lecturing and consulting Dr Hawkins decided to create a framework for that precious time and space for learners, and created a university for children and young people (aged 5-18) in her own house. She has changed her living room into a learning studio and her adapted her garden to become a stage for natural experimentation and play.
She sees her students holistically as learners with the mind, body, and heart, and a specific cultural context, specific abilities and needs. Her teaching reflects that holistic approach when she engages children in the uniquely designed academic, performative, and social activities which feed back into the mainstream standards.
She does that so her learners would be well equipped intellectually and emotionally to enter adulthood and become independent, develop a career, or enter further education.
She believes that whatever age, students can start developing critical abilities in her bespoke classes and build up their own style of learning through experimenting, exploration and discovering who they are becoming!
