Send us Fan Mail

Ambition, Dreams and Getting Back Up: Neil Taylor on What It Really Takes

Every parent knows that moment. Your child comes home with a dream that feels enormous, and part of you wants to cheer while another part quietly worries about how much it might hurt if it doesn’t work out.

In this episode of Let Them Fly, Heather sits down with former professional footballer Neil Taylor to talk honestly about chasing a big dream, and what happens along the way. Neil knows the thrill of reaching the top of his sport, but he also knows the setbacks nobody sees from the stands: the injuries, the rejections, the pressure, and the days when giving up would have been easier.

Together they explore:

• Where ambition really comes from, and how parents can nurture it without adding pressure
• Why resilience is built in the hard moments, not the easy ones
• The role family played in keeping Neil grounded and moving forward
• Balancing a demanding dream with school, friendships and growing up
• What young people need to hear when things don’t go to plan
• Life after professional sport, and why your identity is bigger than one dream

Whether your child is football-mad, dreaming of a stage, a lab or a business of their own, or simply finding their feet in a new country, this conversation is full of warmth, honesty and practical wisdom for every family raising ambitious, hopeful children.

Because our job isn’t to stop them falling. It’s to teach them how to get back up, and then let them fly.

Listen now and share it with a parent who needs it today.

Let Them Fly is brought to you by Heather Harries Education Hub, supporting families across the Middle East from FS1 to university and beyond.

https://www.heatherharries.com

Send us Fan Mail

https://www.heatherharries.com

Send us Fan Mail

Every parent in the Gulf knows the name Dubai College. Most of us have wondered what really goes on behind those gates, and whether a school that academic could ever be the right place for our child.

In this episode of Let Them Fly, Heather sits down with Tomas Duckling, Headmaster of Dubai College, for a warm and candid conversation about what it takes to raise confident, kind and capable young people in one of the most ambitious school communities in the region.

Tomas shares why he believes kindness is the foundation of all good education, and how character matters just as much as grades. He talks about the pressure our children feel in a high-achieving city like Dubai, and what parents can do at home to help them grow without breaking. For families weighing up their options, he also gives an honest view of what makes a selective school the right fit for one child and not another.

Whether your child is just starting school, preparing for secondary entrance or looking ahead to university, this conversation will leave you reassured, inspired and thinking differently about what success really looks like.

Because the greatest gift we can give our children isn't a perfect path. It's the wings to find their own.

🎧 Listen, share with a friend who's navigating the school maze, and don't forget to subscribe.

Heather Harries Education Hub: supporting families across the Middle East for over ten years, from FS1 to university, with school placement, tutoring, SEN support, homeschooling, and careers and university guidance.

https://www.heatherharries.com

Send us Fan Mail

Every parent in the Gulf knows the feeling. We've crossed oceans for our families, we've chosen schools with enormous care, and still, late at night, we wonder whether we're giving our children what they'll truly need.

This week on Let Them Fly, I'm joined by Russell Cailey, one of the early leaders of the worldschooling movement. Long before it had a name, Russell was showing families that learning doesn't have to stop at the classroom door, and that curiosity, adventure and real-world experience can shape a child as deeply as any timetable.

Russell is also the author of the bestselling The Firefly Effect: How to Learn, Lead, and Thrive in the Age of AI, a hopeful and practical look at how our children can learn, lead and find their light in a world that's changing faster than ever.

Whether your child is thriving in school, being home educated, or you're simply asking

https://www.heatherharries.com

Send us Fan Mail

Let Them Fly with Jenna Sheehan, Enhance Training Institute

How often do we see a child who seems switched off at school light up the moment they're doing something they actually love?

In this episode I sit down with Jenna Sheehan, Programme Manager at Enhance Training Institute, for a conversation that gently challenges where we think real learning happens. Jenna has spent twelve years as an educator and school leader here in the UAE, and we talk a lot about something every parent has felt but doesn't always trust: that a child's true potential shows up when they're genuinely interested, and that this is so often outside the classroom rather than in it.

We explore the work she leads at ETI, from M3, the Minds, Movers and Makers camp blending STEM, woodwork, creative arts and photography for younger ones, to Youth Founders, a ten-week journey where teenagers build a real business idea all the way to a Demo Day. Running through all of it is the same quiet belief: that character, resilience and courage matter every bit as much as grades, and that children rise when learning is built around their curiosity.

This one is for any parent who has watched their child come alive over the thing they love, and wondered how to give them more of it. A warm, hopeful conversation about the potential waiting just beyond the report card.

https://www.heatherharries.com

Send us Fan Mail

We have all had a version of that evening. The homework is spread across the kitchen table, the tutor is booked, the revision timetable is colour coded and stuck to the fridge, and still something is not quite working. The child in front of us is tired, flat, a little switched off.

Amr Fahmi thinks we may be looking in the wrong place.

Amr is the founder of The Educated Coach, and in this episode he makes a case that is easy to forget in a region where so much of childhood happens indoors, in the car, or in front of a screen. Children need to move. Not as a reward for finishing their work. Not as the first thing to be cut when exams get close. Movement is one of the conditions that makes the learning possible in the first place.

We talk about:

• Why a child who moves regularly sleeps better, settles faster and holds their focus for longer
• What happens to a child's confidence and mood when movement disappears from their week
• The moment so many families face, when sport is dropped to "make room" for study, and what that decision really costs
• How to build movement into family life in the heat, in apartment living, and around a packed school timetable
• Why this matters just as much for the quiet child, the anxious child and the child who says they hate PE
• What Amr wishes every parent understood before the pressure years arrive

This one is for every parent who has stood at the door with car keys in hand, wondering whether to push their child out to training or let them stay at the desk a little longer.

If this episode speaks to you, please share it with a friend who needs to hear it, and follow Let Them Fly wherever you listen.

Guest: Amr Fahmi, Founder of The Educated Coach

https://www.heatherharries.com

Send us Fan Mail

Every parent knows the feeling. It is 3am, you are sitting on the edge of a small bed, and you are already doing the maths on how you will get through the school run, the meetings and the whole of tomorrow.

In this episode of Let Them Fly, Heather Harries is joined by Anna Baker, founder of SleepBaker Consultancy and a baby and child sleep consultant with more than a decade of experience helping exhausted families find their way back to rest. Anna is a mum of two herself, and she talks about sleep the way parents actually live it, not the way the textbooks describe it.

We talk about why sleep is one of the most underrated factors in how a child performs at school, from concentration and memory to behaviour, resilience and how they manage friendships in the playground. Anna explains what is really happening when a child cannot settle, why the early years set the pattern for everything that follows, and how families here can protect sleep when late dinners, family gatherings, long commutes and a 6.30am school bus are all part of normal life.

In this episode:

• Why a tired child is so often mistaken for a difficult child, or a struggling one
• The link between sleep and school performance, and what teachers notice first
• Building strong sleep foundations in the baby and toddler years
• Naps, night waking and settling, and what to do when nothing seems to work
• Keeping routines consistent across parents, grandparents and helpers at home
• Small, realistic changes that make a difference within a week

Whether you have a newborn, a toddler who fights bedtime every single night, or a child whose teacher has mentioned they seem tired in class, there is something in this conversation for you.

Find Anna at SleepBaker Consultancy. Find more support for your family's education journey at heatherharries.com.

https://sleepbaker.ae/

https://www.heatherharries.com

Send us Fan Mail

Starting Again: Mark Colbourne MBE on Resilience, Discipline and the Long Road

Most of us tell our children that hard work pays off. Mark Colbourne MBE is proof of what that actually looks like, and how long it can take.

Mark represented Wales at volleyball in his twenties. Then, in 2009, a paragliding accident left him with a broken back and a future he had not planned for. He was almost forty when he sat on a racing bike for the first time. Three years later he stood on the podium at the London 2012 Paralympic Games with a gold medal, a silver medal and a world record, and was awarded an MBE for services to cycling.

In this episode, Mark talks to us about what it really takes to begin again, and why the habits that carried him through were formed long before the medals. We talk about discipline, and how the small daily routines children build at school quietly become the ones they lean on as adults. We talk about the value of sport alongside education rather than in competition with it, and about what parents can helpfully say to a child who is not yet the fastest, the brightest or the most obviously gifted in the room.

For any parent watching their child work hard and wondering whether it is landing, this is a conversation worth an hour of your time.

Don't dream it. Know it. Do it.

https://www.heatherharries.com