This month is the start of my eighteenth year in teaching and learning. I have never stopped since June 2005. The journey to get here has been one of incredible adventure, travel, mistakes, difficulties, tenacity, and successes. In short – LIFE.
Winford International is no different. Today, the 10th of June 2022, as I look back over the birth of our online school, I am reminded of the incredible journey we have undertaken thus far to get to this point.
Back in 2015, I made a comment that education was migrating to an online platform. People told me I was ‘cuckoo’, that school would always be in a building, and never online. It didn’t take the incredible vision of the late Baba Vanga (RIP) to understand that Skype was becoming the new school. You could simply see the lives of families were changing. With that change came the way they were accessing education. Technology brought new opportunities, and with it, a wakeup call for education. I knew then the time was nigh.
So……I set about building my dream; Winford International. I started it myself (no investors, no budget, no plan but simply to build and to keep going (I had a vision but it wasn’t on paper)), took to building the website myself (design as I type and click), found all kinds of people with skill and experience, consulted with those I thought would have been there given previous working together experiences and discussions and began bringing things together when it then became apparent – those I thought would be there, weren’t – they bailed out or didn’t show up, those I thought had the skill, didn’t have, and I suddenly understood I also didn’t have the skill to bring it all together on my own. In short – I was alone once again with my thoughts, my vision and my dream……..oh and considerably less pennies in the bank!
I had to think again and make a new decision. I knew I was on to something spot-on but needed to build the school and the team from scratch. I knew, and still know today, that online education, blended learning and how we interact with teachers, tutors, programmes education, and the world around us, is no longer so static and rigid. People want and need flexibility, control and choice – choice of place to learn, choice of teacher to learn and grow with, choice of when they can learn, choice of how they find the answers to teacher’s questions, and choice of choice!
In 2021, I decided to team up with a professional company in London (Cardell Media). They (Ms A Mace) have enabled me to focus on the school while they manage how the world sees Winford International Online. It’s not perfect. However, we are rising from our foundations. From the very initial dream/idea to build a school that children so rightly need today, to provide education to children from all areas of society; in particular, children’s homes, orphanages and other socially disadvantaged environments – to give them hope and empower them to build a dream, too………oh, and still with no investors or a budget but there is a plan now!
I spent 10 years of my childhood in children’s homes. I was expelled at the end of the first year of comprehensive school and allowed to return only in the fourth year at the same school to complete my exams. My teachers told me I would be nothing in life. Even some of my own family members said I would spend a life in and out of prison. However, they were all wrong. HELLO WINFORD INTERNATIONAL. And guess what? Winford International is 100% right, and it’s right here waiting for you to enroll.
Join us today and grow with us as we empower children and change lives.
YOUR SUCCESS – IT’S WHAT WE DO