Episode 14: How Two Period Pioneers Are Transforming Youth Support
In this episode, Lauren is joined by two powerful voices in menstrual education: Hannah Brown and Beth Moxon. Both are graduates of Cycle Coach School who have gone on to pioneer youth-focused menstrual work through schools, community programs, and innovative peer-led education models.
Together, they reflect on their journey from discovering menstrual cycle awareness to weaving it into their existing careers in social work, teaching, and education. From running period workshops in classrooms and working with both girls and boys, to advocating for more inclusive, well-funded support in schools, Hannah and Beth are reshaping the conversation around menstrual education for the next generation.
Beth also shares about her groundbreaking dissertation at Oxford University, where she conducted academic research on menstruation and young people. Her work bridges the gap between grassroots cycle awareness and formal education systems, helping bring menstruality work into academic and government spaces in a credible and powerful way.
They share the challenges of navigating stigma, underfunding, and systems not built for cyclical bodies while also celebrating the small, powerful moments of change. You'll hear stories from classrooms, reflections on professional identity, and the real-world impact of pilot programs like Hannah’s menstrual ambassadors initiative in Wales and Beth’s large-scale school sessions across the UK.
If you’re passionate about bringing cycle awareness to young people — or wondering how menstruality work can expand beyond coaching and into education and advocacy — this episode will leave you deeply inspired. Click play to hear how these two changemakers are creating a ripple effect in schools, families, and policy.
Resources and Links:
About Beth Moxon:
Beth is a passionate period educator, secondary school teacher, and accredited Menstrual Cycle Coach. With over a decade of experience in education including a recent MSc in Teacher Education from the University of Oxford, she combines her love of teaching with her mission to bring period education to young people. Beth is also a First Moon Circle facilitator, creating uplifting spaces where girls can ask questions, explore period products, and leave feeling confident and informed.
Instagram:@bloomandbelong
Website: www.bloomandbelong.co.uk
First Moon Circle training: www.firstmooncircleschool.com
About Hannah Brown
Hannah is a Menstrual Cycle Coach, cyclical supervisor, social worker, and facilitator with over 20 years of experience supporting people through change. Her work is rooted in the power of Menstrual Cycle Awareness, which transformed her own life and now anchors the support she offers others. Hannah works with women, practitioners, and young people helping them reconnect with their cyclicality, prepare for menstruation, and feel supported in every phase.
Instagram: @womb__wisdom
Website: www.wombwisdom.uk
Book mentioned:
‘Period Power’ by Maisie Hill
Stay connected:
Cycle Coach School Website: www.cyclecoachtraining.com
Cycle Coach Instagram: @cyclecoachschool
Claire's Instagram: @_clairebaker_
Claire's Website: www.clairebaker.com
Lauren's Instagram: @laurenoliviahughes
Lauren's Website: www.findingjulian.com
Beth (00:00)
I just would encourage anyone listening to this who is wanting to do this work in any way, whether it's with young people, groups, individuals, whatever, that you just, it's never going to be perfect. It's never perfect in teaching. There's always a million and one things you can do. You could do more and more and more and more. It's never perfect.
Hannah (00:08)
Thank you. Have a nice
yeah, just go for it. Like if you've wanted to do it.
Hannah (00:16)
Just go for it. And also just go for it, like just contact a school and say, can I come in? And just, you know, maybe don't charge just because all of that is really brilliant experience and will enable you to grow or will enable you to decide if that's what you want to do or not. Cause we don't know what we want to do till we know what we don't want to. know what you don't want to do till you try it out. place.
Claire Baker (00:38)
Welcome to the Cycle Coach Show.
Lauren Olivia Hughes (00:43)
Empowering Conversations on Menstrual Cycle Coaching.
Claire Baker (00:48)
We're your hosts, Claire Baker.
Lauren Olivia Hughes (00:52)
Olivia Hughes.
Claire (00:56)
Hi everyone. You've got Claire here, introing today's episode and gosh, this is a good one. You know, I've often wondered what my teenage years might've looked like if I'd have had menstrual cycle awareness back then. I remember being around 13 or 14, 15 and watching my body change in ways that felt so different from my male friends experiences the mood swings, the awful hormonal acne. What I can guess now in hindsight was probably PMS symptoms, ⁓ the way that my energy would shift throughout the month. And then of course, going on the contraceptive pill, my periods were always pretty regular throughout my teenage years. And I used to track my upcoming periods with a star on my calendar, which is really cute. But that was about as far as my understanding went.
My friends and I just never really talked about periods openly. Honestly, it was all very hush hush and I'll never forget a friend in the school toilets one afternoon asking if anyone had a little white mouse, which was her code word for a tampon. And that pretty much sums up how we all approach menstruation, honestly. And so in my 12 years of coaching, I've primarily worked with grown women, women who were discovering menstrual cycle awareness for the first time and often feeling that sense of why didn't anyone tell me this before? But today's conversation has me fascinated by a different question, which is what happens when we give this knowledge to young people from the very beginning?
So in this episode, you're going to hear Lauren speaking with Hannah from Womb Wisdom and Beth from Bloom and Belong, two of our incredible alumni who are pioneering menstrual cycle work with children and teenagers as menstrual educators. They're running period and puberty workshops in schools, training menstrual ambassadors and facilitating first moon circles.
Beth has also recently completed her dissertation at Oxford University in periods and pedagogy, which was a research project exploring the impact of the menstrual cycle on teachers' emotions and the effectiveness of coaching as an intervention, which is just incredible. I was particularly struck by the way that both Hannah and Beth share how they're honestly wrestling with complex questions like how does a parent support their daughter to honor her bleeding body while also honoring her commitments like school or Nepal? How do we teach both girls and boys about periods in age appropriate ways? And what does it look like to normalize menstruation in educational settings? So maybe this is an area that you are personally interested in how to bring menstrual cycle awareness to young people.
And this conversation really offers a glimpse into what's possible when we start these conversations early at such a formative time in these young people's lives. So enjoy listening and please do leave us a review or come and share a comment on Instagram to let us know how you find this episode.
Claire (04:24)
Before we dive into today's episode, I just want to let you know that enrolments for Cycle Coach School for 2025 are now officially open. This will be our seventh year running the training and it's for anyone feeling the call to guide, educate or support others.
through menstrual cycle awareness. The course begins on Tuesday, June the 24th of 2025 and spots always feel quickly. Since 2019, we've trained over 200 facilitators in 27 countries. And so if you would like to join us, you can see the full syllabus and apply at cyclecoachtraining.com. We would love to have you in the circle this year.
Lauren (05:12)
Welcome to Hannah and Beth. Thank you so much for joining us today on the Cycle Coach Show. I'm very excited to get started and we love to open each episode with a cycle check-in. So perhaps to start us, I'll invite Hannah to share her cycle check-in.
Hannah (05:18)
Thank you.
Beth (05:19)
Thank you for having us.
Hannah (05:32)
Thank you and thanks for having me. I'm really excited about this conversation. I am cycle day 14 today and feeling, quite good actually, full of the joys of spring, but also trying to kind of hold the tension between not getting too carried away on that kind of ovulatory energy. I haven't ovulated yet, but I think in a couple of days I will. So yeah, I feel kind of
aligned and like quite grounded today actually, sometimes I can get a bit too... I won this time but yeah I feel quite good, thank you.
Lauren (06:07)
Yeah, thank you. And Beth, where are you in your cycle?
Beth (06:10)
I am at cycle day 1 which is hilarious. So we all know who is going to be the most articulate today. yeah, cycle day 1, which often can be like quite mixed for me. I always feel the sense of relief the last few days. It's like it's been building up. And so I feel a sense of relief. I do feel quite grounded, but I am definitely like a little bit scatty on Day 1. So quite scrambled thoughts and not particularly articulate, but hey-hey.
Hannah (06:13)
Whoa.
Beth (06:37)
we do our best. Yes.
Lauren (06:38)
Hannah will keep us together because I'm, I don't even know what cycle day anymore because I'm 31 weeks pregnant in a few days. It depends on the day, but sometimes my brain is with me and other days it's starting to have those like little holes in it of just like the thread of thought disappears mid-sentence. So hopefully we could just, yeah, hold space for each other with where we are and that'll be a wonderful conversation.
Beth (06:46)
Huh.
How are you feeling Lauren? 31 weeks or 30 weeks?
Lauren (07:05)
Oh, yeah, 31 weeks. I'm feeling good. It's feeling what I know you can relate with the ADHD element of it's a very long project. And I feel like I've been ready to like, kind of move on to the next thing a few times. And there's also just like a part of me that keeps forgetting a little bit that I am doing this. So there is it's been a test in patience, I would say, and slowness of just as much as I wanna just hyper-focus and get everything organized and have it all be done. Yeah, obviously, parenthood, it's never done. It's gonna be nonstop. I've been feeling good though.
There is so much I want to chat with you both about. And as I kind of said before we hit record, I want this just to be like a conversation because I know you two are in each other's sphere of influences and you do speak on and off. So maybe to start, so we can begin with you, Beth, of just how did you...
Or where did you start this menstrual cycle awareness? Where did this seed get planted in your story?
Beth (08:03)
So there was a really specific light bulb moment. So I went to a conference and I'd had my first daughter, so she's nine now. So it was in 2016 or early 2017. And a friend of mine was coming up to London, I was living in London, and had booked these tickets for this. It's like a kind women's wellness type conference. And she'd asked me if I wanted to go and I...
I went as her guest, hadn't kind of looked at what was on the agenda or, you know, it was just going to be nice to hang out with my friend for the day. And Claire Baker was talking at that and she did kind of, I think at time, like her signature kind of menstrual cycle awareness talk and it just out of everything, you know, I couldn't tell you anything else that happened that day, but that really resonated with me because I'd never ever, I'd always seen my period as an incontestable.
I'd never tracked my cycle or been aware of how I felt physically and emotionally or even given any consideration at all. I'd never connected to my body really, my mind and my body in any way. I spent my whole life up until then really just intellectualizing everything and I could talk about how I felt until the cows come home, but I couldn't necessarily actually feel it. So that was so...
interesting for me and I kind of like started to look into my own menstrual cycle and then I decided to do Clare's menstrual cycle coach, a cycle coach school program which was incredible and I think because my background's in education I always kind of knew that I would do the work in some way with young people that's always kind of been, you know, would sort of marry my two careers I guess in a way.
I just never could have envisaged the extent to which they would merge. That's been just really incredible, actually, that part of the journey. yes, so then after that, natural progression was kind of to go on to do Charlotte Pointeaux's First Moon Circle facilitator training. And then that was the birth, really, of Bloom and Belong, CIC, which is my social enterprise that I run.
Lauren (09:51)
Mm, yeah, and I love that interwovenness between Claire's work and Charlotte's. I feel like that's a common thread for quite a few people coming through the school. And I think it's so wonderful how you tied in with your background in teaching. Before I, I feel like there's already like a million questions I want to ask you, let's just tie in Hannah. And Hannah, where was that seed first planted for you in menstrual cycle awareness?
Hannah (10:24)
Thank you.
Hannah (10:31)
Yeah, I loved hearing more about your beginnings as well, Beth. Mine was similar in terms of a light bulb moment, but it was reading about the seasons. I remember the moment and where I was when I read. I actually read about it in Maisie Hill's Period Power. And I just remembered just thinking, what? Like, how have I been in this body for this long? was like late 30s and I'd had two kids. I was just like, this is absolutely... crazy. And so then just sharing the book and talking about periods to whoever would listen, sharing the book with all my girlfriends. yeah, and then, and then I'd like, my background is that I'm a social worker and like children's social worker and had moved, kind of moved into training and consultancy.
And I was just feeling a bit stagnant in that and my friend sent me the cycle coach training and I was like, well, that seems obvious that I would do that. I had no clue about what was going to happen afterwards, but I just was like, I wanted to work with people more again. I knew that. And yeah, just kind of share the, I just wanted to shout about it and just be involved in that work. And the more I learned and the more I kind of understood, you know, like Beth was saying, it kind of...
It all became Technicolor. I was just so determined, as I think lots of people do when they come to this work. They just go, what? How do we not know this? And then want to just shout about it all the time. So that was the kind of vibe I was going for. But I think I thought that I would just end up doing coaching. And I realize I'm slightly going into the kind of the what happened next bit. But in a whole journey of working out, like tying the threads up in terms of actually realising that there were more threads that I'd kind of planted before I'd started learning about menstrual cycle awareness and then going, okay. And it's, yeah, it's taken me a couple of years to kind of piece the bits together. And now when I look at what I'm doing, I'm like, it's so obvious that you would do like menstrual education and stuff with children and young people. But when I finished cycle coach school, I was like...
I didn't even think of that, which sounds so stupid. When I think back, I just thought, no, I'm going to do cycle coaching, which I still do some, you know, I do bits of that as well. But yeah, so I think and I've just deepened that as I've gone on and on. think I've just just about to finish Red School MLP, which has just been like, still getting my integrating all of that. But so I just am so yeah, just feel really privileged to have had the opportunity to start walking down this path and to be able to make a living from doing bits of social worky stuff and menstrual cycle work as well. just still have to pinch myself occasionally and go, how did that happen?
Lauren (13:18)
It's so interesting to hear how you speak that it wasn't an obvious choice for you because I feel like my next question was like, I find sometimes the graduates of the school will come out and it's almost like overwhelming with like all the avenues you can take. There are so many different paths and sometimes there is that panic of like, want to do it all. And yet for the two of you from the outside, at least it seems like so apparent with like the backgrounds that you have that of course you work primarily with young girls and children in this education, educational format. But how long did it take you to kind of realize like, this is the connection and Beth, maybe it was the same for you as well.
Hannah (13:54)
It's so funny that you asked that and I'm laughing because it was only a couple of months ago that my supervisor said to me, you know that you're a menstrual educator. And I was like, what? She was like, but honey, you're doing blah, blah, blah. And I was like, yeah. And it's so funny, isn't it? Cause I just kind of been busy like following the threads or like following the programs. And I think I still, had this identity as a cycle coach. I thought that that's what I was doing. was a social worker and a cycle coach.
Even though I was doing bits of mental education, I think I just hadn't fully embodied that identity. And so when she said, you're an educator, was like, I'm not an educator, it's so ridiculous. And I'm still kind of integrating that. But I think that that's just an ongoing process as you kind of try on these new versions of yourself. So I was really interested to hear you say, Beth, that you'd always known that that was what you wanted to do, because that wasn't my experience. But it's so interesting, isn't it?
Beth (14:45)
Well, became apparent through Cycle Coach that I wouldn't say going into that, that that was immediately obvious. It kind of that happened through the evolution of the course. But actually, for the first few months of Cycle Coach, there were like other people on the course, and I'm sure as it's grown and, you know, the kind of intake has become much more diverse in terms of what everybody does and brings to it.
Hannah (14:49)
Yeah.
Beth (15:12)
That there are more and more people from an education background. there were a couple, it wasn't, you know, was predominantly kind of people that either had a coaching background and wanted to add, you know, menstruality kind of element to that, or people who just had this incredible kind of portfolio of like qualifications and knowledge bases and skill sets and accreditations, you know, and did really kind of holistic work with people and I felt really, really intimidated by that for the first few months and I had such, such significant imposter syndrome and I remember chatting to Claire and I remember that we had listening partners and know, was chatting to my husband and things after the sessions and I would kind of say like, it just feels so obvious for other people and they're so credible with this and there's like this real kind of seamless integration of this work and I know I do I teach business studies I teach business studies BTEC and A level like what on earth am I and at the time I was training teachers so I wasn't even in the classroom so I was like how on earth am I gonna thread this through and and I felt really kind of I definitely remember a real wobbly you know a couple of months of thinking I don't know that I'm gonna do anything with this but then it was a shorter time span to see you Hannah. Now I really like, you know, know that that's what I do, but I definitely towards the end of the course and meet, I met Charlotte and I really connected and I was like, okay, here's the niche. This is what it's going to be. But again, it's like, was that not obvious? But no, like not straight away. Yeah. Yeah.
Hannah (16:42)
No! It's so funny, isn't it? Yeah.
Lauren (16:42)
It's always a moment of hindsight of like, of course, it reminds me, I think it was last week or something. I was, think like projector and human design and just like feeling a bit wobbly in pregnancy. I was like on chat GPT and I was like, if I show you my website, like what do think I do? I'm like, is it clear what I do? And it like gave a perfect description. I was like, okay, glad someone else can like, you know, it's a computer, but I'm like, glad it's like obvious to other people. Cause sometimes it's just like, it's hard to see yourself, especially when you are
in a course or any program really, where there are people who seem so focused or seem so like further along on their path, then it's just like, wait, should I be that like, I don't know, together already? And it's like, of course not, we'll all get there.
Hannah (17:19)
And I hope that...remember at the beginning of Cycle Coach, Claire naming that and that was really powerful, saying that you're exactly where you need to be, you're kind of not behind. And that was reassuring. But yeah, it is when you enter a space like that and there's loads of people from different backgrounds that you kind of think, where do I fit into this?
Lauren (17:44)
Yeah.
Beth (17:46)
It's so interesting what you were saying about like, is it clear what I do and Hannah, I know we really connected on Cycle Coach and we've kind of had like little semi-regular catch-ups and things since then and chatted and there's a lot of kind of synergy between what we do and shared interests and passions and things but what I find like running my own social enterprise is it's just...constantly evolving. It's constantly coming back to that question, what's at the heart of what I do, which is empowerment and belonging. They're the two key things for me that I feel most passionate about. Is this clear? Hang on, I've got to add this page to the website. that that? It's like this. You're constantly trying to adapt. What I've often found an interesting reflection is that I don't know that I could do this work.
Beth (18:30)
Because you do have to hold a lot of trust in yourself. I have a lot of trust in the universe that what will be, it will emerge, it will evolve. I don't have to know all the answers. I have to have that faith and trust my instinct and sometimes make difficult decisions and things like that. And I don't know that I would be in a place in my life to actually do that if it weren't for my own menstrual cycle practice which has actually been far more reaching than just the menstrual cycle. It's everything, isn't it? It's that mind-body connection. So it's that sort of chicken and egg. I don't know how to describe it because I'm on day one. yeah, hopefully it's clear.
Hannah (18:57)
No, think you did it really well. I think you did it really well. Yeah, that that gives you, that that awareness gives you the capacity to hold that, to hold the kind of unknown-ness and to just kind of, yeah, to see what happens. I just remembered a bit as well that I forgot to say in the story that I came to one of your early workshops, after you'd done Cycle Coach. Do you remember? Yeah. Yeah.
Beth (19:21)
No! What did I do?
Hannah (19:31)
I'm sure it was to do with parenting. It was parenting. I came and there was a couple of other people and I came because I was like, who is this very interesting person and what is she doing? And I was so, it was before I, I think I knew about Cycle Coach but I hadn't signed up. And I felt a bit bad because I kept asking you questions about it. And I thought, I think she's just trying to facilitate this workshop Hannah, just give her a minute.
Beth (19:34)
Did you come with one of my friends?
Yes.
Bye.
No, well, there you go.
Hannah (19:56)
What about this? And you were like, it's brilliant. It's brilliant. Do it. And I was like, OK. So I kind of followed you. Yeah, thanks. I don't think I thanked you for that. So thank you. ⁓
Beth (20:00)
I love it. Well, I'm glad it worked out.
Well, that's my pleasure without even knowing, right?
I actually had someone come to a first moon circle a while ago, who at the end of the circle, thank goodness she told me at the end that she is doing the first moon circle facilitated training. And I was like, thank you. She said, I didn't know whether to say anything or not. I like, thank you so much for not saying anything. I would have just been a little bundle of nerves.
Lauren (20:28)
No if anything that should just give you more confidence because she knows exactly what you're going through and doing of holding these spaces. I love this like commonality amongst us of just having to, yeah, almost have other people reflect back to us what our strengths are and like finding our footing and finding our confidence in our own stories. And maybe this is a good time to kind of connect to that with working with girls working with young children who are maybe in this space of broaching a new time of life, broaching puberty and menarchy. How did both of your works come into that actuality of working with kids one-on-one or in group settings?
Beth (21:08)
You go for it Hannah.
Beth (21:09)
Yes. Did you see my little look?
Hannah (21:12)
So I think I started, the first thing that I think I did, I'm just trying to remember now was, yeah, I volunteered to do a workshop with my daughter's class. So when she was in year six and I had a good relationship with the head teacher and I was like, do you want me to come and do a session? And they were like, yeah, brilliant. And, and I did, and it was brilliant. I was worried that she wouldn't, didn't want me to, and she might be embarrassed.
She was like, no, no, that's fine, mum, you can come. And of course, I knew some of the girls in her class anyway. So it just felt like it didn't feel like work. just felt like it was brilliant. And I was blown away by how they engaged and how they interacted. And obviously, they felt a bit more relaxed because it was, you know, they knew me a bit. But just some of the stuff, I remember just being just really, I felt really moved, like
And I can remember the feeling now of when the teacher was like, yeah, yeah, come in. And I was like, OK. I had like a somatic response. And then kind of didn't really know what that was about, but was like, OK, let's go for it. And yeah, just I remember like at the end of this session, the teacher coming back in and one of the students saying to her, you she was kind of asking how it gone. And one of these students saying, Miss, did you know that we're the same as the moon, but boys like the sun? And I was just like,
Like just that in itself was just so magic to me. And then, yeah, then they invited me to do something else because there was a girl in year four, so what's that, nine, 10, who had started her periods and the parent was really overwhelmed because it was, you know, young. So I said, yeah, and went in and did another workshop and they paid me that time. And then on the back of that, did...more workshops but actually then expanded it out into year five and six, so 10 to kind of 11. And did a similar workshop, so the kind of period products workshop that I do, very experiential, is that the word Beth? Experiential? You're the teacher, I don't really know. Playing around with products like red liquid or the jars you know.
And I did it with year five and six girls together. And then I did pretty much the same workshop for year five and six boys separately. And that was phenomenal. And I was nervous because I thought, I don't know how this is going to go. I was so full of, I'm not a teacher. The teacher was going to be there. What if they're really silly? But you know, they were amazing and incredibly.
Hannah (23:41)
I mean, there was a bit of silliness, but we had a giggle code. So at the beginning, like, you know, that we could have a bit of a laugh, but just not at anybody else's expense and not kind of in an over the top way. But their curiosity levels were just off the scale to the point where at one point I had to ask them to put their hands down. I was like, can we, should we just, should we have a little break from questions? Cause they were like, this, what about this? What about this? Like.
And I just thought, wow, this is such a brilliant age to do this, get to young boys before they get to secondary school and before they're overwhelmed with self-consciousness and before they learn about all of this off the internet. I just felt really passionate about that age group. And then I had the privilege of doing...
another workshop. I mean, you know, they had quite a lot of trust in me. I think that they were like, yeah, we'll just see what happens. But then I managed to do a separate workshop with the year, year fives and then a separate one with the year six, but mixing the girls and boys. And I did it on cycle wisdom. So I did like bits of the map bits of the Jane Hardwick Collings cycle coach school map. Maybe we didn't go into the life cycle because we didn't have time and I didn't think they'd think that was that relevant.
But again, and it was especially the year fives just got it. They just got it because they get seasons. There was a few hilarious bits where it was like, I think we had Jesus in there because I'd said like, what do you associate with winter? We had Jesus, I can't really like not put Jesus up there, okay. It wasn't really the word that I was imagining would come up. So there were a few little wild cards. Like I think we had volcano in the summer. I mean, okay.
Lauren (25:18)
Yeah.
Like that? Yeah. Passion?
Hannah (25:22)
Heat, okay. But that was brilliant because they came up and they wrote on the board, like the words they associated. So yeah, that stuff, that kind of evolution of that work in primaries was amazing. And then I've done some stuff in secondaries since then, but that was how it kind of started and how I kind of got the bug, I guess, for working directly with kids.
Lauren (25:46)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's wonderful to hear about not only obviously like getting this information to girls but to boys as well because every boy, every man will know a woman or a bleeding person and it's wonderful to have this like destigmatized from the start when they are like at that like age where they're just sponges and their hands are like up in the air because they're so excited to learn more. Yeah, think that's impactful work.
Beth (25:50)
Particularly with the stuff that you've done with boys is just so interesting and so amazing and the anecdotes you share about it that you can really hear the kind of impact. It will stay with them, it will stick with them.
Hannah (26:10)
I felt really privileged. Yeah. Go on.
Yeah, I hope so. I did feel it was a real honour to do it.
Lauren (26:23)
And then Beth, how is this kind of so you're teaching teachers, correct?
Beth (26:28)
Yeah.
Yeah. And so I really similar to Hannah, actually, that you just and I currently I deliver a module, I facilitate a module on the first moon of facilitated training and I have done for the last few years. And there's always a lot that comes up because I do the sort of like the lesson plan kind of module, the practicalities and the logistics.
Lauren (26:38)
Mm-hmm.
Beth (26:56)
And a lot of people are like, I've got to get this sorted before I start and I've got to make sure that this is in place and I've got to do this. And I just would encourage anyone listening to this who is wanting to do this work in any way, whether it's with young people, groups, individuals, whatever, that you just, it's never going to be perfect. It's never perfect in teaching. There's always a million and one things you can do. You could do more and more and more and more. It's never perfect. You're dealing every day with human beings who are bringing themselves and everything that's happened to them in the last 24 hours, you know, to you to, know, and so you can you just can never ever like, predict with 100 % certainty or plan for 100 % certainty. And, you know, it's humans as no human connection. And it's it's kind of managing that in the moment.
And so I think I just had to book a date basically. I had book a date for my first circle and just do it. And actually when you were talking Hannah, that, you know, it's a similar story in the sense that, you know, I did my first first moon cycle, I booked the data and I got my accreditation. It was June, 2022 that I ran my first first moon cycle. And when you were talking Hannah, you know, it's been very similar in the sense that it's like, you know, you go from one to the next date and then the next day and then you do something in a school and blah, blah, blah. And it's kind of just evolved from there.
Most recently I was up at a school in London at a primary school last week delivering a session which is kind of like a sort of signature I guess session, although actually all the work that I do with schools is very bespoke but this is signature in the sense that it covered know menstrual cycle period products and menstrual cycle awareness and actually the mum's joined for that the last half of that session which was really lovely and then a few weeks ago I delivered assemblies to all of the girls in a secondary school, which was about 700 girls. So we split the year group and I adapted the assemblies according to me, which was really interesting. So that's kind of, you know, it's gone from looking at first date for that first first moon cycle to now. But what was really interesting to reflect on for me just then was how there were lots of kind of questions that come up with this work. There's lots of different things that, you know, that like themes that emerge a lot with this work.
So give you some examples, sustainability with period products, for example, you know, something that is coming up a lot at the moment. I get asked by, you know, the young people that I'm working with, I get asked by their parents and carers. There was ingredients in period products, you know, what's going into them, what impact they have on our bodies. I, yeah, there's always kind of something to consider in it.
Beth (29:16)
Another thing that's coming up at the moment is this kind of like, know, do you power on through when you're in your period or do you stop everything and you know this kind of See and when I went into this work, you know, I say nervous about what do I think and how would I answer all of those things and it was you know, I really hadn't like fully stepped into it and what I have so realized now like having been doing it for this, you know, this amount of time is just and I'm not saying I've got all the answers and that they're right. You know, I'm still very curious and it will always adapt and evolve. But it's how secure and embodied and assured I feel about what I actually think about these kinds of things that come up and that I've really considered that and I've looked at high quality evidence, incredible sources and anecdotal observations from my own work that I do.
I've really considered that to come up with like an informed kind of approach or opinion about something. And that's just the message that I so want to give the young people that I work with, which I go on about all of the time is, you know, it's about being informed. It's about making the right decision for you from a place of being informed. So I really reflected on that journey. And I also reflected on the piece that interests me so much about this work, which is of course it's the menstrual cycle and all of the period education stuff like that, you know, wouldn't do it if I wasn't passionate about it. But actually the bit that I absolutely love that brings me so much joy with this work is the pedagogy of it. We're in a context where we know that period education is actually done increasingly well and really very well in lots of schools. The schools are full of absolute professionals trying their absolute best.
Very very limited capacity and budgets. But the problem is, is we know how the brain works and learns and we go over the class, sorry, how the brain learns. And we know that you can't just do something for like, oh, we'll do the period session once per year. And that will be enough. Like we have to revisit things more often. you're, so for me going into schools and running first moon cycles with, you know, eight to 13 year olds, I'm always thinking, I've got them for an hour. I've got them for an hour and a half. I've got them for three hours they're not going to remember everything that I tell them. I want them to bottle up like a feeling. I want them to feel really safe and excited and powerful. Like how can I convey that in the time that I've got with them so that they walk away, not necessarily remembering any of the key terms we've talked about, but remembering that feeling when they think about periods again. And how can I, you know, set this up, structure this, what activities can we do to transmit as much as I possibly can that will stick and what can I do throughout the session to check that you know the understanding and so it is that real marriage of like the pedagogy and the teaching to this work and I've really been on a journey with that as well you know and love how sort of the structure and the setup and what I do in sessions has evolved over the three years too. So yeah sorry I've waffled on there.
Hannah (32:21)
No, that was so fascinating in terms of what like, I just wanted to ask, well, there's about a million things I'd like to ask you about. But the one the one that has come up for me a bit recently from doing work in schools is about the whole power through thing. So like, I would love to know what your angle is on that. Because the school, like the school that I've just done this pilot in, they kind of were concerned as a lot of schools are in terms of attendance, so particularly it was year 10 girls, so 15, who they were seeing a real drop-off in the attendance.
Beth (32:53)
Hannah, well there is lots of surveys and research out there and funnily enough we just have just worked with the school on an attendance survey and Year 10 girls, top three cited reason for being off as the menstrual cycle.
Hannah (33:07)
But then what I'm so gripped about is, because that's how this came about, this pilot that I've been doing that I can speak on in a bit, that they're saying, so they've got all these year 10 girls and said, why aren't you going in? And they said periods. And they were like, well, periods aren't a reason to not go to school. And then you think, oh, that's really tricky in terms of what we know, what we have been taught, what we share in terms of resting at menstruation and the challenges of doing that in a world that doesn't create that space. So I'm really interested to hear what you, how you would respond to that. Like what would your approach to a school be, particularly given your, you know, your background and your knowledge of the educational system, which is.
Beth (33:51)
Yeah, mean, attendance is an issue. I can't, I don't know that there is, you know, a school out there currently that isn't, haven't got attendance as a, well, obviously I don't know that, but, you know, I'd be very surprised. Attendance is a nationwide issue, as we know. There's so much to unpick, isn't there? So I think first of all, there's establishing, is there an underlying health here? So first of all, it's good education about what is considered typical and what isn't.
What we mean by debilitating symptoms. Like what is, you know, way everyone experiences and perceives pain, for example, is very different. So really I'm picking that working with the student, working with the family, you know, what is going on here. Obviously schools should be very boundary, we're not medical professionals, but if there is a need to seek medical intervention or support, then again, you know, in the assemblies that I ran with these girls, I did a big bit on...
If you spot something that isn't right and you need to speak to trusted adult, how can you advocate for yourself through an NHS system that we know is, we know that there's a dearth of women's health research, we know that it's really difficult to get a doctor's appointment, we know that you get 10 minutes and you can often be fobbed off with various different interventions. So how can we really be empowered to advocate for ourselves? So I give lots of top tips
about, you know, book a double appointment. If you feel more comfortable with a female GP, you can request that. See if there is a women's health or menstrual health specialist at the surgery, because there might be. Take someone with you if you would like to write your questions out, ask if it's okay to record the conversation. Track your cycle so you go in with data. So when they say come back in a few months, if you're still experiencing it, you can say, well, actually, I've been experiencing it for six months. Here's the evidence. You know, all of this stuff to get empowered. So I think
where there is a genuine potential underlying health condition, genuine debilitating symptoms, there's a plan. You're working with and supporting and empowering that person to seek support so that their strategies and support can be put in place. regard to the like, suck it up and get on with it attitude and the don't do anything and counsel all plans on your period.
I have decided that I am going to the... like I'm going to cop out of that one and I'm going to go in the middle. But I have considered it, I promise. So I don't tell young people that they... I do absolutely tell young people that they should track their cycles, listen, understand how they experience their cycle
that they should absolutely honor their body and rest, et cetera, et cetera. But what I do say is that the power, the empowerment there of tracking your cycle and being connected with your mind and your body is that if you know you're going to be on your period or coming up to your period next week, and you know that's a time where you feel tired and sensitive and bloated or however, and you've got, let's say, and actually I do multiple choice.
I do scenarios and multiple choices for them to, know, which one would you do it promote such discussion? And you know, you've got a netball match coming up, for example, and this is how you're going to potentially feel. What can you do? And one of the options is, you know, sack off the netball match at the last minute. You know, and one of them is power three, regardless. And actually, there's no right or wrong, you I try to say to them that you don't actually have to do either of those things. know, life is full of commitments. We have commitments and we have things that we need to do and you have an education at the moment and then you have a job and etc. etc. So we don't want to just last minute, know constantly be saying, know, oh by the way, can't do this. I can't do that. You know, it's we do there are commitments that we you know are part of sports clubs. We've made plans with a friend whatever obviously sometimes there is a real power in saying no, right is really important to know that that is there as an option
actually we can be so empowered to plan ahead. So there's a middle ground here. And nor do we have to just power through and pretend we're not on our period and that we do need probably more rest at that time, et cetera, et cetera. So there is a middle ground where we can do things like tell a trusted adult that we might feel tired and need a rest during the game, know, prep that in advance. Make sure that we keep the day before, the evening after, and the day after free can have an early night and a nice bath and a hot chocolate and sit and watch a film.
and just plan for that so that we can still do the thing, but that we are also honouring our menstrual cycle how we might be feeling. And I think that's where I've landed and I've swayed to land there over the last few years. How about you, Hannah? And please tell me more about this pilot.
Hannah (38:24)
I love, I just love that response. think it's really clever. yeah, I agree. it's, it's difficult. No, but it's not because you can't just not go to school, can you for three, four, five days of the month, you can't as much as
Beth (38:28)
Well, I think it's a cop out.
I mean the world doesn't start right, it's just not, yeah. And I don't think it has to. Yeah, I don't think it has to.
Hannah (38:40)
No. But I think it's the awareness. No.
Lauren (38:46)
Even just hearing the two of you speak is like healing something within me because I don't know about you, but like when I was in school, I grew up in like rural Canada, went to like a Catholic high school. So don't think they talked about anything in high school. I had like some sex ed in grade eight. I remember distinctly my first ovulation because I thought that was my period. And then I was very surprised when two weeks later I was like, So like, was like, this is the period, this is happening. And then it was just like, nope, that wasn't it. And so even just hearing the two of you speak, I can already see the impact that this education would have. Because I'm like, OK, if I was a young girl in school and I knew my period was coming and I knew how to support myself, like I was just even while you're talking, like thinking about in high school, I'm like, I probably would have brought like a pillow to sit on. I probably would have brought more snacks. I probably would have like, you know, all these little things. And just thinking of like how if the boys were included in that conversation, the teachers were included in that conversation. There'd just be so much more ease. There would be like less fear of like going to school and like, you know, shoving your tampon up your sleeve to go to the bathroom. Like I did that all the time. Just like, or the fear of bleeding through your pants and just like, that would be the end of the world. So you have to wear like a zip up hoodie on your period so that you had a backup just in case. And just like, the awareness, like that menstrual cycle awareness, I know how powerful it was to find as an adult, but to have that given to you or gifted to you as a child to like cross over and like cross over your menarchy and just start from that foundation. I think that alone, like that question around attendance would just be like, course I can go to school on my period. Cause everyone will know like, and it's not going to be a bad thing. Like that's my dream world, Like we're not there yet maybe, but it's just, yeah, I can already see how just the work the two of you are doing will bring about that change. So like the question of like, well, what can we do? You're already doing it in my, from my perspective. And it's gonna be like, yeah, they're gonna be so much better for it.
Hannah (40:36)
Thank you. I think it is the awareness piece, isn't it? And I think I kind of, I switched between the two Beth, and on the one hand I want to say to everybody, just lie down. have to, you don't have to do it. But at the same time, yeah, that isn't realistic. But I think that it's the menstrual cycle awareness piece. And when you were just talking Lauren about, you know, your experience and remembering that I was just thinking about my big girl who is going to be 13 next month.
And actually some of the things that we do, obviously, is when she's got her period, then I check in and say, are you up to doing what you are up to today? Because if you don't want to, you don't have to do it. And she's like, she'll say if she doesn't want to, and she'll say if she can. And we'll do things like, you know, if she's on day one, we might pick her up from school rather than making her walk back.
So I think it's, I think your middle ground isn't a cop out of tool bath, it's the both and, isn't it? ⁓ And because, I'm hoping that she has that awareness now, because so she can think, I don't have to. It's the feeling like you've got to when you don't want to that causes the challenges, isn't it?
Lauren (41:46)
And that support too for like obviously acknowledging girls who might have endometriosis or like actual painful periods. Like I think a lot of like my period pain went away when I learned about cyclical living and was able to support and feel my body the way it needed to. But then there are like I remember having a client and just like in passing she mentioned that she was like on cycle day one and was in bed and throwing up and all this stuff. And I was like, circle back to that real fast and just like so even coming into like your teen years and having that knowledge to be like what is a normal period quote unquote like what is normal pain and then creating space for that as well to like give them the like you said empower them to speak to their GP and be like this isn't normal experience and getting that caught so much earlier.
Hannah (42:33)
And I guess that's why it is so important, isn't it? Because you're right, Beth, that schools do as good a job as they can with the kind of limited time and the limited resources that they've got from what I can see. But actually, it's a bigger conversation.
Beth (42:46)
Yeah and of course the tetanedins is more complex than the menstrual cycle. I do think it's like a part of the jigsaw for I think that is emerging. Sorry Hannah I cut you off.
Hannah (42:49)
Yeah.
No, no, no, I was only going to just I was just going to say about this, this pilot that I've just been doing. The reason that I keep that I keep mentioning it is because I've just I've just written the evaluation. So it's like fresh in my mind. But it's relevant in terms of the the kind of age thing and the kind of yeah, I'll just I'll tell you a little bit of a background of it. Basically, the Monmouthshire, which is my local authority in South Wales.
Wales are really different to England. don't know, Beth, you'll know more about the English system, but in Wales we have a period dignity grant and the Welsh government are pretty hot on period dignity and back that up. So there's a whole period dignity plan. Anyway, they gave me, they divvy out this money between local authorities and my local authority gave me a bit of money to...
run a pilot for a menstrual ambassadors programme. So that started the beginning of this year and I've just written up the pilot and it was just so incredible this opportunity. So four year 10 girls volunteered to be menstrual ambassadors and I mean, I've just written the evaluation but I'm kind of struggling to think about what to say to you about it because it's just been so many different layers of amazing.
But It made me feel so reassured about teenagers and they get such bad press. And these four 15 year old girls would just knock out incredible, just the passion and the tenacity and the courage that they have just shown, like in a really short period of time, pun intended. We managed to...
put together a workshop, like I demoed a workshop, you the kind of signature period product workshop. They then delivered it back to me and the head of year, really amazingly. And then they delivered it to a group of year seven girls and the girls loved it, of course, because it was...
you know, that whole peer to peer support thing and the fact that these girls had lived experience, you know, they were walking the walk and talking the talk and they were able to say things like, well, actually what I do with my tampon is I do this or I don't like that applicator or da-da-da-da-da-da. And it was just so wonderful and they really enjoyed it. The mental ambassadors really enjoyed it. And the year 70, you could just tell, was so...
relaxed and engaged and able to ask questions and it was just wonderful. And then the ideas that these mental ambassadors had for their role, they just took on this role. Like I got them little badges with them that were just like a little blood drop. So they've got them next to their like prefect badge and stuff. I don't think it is a prefect badge, but whatever. They're like badged up and they're and I just couldn't believe how like quickly they just got it. And they're like, right, we'll be responsible for making sure that there's products in the toilets and we're going to do this. And just so energised. And I just really am hoping that we'll be able to roll this out and this become more of a nationwide approach because it just seems so obvious.Tthat's the way to do it. then, know, what I think, and Beth will know more about this than me, but in a lot of schools, they've got wellbeing ambassadors. And so this, it's not a new concept. And that's fantastic. And that's supporting the wellbeing of, you know, all of the school. But actually, have it specifically being menstrual ambassadors, I just think is like quite groundbreaking.
It has such potential.
Lauren (46:24)
That sounds like an incredible program. So is the vision, as you said, to roll it out nationwide, but to basically train more menstrual ambassadors. So there's a few at each school to then be able to teach and to be that support. I love that. Mm.
Hannah (46:36)
Yeah, I mean, saying rolling out nationwide, that's being a bit ambitious. I think, you know, I'm hoping we'll start with Monmouthshire. But the concept is like so brilliant because teachers haven't got the capacity to do it in the way that they want to. And it's really brilliant for upskilling these young people as well in terms of like work experience, transferable skills, you know, they're volunteering effectively.
Lauren (46:59)
I mean, it's been interesting moving to Scotland and they have free period products everywhere. So that was like a big like step up from where Canada is currently. I mean, obviously different scale of country, so different scale of program. But I could see that being like a logical next step would be like, how do we then get girls in on this at a young age and boys to like make it accessible, but also normal just normal part of our language. ⁓
Hannah (47:22)
Absolutely.
Beth (47:25)
It sounds incredible Hannah and we'll have to like talk in more detail about it at know another time because I think there's potentially some real crossover and overlap and ways that we can work together on on that like the year 10 and the attendance piece and yeah it sounds amazing. What were the aims of the pilot? What were you sort of going out to do and tasks to do?
Hannah (47:47)
To improve menstrual wellbeing by challenging the stigma and taboo really. So I think, you know, that's all. So good, soft aims.
Beth (47:49)
Okay. And yeah, just a tiny arena.
Then the menstrual ambassador piece, did you go to the school and discuss ideas with the school? Or did you have an idea in your mind already that that's the framework that you would?
Hannah (48:07)
No, so because it was a pilot, I think the kind of the bit that we wanted to do to test out was to share mental education with Year 7s. what was so wonderful and kind of it's what I'd hoped, but I didn't know how it would work, you know, as pilots, that's the whole point of them, isn't it? But that it was so co-created. So I just said to the young people, this is what we've got. We've got this rough idea. What do you think?
And kind of handed it over. And so they took real ownership of it. And they came up with all the stuff. You know, I kind of loosely guided them, but it was their idea. And all of it was their idea, really, which was exciting.
Lauren (48:48)
And how did that conversation start? So if there's any facilitators or coaches listening and are keen to start similar things town or city, where did that begin? Is it just that you knew about this grant, so you proposed something, or what were the steps?
Hannah (49:04)
Yeah, I think I realised very quickly that schools don't have money. And so that was I think that was one of the barriers at the beginning. Actually, Beth, I don't know what you thought about this. at beginning, I thought this is not where I'm going to be able to be paid. Like schools just don't have any money. Like they have less than no money. It's it's mad. And that was when I came across, yeah, found out about the period Dignity grant But so so I guess if you want to be paid to do this, then you have to go elsewhere to get the funding. And I don't know where that funding comes from. Do you get funded from individual schools, Beth, when you go in and do yours?
Beth (49:39)
Yeah, so it's really interesting the schools piece and I get asked a lot, know, how do you get into schools and all of this kind of thing? And I agree with you Hannah, like schools have, you know, absolutely no money at all. And also schools, you know, get a huge amount of traffic, email traffic of interventions and, you know, different kind of programmes and things like that.
But of schools are the place where you're going to have the most impact potentially, you know, you've got access to, there's so many children, right, that you can go in and I think that's the appeal of them, right, for anyone who's driven to do this work. Like we have a passion that we want to share our message and we want as many people as possible to be able to listen to it and so schools are kind of like a natural place I think.
CIC is me and I am actually a current teacher so I'm currently a director of sixth form at a local secondary school to me and I work four days a week. So Thursday is my non-working day where I try to run Bloom and Belong but I'm so limited and if I go into other schools it has to always be a Thursday which obviously limits my capacity hugely and so the funding piece is something that I like have you know in my head as like that needs to be on a strategic plan which exists in my head know and it's not written down anywhere somewhere maybe in like 2028 and I know that the charity and the funding sector is very very challenging at the moment as well so it it's like any having any kind of robust system or admin process in place for running my CIC is like another thing that is on my you know in my head is like a to-do.
But really excitingly, because I think that there probably is funding out there if I looked hard enough for it, but I wouldn't even know where to start. But really excitingly, I think I'm on the cusp of taking on a partner for Bloom and Belong which is super exciting. So I found someone, someone locally who's just amazing, a lady called Lottie. And we are going to be delivering a...
new programme that I've written called Seasons of Sisterhood together over the next year. Yeah, and if that all goes well, which I'm really confident that it will in terms of like our ways of working and working together, then we will, you know, formalise whether it's Bloom and Belong, whether it's we do something new. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, it's all TBC. But that obviously will just, you know, double the capacity there and potentially mean that we can explore that route more. But at the moment, yes, schools pay me to go in. But I think the reality is that you do have to be very realistic about what you are going to get paid. And I think that you know, I am in a position where Bloom and Belong at the moment is like being very carefully nurtured and incubated to like
I'm about to turn 40 and I'm like, how many years can I keep standing up at the front of the class doing this? Probably another 15, I reckon I've got it in me. And then I would like a more flexible kind of consultancy type period. So I'm sort of like nurturing Bloom and Belong, I think, I don't really know, for my pre-retirement, last 10, 15 years of work.
And so I love my job and I love what I do now and I wouldn't want to move on from that. So I have to accept that I'm limited in my capacity at the moment. But I have totally lost my train of thought. I don't know what point I was trying to make at all. So, yeah.
Hannah (52:57)
About the fund, I was asking you about the funding and how that.
Beth (52:59)
Thanks Hannah.
I don't even know how that links to the foundation to be honest. No, I've remembered, thank you, I've remembered, that I am paid a salary from my job and that pays my bills and so I am, you know, that is a very privileged position for somebody who is running their own venture in that I am not relying solely on any income which I don't think I've ever paid myself from Bloom and Belong. I haven't ever paid myself from Bloom and Belong.
Hannah (53:03)
I think you're doing amazingly on day one.
Yeah, okay.
Beth (53:26)
to pay my bills. So that is a very different scenario to somebody who is running a sole trader, partnership, whatever it might be, and needs to generate income. So my advice, if I took the leap and just did Bloom and Belong, I would absolutely not be able to rely just on school. I would have to think about very carefully where the revenue streams were going to be.
Hannah (53:28)
Yeah. Yeah.
Beth (53:48)
But what I will say the other thing I just wanted to say to that very quickly is that any work that I've ever done in schools has been through word of mouth and personal recommendation. so I think that, know, I don't personally, others may have had success from this and you know, that's that's great. Personally, I think if you have a blanket email or a PDF thing and you just scatter that out to schools, I don't think that that is an effective
approach and I think it is about getting the speaking to the right person in the school. So you want, know, someone on SLT who has responsibility for, you know, PSHE achievement, wellbeing, etc. All you want ahead of PSHE and you really, yeah, you know, getting in in some way, whether you're a parent in the school, whether you know, you know, it's about that and that's all of my work
with schools has been where it's been, so and so has, you know, and it's become quite third hand now, which is great. You know, it's like, my mate knows someone whose mate went to, you know, that you just want that ripple effect.
Hannah (54:49)
It's a really good
point and I think it's one that I wish I'd known that more. People say to you, know, networking and word of mouth and all that kind of jazz, but at the beginning when you start off, this was my experience anyway, you think, I've just got to go on Instagram and talk about it and then I'm just going to, hundreds of people are going to flock my way. And then it takes your walk to go, hmm, that's actually, but you have to kind of like test it out. you kind of work that out yourself, I think.
Beth (55:16)
Oh, and is, is, know, social media is such a love hate. You know, about 6,500 followers on TikTok. I don't think I've ever had any business from TikTok, but I mean, wouldn't, I don't know, I don't. I mean, I don't think anyone has ever come to a circle or done, you and then Instagram, you know, I think probably three people see what I ever put, and I'm so up and down with it. I'm not consistent, but I think you just do. Yeah, thanks, Hannah. And likewise, but I think it is about
Hannah (55:30)
Yeah.
I'm one of the three.
Beth (55:43)
You know, accepting that it takes time, you know, it really takes time and taking every opportunity that's come your way. I mean, I was recently interviewed, someone reached out to me, I've got a double page spread at the moment in the like where people advertise, you know, small businesses and there's like a double page spread with a great big crochet volver, you know, and it's absolutely amazing, you know, and I have no idea if that's going to have any impact whatsoever, but it's just...just little and often, little and often, and you do build up, you do build up credibility, you do build up a reputation in your area. But it takes, this is a very divisive, very difficult, uncomfortable space for some people. And you will, this is a niche message. And so when you put yourself out there, it's just, keeping going with it and just knowing that it will take time but you absolutely will get there.
Hannah (56:36)
I think that's a really good point. And when you were saying that, it was just making me think about how, yeah, it takes time. And that's why it's so important to have a backup as well. Like I left my job over a year ago and I'm still like, oh, after 20 years of employment. But I did most of the kind of building. I don't think I finished that, but I started the kind of foundational bit whilst having a part-time job because...
I don't think it's possible to not do that.
Beth (57:06)
When did you, what was the tipping point? Because we spoke, think, around the time that you decided to leave work. And what would you say was that tipping point for you where you knew this has been bubbling away, now it's time.
Hannah (57:17)
I think that's a really good question. I really appreciate you asking me that because it's just jumped back into my head that it was my old boss who I like a lot and have a lot of respect for asked me to do something and I didn't want to do it. And I had a full body, no, you Which was ridiculous in a bit. I think it's that once you've had that experience of freedom and the autonomy.
Hannah (57:41)
and having the agency to do what you want to do, it's quite hard to then go back to going, yes, I'll do that. That was the tipping point. And I just thought, my God, I'm just going to have my notice it, bonkers, really. It was a big financial risk. And I had a buffer, I didn't, know, full transparency. I didn't just segue neatly into full-time freelance work and I still do bits of social work as well, as a proud social worker. So it's never as clear cut as they make out, is it?
Lauren (58:12)
No, Beth, we're an hour in, we've been chatting for long time and I still want to get to congratulations on your Master's of Science from Oxford. want to, and I wanted to hear about this amazing dissertation, which I did write the title down if you want me to read it or you can talk about it. It definitely starts periods in pedagogy, which I was so proud of two years. I was like, yes, that's an amazing title.
Lauren (58:36)
Yes, periods in pedagogy. Pedagogy? How do you guys say it? Maybe it's my accent.
Beth (58:40)
You can say pedagogy, you can say pedagogy.
I personally say pedagogy.
Lauren (58:43)
Periods in Pedagogy, the impact of menstrual cycle on teachers' emotions and the effectiveness of a coaching intervention. Powerful title and subtitle.
Beth (58:52)
Mmm.
Lauren (58:52)
How did this dissertation come about? How did you feel writing it, publishing it?
Beth (58:58)
Wow, so this Masters was nothing to do with periods. I wanted to, so it's an MSc in teacher education. So it is a very, it's quite a niche Masters that the University of Oxford have developed and run that is kind of designed for those that are involved in educating teachers. And at the time that I signed up for it, I had worked for five years for Teach First, who are an initial teacher training provider in the UK, they were a large ITT provider and I was training teachers and I'd had the girls, was feeling, I'd worked part time in roles I hadn't particularly enjoyed for a while and I was feeling like I was, I always knew I wanted to go back into the classroom, I was waiting for something appropriate to come up locally. I was like, I'm feeling ready to just take on a bit more challenge myself.
I didn't want to do an educational leadership type master. I wanted to do something really focused on this idea of educating teachers. So I signed up for the course. I did the first year, which was so fascinating. And it was part-time, so I was spending some time in Oxford and doing it whilst I put BlueBee on for 20 minutes and be like, what can I get done in 20 minutes? And the first year was brilliant, three assignments in the first year
and they were focused on teachers' beliefs, teachers' knowledge, and the last one was focused on designing teacher education sessions. So we looked at really interesting concepts and theories around how you can design a session, basically, and get the most out of it, or teachers can get the most out of it. And so I'd done that, and there were nothing about periods at all in any of that. And then it was time for the second year, and they said, right, you've got to come up with a title for your dissertation.
And we were talking and again, I hadn't really thought about periods at this point. I suddenly, don't know when it was, I went in the August for a residential week. And I think I was chatting to somebody and they all got really close as a cohort, was lovely. And someone had followed me on Instagram and was talking to me about the period work. And I had increasingly kind of coming back into the classroom noticing the impact of the menstrual cycle on my own practice. And again, like.
being so empowered to plan for that, know, I'm going to on my period next week, right? What am I doing in the classroom next week to support myself there? Not in a lowering standards kind of way, but in a like, how am I tweaking? How am I adapting? What am I choosing to do in the classroom next week to really support myself? And I thought, feel like, I feel like there's a missing trick here. And I feel like, not just for teachers, but you know, in their own practice, know, women and menstruating teachers.
But also for all teachers because we are teaching. If you're a secondary teacher and a primary teacher, you are teaching children who are going to have menstrual cycles or be connected to in some way people that haven't. And it felt like a real missing trick. I was thinking of those kind of scenarios where you've got a teacher and a 14 year old, year nine, who's gone into a lesson late because they had to change their period product and is feeling really sensitive about that. And the teachers, you're late and you get in.
How would that bit of awareness and education and empathy and just taking us, know, help that like behaviour management type situation. So I thought, well, there's no way that the university boxes are going to let me worry about periods like that. It's just not going to happen. But I went, my supervisor, Anne, she's the department director and she is absolutely, just, Anne Childs, big shout out to Anne Childs. She's just amazing. And she was my supervisor and I said to her, can I marry my two worlds here? And, look at the impact of periods and she was so supportive and so on board right from the get-go and it's really her encouragement because it was unwieldy, it was totally overwhelming to start with. I didn't know that I was going to focus on emotions, I was focusing on teaching, didn't, I just had, you know, it was an exploratory kind of phenomenological, can pronounce that word and it was I couldn't grasp the threat, I couldn't visualize in my mind how I was going to make it work.
So I got going, there three teachers at my school that signed up who were just amazing and did the sort of semi-structured interviews and what I found out was just, I mean, I was just incredible. mean, you know, I had people saying to me, some of these women were saying to me that they felt that they probably were on reflection quicker to set detentions in the pre-menstrual phase because that resilience and that know was down and you know there's no judgment there like that you know that I don't wouldn't that's a really vulnerable share isn't it and a really open share for them to disclose to me and there's absolutely no judgment it's like wow within that there's so much we could potentially work with so I think it became apparent from there that there was like an emotions focus so I did I reviewed all the literature on teacher emotions which is so interesting and I not go on and on trying to be really concise but there's bits there about how teachers.
Well first of all I spent about two months trying to define what the word emotion meant that that was by the by we'll gloss over that bit but the teachers are managing it's such a human profession isn't it and you're managing your emotions and the emotions of your students what they bring to the classroom all the time and there are a number of strategies that teachers use to do that so they were like antecedent based strategies, things you might put in place before like knowing that you are going in feeling tired or frustrated or whatever. And then like, know, in the moment strategies to like to deal with a situation. it's just so interesting. So then I, you know, reviewed all of this sort of coaching literature and I developed this coaching program which involved an element of education. So I ran a bit of a menstrual cycle in a session with the teachers, introducing them to the concept.
And then there was some coaching in between and I sort of based it all on a particular coaching model in education. And then we came back and we had a focus group with them all at the end. And then I did final interviews with them all as well. And wow, know, there were really interesting impacts. So one of them who had come in perhaps more open to the idea of the menstrual cycle and menstrual cycle awareness impacting their role.
She was the head of department and she had for the year ahead, her marked on her team departmental calendar when her period was and had thought about her longer term planning and marking load to be managed around that and was discussing it, know, with her. I just thought that was just amazing.
Sorry, I've been using so many hand gestures, I just knocked my phone off. I've literally moved the air. And then, impacts. Impacts for one of the women coming in, really, you was quite, she was not so, she was like, you you just get on with it. Like my menstrual cycle doesn't impact the way that I do things, like you just get on with it. And actually she had some really quite shifting, changing and changes in her beliefs around that. And yeah, and shared, they just all shared some like beautiful anecdotes and things that had happened and ways that they'd handled situations differently based on going through the coaching. And yeah, so that was amazing. So I'm ended with a number of recommendations to the teacher education sector. So if anyone is interested in reading it, it is on my website summary, not the whole 20,000 words obviously. But there is a summary on my website that I was asked to write for a little journal review thing. And yeah, you can find that on my website if anyone's interested.
Lauren (1:06:07)
And I just love this viewpoint because as we talked about before, like the power of having menstrual cycle awareness as a teenage girl and entering menarche with that knowledge. But then also like, yeah, flipping the perspective to the teacher of just like, I think of myself as a coach. And now that I have this menstrual cycle awareness, I see my friends differently. I see all the women in my life differently because whether you're doing cycle check-ins or not, there is a bit of intuition of like, think this is where this person is in their cycle. So I imagine like, obviously I'm not a teacher teaching children, but being able to be in a classroom and seeing, you know, the girls in your class show up differently over their cycles and being able to have compassion for not only yourself, but then for the kids in your classroom. There is that duality that I think is, you guys are gonna just change the world. One school at a time. It's absolutely brilliant.
Beth (1:06:54)
The biggest thing that's come out of today for me is the blood drop badges, like that.
Hannah (1:07:01)
Well, so the really annoying thing about that is the place I got them from on Etsy, Beth, have now run out. Like four and then I've contacted them and I haven't heard. So you've just reminded me I've got to get onto them again. knows of anywhere else, get in touch.
Beth (1:07:10)
Yeah, that's just amazing.
Lauren (1:07:17)
Yeah, the two of you are absolutely incredible and we've gone way over our time because we were chatting before we hit record. But before we wrap up, is there anything else that you would love to share about like the work that you do or any final questions you might have for each other too?
Beth (1:07:32)
God it just feels like there's so, so much that we could talk about, isn't there? And Hannah, I definitely want to talk about your pilot and year 10 girls, you know? really need to make a date in.
Hannah (1:07:42)
Yeah, we'll book a date in. And also I want to know more about your girls group because I'm running a girls group too.
Beth (1:07:48)
There we go. Yes, and that's what because you talked about that last time. And do you remember we talked about potentially like they're linking up and they're being scoped for that. So I've now planned the curriculum sort of over a year long seasons of Sisterhood. So year long group, year long journey 10 to 12 year old girls right at that secondary transition. And yours is similar, isn't it? Is it similar age
Hannah (1:07:55)
Yeah.
It's so interesting. Yeah, yeah. So we've established that Beth and I need to have another meeting.
Beth (1:08:19)
I have established that.
Hannah (1:08:21)
Yeah, mean, there's so much more that we could say, but I think we've kind of covered, we've covered the main bits of what you and doing Beth, haven't we? But yeah, I just think it's a, I just feel really privileged to do it. So it doesn't really feel, still doesn't really feel like work, you know, that it doesn't feel like work. So when people say, it sounds like you're doing really good work, I think, doesn't feel like work.
Beth (1:08:37)
It never ever feels like what.
Hannah (1:08:45)
Yeah, just really honoured and privileged to have the opportunity to hang out with these amazing young people. And really reassured and hopeful, actually, about I feel much, much more hopeful than I did about the potential of changing, changing the narrative.
Lauren (1:09:00)
And What final pieces of advice would you have for any coaches or facilitators who already are able to work with girls so it's not necessarily about getting into school, but if they want to hold these spaces for girls, what would your advice be to them?
Beth (1:09:12)
Book the date.
Hannah (1:09:13)
Book the day. Book day, yeah. You're never gonna feel ready. Book the day. I think, yeah, and I think I would just say as well about the creating safety, that like in order to create safety in a group, you have to be really conscious and aware of the safety within yourself. So the kind of nervous system piece is really key. And that, yeah, just go for it. Like if you've wanted to do it.
Beth (1:09:14)
You're never gonna feel ready. Just book the day.
Hannah (1:09:36)
Just go for it. And also just go for it, like just contact a school and say, can I come in? And just, you know, maybe don't charge just because all of that is really brilliant experience and will enable you to grow or will enable you to decide if that's what you want to do or not. Cause we don't know what we want to do till we know what we don't want to. know what you don't want to do till you try it out. So I guess it's like a suck it and see from a regulated place.
That makes sense.
Beth (1:10:02)
Yes, and I think as well that you do not have to be a teacher to do this work with young people in any way, shape or form. You need to have a passion for wanting to empower and inform and educate young people about this and enjoy working with those age groups. They're curious and they're just amazing.
Those two things, like that passion to share and educate and know just enjoying working with groups of young people is absolutely enough for sure. I think I would feel remiss to like not say sorry this is the teacher in me, if you are working with groups of young people it's for and this will potentially vary depending on where you are.
But it is important to have things like safeguarding processes, procedures, training in place and the appropriate kind of DBS for us. It's the Disclosure Barring Service, police check, an enhanced police check so that you add credibility. I just think that all of that stuff is so essential if you're working with young people. So just upscale and be clued up about that and make sure that that's all in place.
Lauren (1:11:13)
Sound both of you. So thank you so much. One final question, where can people find you and connect with the work that you do?
Beth (1:11:21)
Well, I'm Bloom and Belong CIC. And the website is www.bloomandbelong.co.uk. And then I'm on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook as Bloom and Belong.
Lauren (1:11:31)
Mmm amazing and Hannah
Hannah (1:11:34)
I'm wombwisdom and yeah on Instagram womb__wisdom but also my website is wombwisdom.uk so you can find me there and I do one-to-one cycle coaching and cyclical supervision as well for professionals.
Lauren (1:11:49)
Amazing. Thank you both so much for carving out such a chunk of your day. was fabulous. I feel like we could do like 10 parts together.
Hannah (1:11:53)
Thank
Beth (1:11:53)
Thank you so much Lauren.
Lauren Olivia Hughes (1:12:20)
Thank you so much. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Cycle Coach Show. If you loved what you heard, then please review, share and subscribe to help us reach more cyclical listeners like you. You can find us on Instagram at @cyclecoachschool or online at cyclecoachtraining.com.
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