First hand experience: what matters to children

The authors

The authors are a team of experienced and respected education researchers and consultants. Over many years they have come together to work on a variety of projects, and have always been committed to promoting what matters to children.

Diane Rich  runs Rich Learning Opportunities: keeping creativity, play and first hand experience at the heart of children’s learning. She co-ordinates the What Matters to Children team and has been involved in children’s learning for many years, as play worker, teacher, deputy head and advisory teacher, researcher, education consultant, writer, trustee for children’s charities. She appears on Teacher’s TV.

Denise Casanova is an artist and freelance arts education consultant who is committed to education through the arts. She has taught extensively in schools, for museums and arts organisations in the USA and UK.

Annabelle Dixon’s classroom was, in the words of a friend, ‘a place of genuine intellectual search.’ As psychologist and teacher she was committed to offering first hand experiences to children as the essential basis for such a search. First hand experience: what matters to children is dedicated to Annabelle, who died while the book was in press.

Mary Jane Drummond is a writer, teacher and researcher with an abiding interest in young children’s learning. She has recently retired from the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge.

Andrea Durrant has taught both children and teachers. She is now a freelance consultant in early years and primary education. Her mission is to bring back creativity into children’s learning.

Cathy Myer has been a teacher, advisory teacher and university lecturer. She is now a freelance education consultant, passionate about children and their capacity to learn from their experiences of the real world.