The Story of a School

The idea of owning a school came to me as I was walking my younger brother to middle school, the same middle school that I was bullied at years earlier. Nothing in me wanted to let him go into the school, I told myself that my children (one day) would go to school in an environment where they were safe, encouraged, and where it was okay to be different.

Rural England in the early 80’s (pre hip-hop) was not a pleasant environment for a Black child. Monkey noises in the classroom, skinheads in the town center, and blackface ‘comedians’ on TV that kids would mimic in front of me. 

Note: I say “pre hip-hop” because that’s when everything changed. LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, Run DMC, Fresh Prince, Slick Rick, Eric B. & Rakim all contributed to our collective change in status. Black was suddenly in, being Black was cool, street, worthy of mimicking, and my younger siblings became the popular kids.

These experiences gave me the ability to understand that children need to feel secure as they develop their personalities. Achieve Academy has grown out of this desire to provide a school setting where children feel loved and valued.

Years later, after moving to the US from the UK, my son was bored in public school and I decided to teach him at home (before people did such a thing). It didn’t take long before other families began to ask me to teach their children and the tiny seed of a school was planted.

Over the last twenty years, the school has grown and developed and taken on a life of its own. My passion for teaching has grown, and my desire to provide an environment where children are taught by caring educators who look like them has manifested into Achieve Academy. 

Excellent academics are just the beginning, at Achieve we put phonics and cursive back into the curriculum, and we teach personal finance, agriculture, and other skills vital to a successful and productive life. We teach history, not the whitewashed version that says everything has been peachy since the Europeans crossed the Atlantic (just a few years before I did the same thing, but with fewer negative consequences), but history as it happened.

My love for entrepreneurship has developed into a yearly Bored to Boss program where our PreK to 12th-grade students learn to start businesses and launch them to the public at our annual Kid Boss Holiday Market.

Owning a school is unique and to many, pretty odd, but it's my calling and I do it with enthusiasm, dedication, and the desire to positively impact as many people as I can. Our days are full of laughs, learning, and lots of love, Achieve Academy is my dream come true.