Meet Our Team

Our Story

Andy and Claire devised and wrote Heads Up Kids at Andy’s kitchen table and the programme is a collaboration of their combined professional experiences. Their working partnership and friendship sparked a vision for school wellbeing provision.

Andy has always been interested in how we express ourselves and find our voice and started her career with 3 year classical theatre training. This led Andy to qualifying as a drama-therapist from the Central School of Speech and Drama. Andy has spent her career working therapeutically with children and teenagers in groups, enabling them to build their confidence, self-esteem and resilience. She also holds an MA in social care and emotional wellbeing from the Tavi. Andy has a passion for making therapeutic and group work techniques accessible to children and teachers. Andy has two teenagers, enjoys her garden and pretends she’s an interior designer!

Andy Hugh

Claire began working with children as a teenager in her local youth club. She was inspired by the unique way in which children can learn and develop through being part of groups and experiences outside of formal education. Claire has spent the last 20 years working with a huge variety of groups including children affected by domestic abuse, young offenders, youth councils, young leaders and interfaith education. For the last decade Claire has managed a programme bringing healthy relationships education into schools alongside developing her interest in children’s social and emotional wellbeing by completing a diploma in ‘Using the Arts in Therapy and Education’ and a certificate in Child Counselling. Claire has three young children and enjoys decorating birthday cakes and pairing odd socks!

Claire Godley

Amanda has joined us as Operations Manager, to support us in ensuring that all schools are able to access the Heads Up Kids programme. She has many years of experience working with children, young people and families, especially those subject to statutory child protection procedures and children in care. After taking some time away from work to focus on her family, Amanda has rejoined the workplace with a focus on operations, systems and processes. She is excited to be working at Heads Up Kids as she can see the positive impact that whole school emotional wellbeing support can have on children, and believes that with the right foundation in place, our children can grow up to be mentally healthy and resilient. Amanda loves eating chocolate and learning about mobs and crafting in Minecraft!

Amanda

About our partners

We are delighted to work with:

Wellbeing & Me

Wellbeing and Me is a framework of primary school interventions that will embed wellbeing in the curriculum and makeup of the school. It is project run by PaJes

My Mood Stars

Tactile Toys and a Highly Effective Developmental Resource. The eight My Mood Stars enable children to immerse themselves in imaginative play. This offers a fun opportunity for children to talk about how they are feeling.

Sophie Says

A children’s brand making life’s most important lessons fun to learn. Our mission is to enable all children to grow up feeling equipped and empowered to face their futures.