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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

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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

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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