Jo Price’s journey highlights the life-changing impact of education, resilience and determination. Read her story:
- MidKent College – Studied between 1990 and 1992
- Studied at the Horsted site in Chatham and Oakwood Park in Maidstone
- Studied A level’s – English Lit, Sociology and Media and retook my Maths GCSE.
- Favourite lecturer was Mick Bull – English Literature lecturer and Libby Lines – Sociology Lecturer
- Favourite memories – meeting fantastic friends – Claire and Sam – still in touch and making great memories together – days out, holidays!!
MidKent College was a catalyst for me to consider university as a possible next step for building an amazing career in education and achieving a BSc Hons degree in Education and Sociology from Surrey University.
College helped me build aspirations and confidence and was the first big step in realising that I wanted to help people, make a difference and make real changes in the world. I quickly realised that education is key in helping people to make fundamental changes and can 100% be empowered to improve their life chances and build better futures.
Career highlights have been:
Winning awards at No 10 for outstanding contributions to the local community through my work with rebuilding a new school (Brompton Academy) and helping change the popularity and increase the pupil roll so that Brompton Academy became the first choice for students choosing a secondary school in Kent and Medway.
Introducing animal assistance therapy into schools – through my work with dogs – Aslan – we deliver the “Pawsitive Minds’ programme and now working in so many different settings – East Kent College, University of Kent, Link19 College, schools and charities etc – we would love to start working at the place where I studied at – Mid Kent College!!
Being a young person’s ambassador for the Princes Trust (now the Kings Trust) and presenting to 100’s of businesses about the excellent work of the Princes Trust and how the Tust had supported me through grants to pay for books and exams whilst at Mid Kent College.
Developing and trailing my own positive thinking growth mindset programme called ‘Magnificent Minds’, securing Level five accreditation with the UK’s national awarding body - CPCAB and setting up my own training company. We are now teaching adults how to become Amazing Minds Coaches that help children understand about neuroscience (their brains) mindfulness (breathing techniques) and growth mindset
Building my own business – Amazing Minds! I am the Managing Director and in my second year and absolutely living the dream, the business is flourishing and we are growing beautifully and we are in demand!
Securing a contract with Medway Council to pilot the Magnificent Minds programmes across schools in Medway and results are looking awesome and hopefully will lead to more funds to train and qualify more Amazing Minds Coaches working in schools.
My goals are:
Train more Amazing Minds Coaches to work with children and young people across Kent and Medway. I am now looking for schools, colleges, charities and businesses that work with children and want to invest in a programme that really does secure outstanding results!! 100% Amazing Minds really changes the lives of children and young people.
Connect with businesses and organisations looking for wellbeing initiatives that get great results and are interested in finding out more about how their brains work and how they can rewire and refire for more happiness, joy, strength, confidence and resilience. We don’t just work our magic with children we work with adults too offering wellbeing training delivered by Aslan in business, schools, charities – so looking for businesses that want to give their staff some amazing training experiences with Aslan leading the way.
Success stories – we can say children in schools improving attendance, behaviour, anxiety and emotional challenges – children re-engaging with learning, children building big dreams and aspirations for their life beyond schools.
Quote from a little boy we worked with last year who was struggling in schools with anxiety, attendance, engagement and learning - he is now totally smashing it and is winning attendance awards, creating outstanding learning outcomes, winning at parents evenings and academically flying – totally turned his life around.
“Amazing Minds helped me to calm down, sometimes my days start perfectly because of mindfulness. Our family is happier. If someone needs help with their mental health, I would say give Jo and Aslan a call as they are really good at helping people.”
