After completing a degree in Sport and Exercise Science at Nottingham Trent University in 2008, Ryan delivered curriculum P.E. across two different primary schools for 18 months, securing coaching qualifications in football, athletics, and gym instruction along the way.
Following this, he secured a role in 2010 managing an Early Years project for two local authorities, NHS, and Sure Start - representing a multitude of agencies, with the Local Service Level Agreement of ‘facilitating the physiological, psychological and social development of children in the Early Years’. Within this role in 2012, Ryan produced a document entitled ‘Early Years Physical Development Guide’ that was disseminated amongst hundreds of professionals and families across Leicestershire, detailing the significance of Early Years development and the intricate links between physical development and cognitive development.
In 2012, Ryan studied for a PGCE at Bishop Grosseteste University in Lincoln, and has since worked at over thirty schools across Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, generally deployed in the role of improving standards within a school’s EYFS unit over a short period of time; putting strategies and structures in place that could still be maintained after he had moved on to a different school.
In his final role in England, Ryan worked alongside a group of partner schools to facilitate a smooth transition into the new Early Years Curriculum, and accompanying Ofsted framework, (due to be implemented in 2021/22), as well as preparing to pilot the new statutory F2 baseline in 2019/20, prior to it becoming statutory in England.
Furthermore, as well as leading Early Years, Ryan has taught in Years One through to Six, and has been a subject leader for EAL, R.E. and Modern Foreign Languages, even briefly securing a job lecturing French and English language for North Notts College between teaching roles
Ryan believes his greatest strength is drawing upon all his experiences, knowledge and expertise to create and implement a fully customised and personalised curriculum that accommodates the ethos, demographic and capacity of a school in order to maximise children’s progress, attainment and enjoyment. Ryan is a keen writer, often drawing upon all his experiences and observations for inspiration, and in 2017 he published a book entitled ‘The Enigmatic Early Years’, with a second edition due to be published in the near future.
Ryan is particularly fond of reading 19th century British literature by authors such as Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson and Charles Dickens. Ryan has also played football at both amateur and semi-professional level since he was seven years old, and now puts this experience to good use as the coach of the BISS Puxi U11 boys' team!
Ryan is also an enthusiastic cricketer who enjoys bowling leg spin, having idolised Shane Warne growing up, particularly during The Ashes series! Ryan aspires to be the best EYFS practitioner that he can be, and strives to remain at the forefront of current research and educational practice, continuing to develop his specialist knowledge of Early Years physical development, and the evolutionary stages of development from birth to five.