I have been working to help and support children with high learning potential (HLP) since the late 1960s when I joined Potential Plus UK (then the newly established National Association for Gifted Children). Having set up a committee to run a local branch I later served on NAGC’s national Council of Management for many years, organising and running a large programme of summer schools as well as editing newsletters for different age ranges of members’ children. Then in 1984, to ensure the financial survival of the summer schools, together with an NAGC colleague I set up The Potential Trust.
When my father was asked in the early 1940s what effect his tiny printing company could have when the world looked as though it was going to war, he replied: ‘Perhaps not a lot, but you hope that by throwing a stone in the pond you cause ripples that spread.’ I inherited from him a belief in the importance of sharing ideas, experiences, concerns, and possibilities, and over the years I have organised and facilitated many Potential Conferences for the Trust. The first one was simply an invitation to all the interesting people we knew to come and meet each other, and now we bring together other organisations working to help and support HLP children. These events are based on a strong gut feeling that something good will come of it – and it invariably does.
As well as being a Trustee of the Potential Trust and the Comino Foundation, I am an honorary life member of Potential Plus UK, and a Fellow of the RSA.