Being Your Best Self
Jude Tisdall was appointed SSF Ambassador in 2020,
and here she explains why she is passionate about engaging
in the work of The Steve Sinnott Foundation.
I was recently invited to be an ambassador for the work of the
Steve Sinnott Foundation (SSF). My initial introduction to the
work of the Foundation was through my friend and neighbour
Ann Beatty, who is its CEO.
One cold Sunday I offered to help Ann at a stall that was giving
information on one of the current SSF projects, Positive Periods.
Girls and young women can miss up to 50 days a year from
school because they do not have any sanitary protection. There
are many situations and conditions that exclude young women
from education but until I became involved with the SSF this
particular one had never crossed my mind. The amount of
people that showed interest not only in that project, but other
work of the Foundation, was exciting and heartening.
I then went along - again to help with a stall - to the International
Solidarity Conference held March 2020 in central London.
I met many people involved with enabling access to education
worldwide. At the workshop given by Ann about the work of
SSF I was excited by the support and enthusiasm from the
audience. Lots of things were discussed, including practical
ways of making education and learning accessible. One idea
was to send bicycles to The Gambia and in the wonderful
serendipitous way of the world, there was someone in the
audience whose brother had an import business for bicycles
and a repair shop in The Gambia! Within a very short time there
was a conversation about the the cost of a bicycle ( 85) and
how we could roll out something across schools in the UK to
sponsor a bike. There was a discussion about the number of
bikes that could be provided and even discussion about an
apprentice scheme where people could be trained to repair
bikes , which in turn could create jobs. The immediate ideas
and brainstorming about just this one thing that would enable
physical access to a learning centre was amazing and inspiring.
My own background is as an educator and facilitator across a
wide range of arts related programmes. I was deputy principal
at one of the UK’s leading drama schools for many years. My
role included pastoral responsibility for students and staff.
I contributed to the teaching programme on MA courses and
developed degree courses at BA and MA level. Although semiretired
now, I act as a mentor for new graduates, helping to
bridge the gap between education and employment. I run
workshops around confidence and presentation skills. I am
also an Alexander Technique tutor and I believe passionately in
the power of education and learning, that is education in the
very broadest sense. There are so many ways to learn and
develop once the conditions are supportive and sustainable.
So if I was to tease out what I meant by that I would say that
to have access to learning in an atmosphere of support and
understanding where there is no fear; no fear of it not being
available tomorrow, no fear of not getting it right; to be in an
atmosphere that is creative and structured and where there
is an understanding that we all learn in different ways. To be
rooted in your own place and space; in your own culture and in
that environment to have the opportunity to develop the skills
that allow you to be your best self.
I am excited to be part of the SSF family and look forward to
being able to support their ongoing projects and help them
develop new ones. Each project sharing the same purpose, this
being to make education available to all and thereby empower
young people around the world, especially young women and
girls, to be their brilliant and best selves.
From Engage issue 20.
JUDE TISDALL • December 15, 2021
How a simple act of practical solidarity is transforming the journey to school in The Gambia’s Central River Region North Policies have been written. Schools have been built. Yet for many children in The Gambia’s Central River Region North, access to education is still measured in kilometres, not opportunity.
‘In a single hour vast tracts of shaded woodland became a jumble of torn trees and upturned soil, exposed to the glare of the summer sun. Such land-clearing events are rare, but forests exhibit remarkable resilience in the face of disaster. I’m told that the Chinese character for ‘catastrophe’ is the same as that which represents the word ‘opportunity’. And, the blowdown, while catastrophic, presented opportunities for many species.’ (Wall Kimmerer, 2003: 89). In the context of a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world (Stein, 2021) what kinds of education for hope might support children’s and young people’s critical engagement in local and global issues? In the spirit of exploring the possibilities of hope further, this short article focuses on the area of global citizenship and sustainabilityrelated education. It will briefly open by sharing commonalities across pedagogical approaches that take up the concept and act of hope more critically, and close by offering reflective questions for educators, with suggestions for further reading. Perhaps it is a kind of hope that is grounded in the present, in future reimagining(s), in ethical solidarity, and an acknowledgement of our deep entanglement with the living metabolism of planet earth 1 our singular home (UNESCO, 2021); a hope that engages with complex root causes and lived realities of multiple overlapping crises in critically reflexive and contextually relevant ways. As McCloskey notes, ‘Hope can fire our collective imagination and critical consciousness as a mainspring to activism and intervention in the world.’ (2025: 3). Commonalities across critical pedagogical approaches to hope include: Acknowledging the context of a ‘seamless single story of progress, development and human evolution’ (Andreotti, V.D.O., 2021b Relating to social and ecological justice and the wellbeing of people and planet Using participatory, action-orientated and inquiry-based learning processes Exploring diverse worldviews and perspectives Practising grounding in the present with opening up possibilities for change (relational, embodied, response-able 2 ) Experiencing ‘struggle’ in different forms (dialogical, selfreflexive, open-ended) Engaging individual and collective agency, action and activism Looking for lifelong and life-wide learning and unlearning. 1 See ‘Co-sensing with Radical Tenderness’, in Machado de Oliveira Andreotti. 2021a 2 See ‘Crossing Borders’ in 2 Depth Education “Depth Education and the Possibility of GCE Otherwise, 2021b. Source: Andreotti, V. 2021a & 2021b., Atif, A. (2025)., Bourn, D. 2021., Bryan. A. and Mochizuki,Y., 2024., Giroux, H.A. 2025., Meade, E. 2025. Whilst engaging in the concept and act of hope more critically reflect upon: What kinds of education for hope might you explore further and why? How might you provide generative spaces for engaging in diverse worldviews and perspectives? In what ways can you facilitate individual and collective agency? How might you support learners’ practice grounding in the present in order to relate differently? In what ways can you support learners in navigating complex root causes and lived realities of local and global issues? As Chief Ninawa Hini Kui affirms, ‘The future depends much less on the images we project ahead than on our capacity to repair relations and build relationships differently in the present.’ (Andreotti et al, 2023: 73. An invitation for further reading: Transformative Learning for a Sustainable Future . d’Abreu, C., Belgeonne, C., Bourn, D. and Hatley, J. (2025) ‘Transformative Learning for a Sustainable Future’. DERC Research Paper 24. London: UCL Institute of Education. Hospicing Modernity: facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism. Machado de Oliveira Andreotti, V. (2021a) ‘Hospicing Modernity: facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism’ , London: Penguin Random House. Development Education and Hope . McCloskey, S. (2025). (ed) ‘Development Education and Hope’. ‘Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review’ , Vol. 41, Autumn. Centre for Global Education, Belfast. Link to and download the full reference list here
This summed up to me about why I volunteer for the Hands Up Project. HUP is a charity trust which, through its network of volunteers, connects children around the world with young people in Palestine. By means of online interaction, drama and storytelling activities, it enables the use of creativity and selfexpression to promote mutual understanding, personal growth, and the development of English language skills. I joined HUP in 2020 during COVID. After going to Palestine in 2017, I wanted to get more involved in working with Palestinian children in schools. HUP gave me the opportunity to link up with schools in the West Bank and Gaza. Every week I’d tell them stories from all over the world, then we’d discuss it, play games and I’d get them to retell it. Sometimes we would work from their coursebook English for Palestine’ in mutual team teaching sessions with their teacher. The simple act of telling a story became much more than entertainment. It became connection, healing, and a bridge to the world beyond their immediate reality to help them improve their language skills, and to give them a platform to speak about their lives in a language that connects them to people everywhere. I loved it, every week, seeing their smiling faces on the screen and building long lasting friendships with their teachers. I even went to Gaza in 2023 and met some of the kids I’d only seen on Zoom. It was a beautiful experience and something I will never forget. As hostilities escalated, I lost contact with everyone. I thought about where the kids were and what had happened to them. As I watched schools being bombed, universities flattened, and people killed in their thousands, I thought about where the kids I’d met were and what was happening to them. I kept in contact with many of the teachers I knew and heard daily news of displacement, destruction, hunger and bombing. Recently, I’ve started to link up again with children in Gaza, and it feels wonderful to be back helping them learn after being denied an education for over two years. Connecting with children in Palestine is more than just words. When a child in Palestine confidently tells their story to someone on the other side of the world, bridges are built, empathy grows, and the world gains a fuller picture of childhood in contexts far from peace and privilege. My work with these children is rooted in the belief that education and voice are inseparable. Through storytelling and English language learning, I witness children not just learning new vocabulary, but reclaiming their narratives, believing in their potential, and finding human connection in a world they perceive has abandoned them. And more than anything, this work reminds us all that children — everywhere — deserve to learn, to speak, and to be heard. Links to HUP information, books and resources: The Hands Up Project BY SUSAN PIPER Susan Piper is currently an ESOL teacher in Oldham, Greater Manchester and has worked in education for over 30 years. She is also a volunteer for the Hands Up Project and is the International Solidarity Officer and President of her NEU district. She believes in quality education for all and aims to make her lessons creative and inclusive so that effective language learning can take place.
