EXpand Learning Online

30/09/2025

30/09/2025

A wise man once said: history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. I just experienced that with an episode very similar to the one which led to the start of Virgin Atlantic...

When I was 28 years old, I due to fly on an American Airlines flight to the BVI when it was cancelled. I ask the other passengers who wanted to get to the BVI that night to wait. I went to the back of the airport, hoped my credit card wouldn’t bounce, hired a plane, and found a blackboard. As a joke, I wrote ‘Virgin Airways: $39 single flight’ and filled up the plane with all my fellow stranded passengers. The rest is history.

Fast forward to yesterday, when once again I found myself on an Americans Airlines flight from Miami to the BVI. We were diverted to Puerto Rico due to bad weather. We were then told, once again, by the powers in head office that be, that we had to get off the plane and return at 7am the next morning. Déjà vu!

But our forecast showed the weather in the BVI was going to clear up in a couple of hours. So once again I went around and talked to as many passengers as I could and asked: “Who would like to fly this afternoon?” Enough people said yes to warrant a small airline, Inter-Caribbean Airways, flying us to the BVI later that afternoon. No blackboard required!

We filled the airplane with our fellow passengers, made some delightful new friends, and enjoyed a great flight to the BVI.

It’s amusing to think that Virgin Atlantic has been flying for 42 years, Virgin Australia for 25 years, and Virgin America flew for 11 years – all these airlines were started due to that original decision from American Airlines to cancel our flight to the BVI. Old habits die hard!
https://bit.ly/3VVqyon

14/03/2023

Interesting times ahead....

I wish I'd had Chat GTP at school. Educators have to embrace AI tools sooner rather than later. Don't you think?

04/11/2022

Take this in!

Absolutely!

17/03/2022

Spending quality time with your children today will give them childhood memories that they’ll treasure tomorrow. Even if they don’t remember exact details, they’ll never forget the way they felt
The top 10 of my childhood memories are:
Family vacations, my grandad reading my brother and me bedtime stories, some songs, funny quotes from dad, surprises ( a new puppy arrives home), laughter, playing games, my favourite curry from mom, travelling to Mozambique during the night, going to the drive-in (cinema) in our PJ's.
These memories will never leave me, I used these as building blocks to spend quality time with Daniel, my Autistic son, he treasures😘😘 wonderful memories too, never forget that building strong relationships takes commitment, love, dedication and the payoff is wonderful and unforgettable.

08/03/2022

Tantrums vs Meltdown.
Seen a few meltdowns lately, not only on children but adults too.
The overwhelm of the rapid changes in our world, Covid, Floods, War in Ukraine, are causing huge emotional fears, anxiety, meltdown. Hope this video helps, even though direct to children, however, we all have a small child in us, that is hurting, needing nurturing and love.

08/03/2022

Some flowers from Paulo today. Such a beautiful gesture. Love them 💕 thank you Paulo.

02/03/2022

This quote does not only apply to Autism, but to any sort of diagnosis, we often pull up children on the things they can't do, but do we praise and congratulate them enough, on what they are good at? Listen to yourself when speaking to a child, delete the negative words, rephrase your sentence to send positive advice, encouragement, they need to feel valued, just like adults do.

25/02/2022

Get your child organised and ready for school.
Conquer the battle of "stressed school runs".

23/02/2022

Autism!
“If they can’t learn the way we teach, we teach the way they learn.”
By Dr O. Ivar Lovaas.

These are true words indeed.

16/02/2022

Today my son goes for his first Group interview, unique as he is, he rang experts to find out what a Group interview would be like, he asked his dad about his experience in a group interview, googled how to get ready for such an interview, prepared his clothes last night ( "smart casual, mom, can you please just iron my shirt again"😁)Sometimes I wonder, how many of mainstream youngsters will go this far to do well in an interview?, Daniel is Autistic, but he is -Always Unique, Totally Intelligent, Sometimes
Mysterious.....I think we need more Daniel's in the world to create a better place, a society that makes an effort, that has pride, that has dreams and embraces challenges, if an Autistic person can do it, so can every single one of us!

12/02/2022

The tragedy is ignorance however ignorance can be resolved through learning more and opening your mind to new information.