Raw Learning

21/08/2026

Our holiday clubs in the forest have been a huge success this summer.

The team have throughly enjoyed so many different children to our beautiful spaces.

The children have enjoyed lots of den building including a survival bunker, sensory play with moon sand, decorating biscuits, woodwork, building a giant web, football, Cheerio bracelets.

Our chill out camp has also been a success.

Our older Raw learners who are now volunteering with us have worked together to assemble new equipment.

If you’re interested in finding out more what we offer visit our website www.rawlearning.co.uk

31/07/2026

Thought this one from last week’s holiday club at Raw Learning is a really nice story to tell. Both children really wanted to have a go at lighting a fire as it’s something they’ve never done, they all, including their mum, were so grateful and really enjoyed the session.

What a confidence boost.

24/07/2026

Some children arrive at Raw Learning having never been left anywhere before, and we never take that first step lightly.

With kindness, patience, and plenty of encouragement, we help them grow in confidence and independence at their own pace.

Small wins matter here -because every child deserves to feel capable, safe, and proud of themselves.

Holiday forest fun at www.rawlearning.co.uk

23/07/2026

Day one of holiday club at Raw Learning

21/07/2026

What does it feel like to be diagnosed with ADHD?

For me, it came as no surprise.

Through Raw Learning, I support many individuals through screening, and we currently have a 100% rate of diagnosis. So when it came to my own experience, it simply made sense.

Recently, though, a friend shared that she suspects she may be similar to me, but feels fearful of the stigma that comes with the label.

It made me pause.

Because here’s the thing: ADHD isn’t something that suddenly appears because of a diagnosis. It’s a consistent way of experiencing the world that has always been there. The label doesn’t create it- it simply helps you understand it.

And with understanding often comes relief.

Yes, ADHD can be exhausting. It can mean burnout that takes weeks to recover from. It can mean struggling with sleep, with thoughts that loop endlessly, with ideas that refuse to quieten until they’re resolved. At times, it can feel completely overwhelming.

But it is also so much more than that.

It’s passion. Energy. Creativity. A deep, almost relentless curiosity. The ability to dive into something and explore it in a way that others might not.

For me, it feels like finally realising you’re a zebra, not a horse. And suddenly, all the things that never quite made sense before… do.

So when it comes to stigma, I would gently say this: much of it comes from misunderstanding. And we don’t need to carry the weight of other people’s lack of knowledge.

Understanding yourself is far more powerful than hiding from a label.
And sometimes, that understanding is exactly what sets you free.

To acknowledge my diagnosis I went and got myself my third ear piercing and it made me very happy.

15/07/2026

We are noticing a pattern across the girls we support (Year 7–11), many of whom are neurodivergent and currently in mainstream settings, often waiting for assessment or navigating Right to Choose pathways.

They are telling us, in their own words, that they do not feel safe to use their voice.

Not because they have nothing to say-but because of how support is being delivered around them.

We are hearing things like:

“I don’t feel safe.”

“I’m being asked to say something that isn’t true.”

“It’s help I want for my differences, not more worries added to a sheet.”

“I don’t understand why they take me out of class and nothing changes.”

“I’m told what I’m supposed to think, but no one wants to hear what I actually think.”

“It feels like I’m supposed to agree, even when I don’t.”

“Why don’t they just help me with the things I find hard?”

These girls are perceptive. They can articulate what isn’t working. And yet, too often, support is something done to them rather than with them.

We are also hearing concerns about:

• Interventions or assessments happening without clear explanation
• Pressure (intentional or not) to respond in particular ways
• Being removed from class without meaningful change in support
• Approaches that don’t feel aligned with how they experience the world.

This is not about blame. Many professionals are working incredibly hard within stretched systems.

But it does raise an important question:

Are we designing support with neurodivergent young people in mind-or expecting them to adapt to systems that were never built for them?

Equity means listening, adapting, and creating psychological safety-not just access.

We would really value hearing from others-young people, families, and professionals.

What have you seen or experienced?

What has felt supportive-and what hasn’t?

14/07/2026

After many months-arguably years-of underlying demand-avoidant anxiety, I recently completed the NHS ADHD assessment process and have now been formally diagnosed with ADHD: combined type.

This outcome was not a surprise to me. In my role, I support others through this process every week.

However, choosing to step into it myself has been a very different experience-one that has deepened both my personal understanding and my professional insight.

As I begin documenting this journey, I wanted to share some key reflections that may resonate with others:

• The pathway to diagnosis can feel long, but access routes matter.

Although my initial screening was several years ago, once I engaged with the Right to Choose pathway and provided a QB screening report, I was assessed within three weeks. I had just perceived the demand too great before now.

• Administrative demands can be a significant trigger. Despite running two businesses, I have reached a point where non-preferred admin tasks can provoke overwhelming anxiety and emotional responses that feel increasingly difficult to regulate.

• Auditory processing differences matter. At times, I have struggled to fully understand verbal instructions within the assessment process. This has reinforced for me how essential accessible, clearly structured support is.

• Support networks are vital. I am incredibly grateful to those who have walked alongside me during periods where I have felt vulnerable and overwhelmed.

• Identity is personal. I do not experience myself as “disabled,” but as different. However, this journey has required me to acknowledge my impairments and accept support-something I have historically resisted.

• Insight does not remove need. My professional knowledge as a specialist teacher, ADHD coach, and autism clinician has not eliminated my own need for understanding and support.

• Community matters. Through Raw Learning, I am committed to creating spaces where individuals can explore their neurodivergence-whether through screening, shared understanding, or ongoing support. Not everyone needs intervention, but everyone deserves to feel understood.

• I am a work in progress. This experience has strengthened my ability to walk alongside others as they make sense of their own neurodivergent identity.

For those who know me well, this diagnosis will not come as a surprise. For me, it marks not an end point, but a continuation of understanding.

If you are navigating similar questions about yourself or someone you support, you are not alone.

A shout out to the nhs providers for seeing me and helping me so quickly. Extremely grateful.

13/07/2026

This summer at Raw Learning looks different. Without the rhythm of daily sessions, there has been space-space I did not expect to need so profoundly.

Over the past three weeks, I have found myself confronting something uncomfortable: a lingering sense of being a fraud, born not from failure, but from burnout.

In that time, I have caught a glimpse of what so many neurodivergent children experience every day when their nervous systems become overwhelmed beyond capacity.

There comes a point where “pushing through” is no longer possible.

Concentration slips away, participation feels distant, and it is as though you are watching life unfold from the outside rather than living within it. In truth, I have always known this feeling in some form-but never as vividly, or as insistently, as now.

It raises an important question: what has shifted in our society that so many nervous systems are reaching this point of shutdown?

When constant connectivity, expectation, and demand become the norm, how can any system-child or adult-sustain that level of strain without consequence?

Perhaps the issue is not within the individual, but within the structures we have built.

Systems that prioritise output over wellbeing, uniformity over individuality, and measurement over meaning.

What feels necessary now is not a minor adjustment, but a deeper rethinking. A stripping away of what no longer serves us, and a careful reorientation towards what is genuinely good and humane.

This will not always be neat, nor easily measurable. Human beings are far too complex, too individual, for a one-size-fits-all approach to ever truly work.

If anything, this experience has reinforced what many of us in neurodivergent spaces have long understood: that regulation, connection, and authenticity must come before expectation. Without them, participation is not only difficult-it becomes impossible.

If you are struggling too, Raw Learning screens for neurodivergent differences. www.rawlearning.co.uk

*Iced coffees are my current soothing go to!

10/07/2026

🔥 Behind-the-scenes shout out time 🔥

This is Ria – our superb Marketing Manager at Raw Learning Community CIC, and the absolute QUEEN of all the things we never get time to do because we’re busy being with our learners.

While we’re out in the woods, in meetings, in assessments, and holding space for our neurodivergent young people, Ria is quietly, consistently, brilliantly keeping everything else moving.

Websites, socials, comms, planning, the “boring-but-essential” bits that make a Community Interest Company actually function – she’s on it.

We recently caught up to plan the next year and, as always, it reminded me that Raw Learning doesn’t just need anyone in these roles – it takes a special kind of human to deliver the pioneer projects we’re working on. Ria is that kind of human. She gets our vision, our families, our learners, and the direction we’re headed… and she makes sure the world gets to see it too.

Ria, you epitomise where Raw Learning is going: bold, heart-led, neurodivergent-affirming, and unapologetically different. Thank you for holding the fort and making sure our message lands in the right hearts and minds. 🌿✨

If you’ve ever liked a post, clicked a link, shared our story, or found us at just the right moment… chances are Ria was behind it.

09/07/2026