Rethinking Education with Ex-Assistant Principal Ally

After more than a decade working inside the education system, Ally shares the deeply personal journey that led her to walk away from not only her career, but her prior beliefs, identity and the structure she had always known.

Ally touches on regulation techniques for children in school and for parents homeschooling, partial enrolments and half days, the realities of 'learning support' dynamics and funding within the system and the moment she spoke aloud the decision that her own daughter was not going to enter the school system - when she was still in an active teaching role.

What unfolds throughout this conversation is the realisation that Ally’s own decision to leave the schooling system mirrors the exact threshold many parents are now finding themselves at with their children.

The same fears arising around choosing differently. "What if I leave the safety of what everyone else is doing? What if I trust my own knowing over the system?"

This conversation explore how questioning mainstream education often becomes a much bigger initiation into sovereignty, nervous system healing, self trust and redefining what security truly means for a family.

Ally shares what she witnessed firsthand inside schools, from overwhelmed teachers trying to support children within rigid structures, to the increasing rise of labels, diagnoses, dysregulation and children struggling to thrive in environments they were never designed for.

This episode opens a conversation around alternatives for children: homeschooling, traditional schooling, hybrid learning, conscious parenting, creating family rhythms and allowing children to remain connected to themselves while still honouring each family’s unique path.

 "If I can, as a teacher myself, as an assistant principal, de-school myself, decondition myself enough to know that I don't need to follow the rules and what's possible, you can do it too." - Ally

You can find Ally at @allyyblanch_
And find Anita at @themidwitch