047 - Sliding Doors Stories - Part 6

In this sixth edition of our beloved Sliding Doors Stories, we bring you three powerful moments from guests who, after leaving the classroom, found clarity, connection and joy in unexpected places.

✨ Katie Stone shares how her relationship with her daughter transformed – and how a trip to New Zealand gave her children a once-in-a-lifetime experience (and a new dream for Archie!).

 💖 Sarah Cowan reflects on how one spontaneous weekend with her niece became a treasured memory – something she never could have said yes to while teaching.

🌱 Ruth O’Neill shows us how the relationships she’s now able to build with families go beyond teaching – into deep, meaningful connections, lasting impact, and even holidays in North Wales.

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Edited with finesse by our Podcast Super Producer, Mike Roberts of Making Digital Real

Transcript

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Hello fellow Pit Ponies and welcome to our special bonus episodes that we've put together for your pleasure, which capture those beautiful moments at the end of our episodes, in which our guests share with you the magical experiences they've enjoyed since leaving the classroom. We refer to them affectionately as the sliding doors stories. The stories are different, unique and incredibly powerful and serve as an inspiration to us all. 

So on behalf of myself and Sarah, enjoy Katie Stone's sliding doors story. I couldn't decide between two. One's really brief and the other one is a little longer. 

The first one was when Rosie went to nursery. I had a really hard time with Rosie when she was a baby, like she didn't sleep well. She and I were not good friends. 

And honest to God, when she got to a year old and she could go to childcare, I drop kicked her through them doors and ran screaming in the other direction. And childcare was the thing that gave me back my relationship with Rosie. And I remember it was before lockdown going to her nursery nativity. 

And it was only little because it's such a tiny school that my kids go to because we're so rural. And we were all sat in this little hall and all the parents, once again, all the parents on them tiny little chair. And they all walked down the middle of us and Rosie walked past me and she had these little angel wings because she was an angel.

And she turned round when she got to the front and I'm going to cry when I tell you this. It was my best thing ever. And all the other parents looked at me like, I cry at sad donkey adverts, Sharon, like I will cry out. 

But honestly, that still makes me go. And my other big one, which is more of a business one, because this is since I actually built the business, I was still doing just admin work back then. Last year, I took my kids out of school a week early and we buggered off to New Zealand for three weeks. 

And went to see, like my step mum has a sister over there and I gave my children an experience that they will never, ever forget. We went to wetter workshops. We went to this horrible smelly place called Rotorua, which was on a volcano and stink of Rosie still talks to me about the fart place and they're going to remember it forever. 

Archie came out of that. We saw dolphins. We tried to see a killer whale and didn't manage one.

And Archie wants to be a marine biologist now off the back of that. I mean, whether he will or whether he won't. I said to him on the front of the boat while they were chasing the dolphins, Archie, please be a marine biologist. 

I want you to be there for a living so that you can take me on your boat. So they're not, it won't be, it might not be a life changing thing for him, but they'll never forget that. And neither will I, because we got to go with my dad and my step mum who are now in their seventies and probably won't manage a long haul flight ever again.

Like all these last chances and we never got a chance to do them before. Could I have taken my kids out of school? God, no, I couldn't have taken myself out of school. Could you imagine? Yeah. 

So there you go. Those are my two. Brief interlude to dear listener, couple of questions. 

Are you a tutor or even a pit pony considering tutoring? And do you fancy getting in the room with myself and Sarah Dunwood learning about the wonderful world of tuition? Then why not join us at the National Tutors Conference hosted by Conexus Tuition on the 29th of July, 2025. It's at Chesford Grange Kenilworth. Links to the tickets are in the show notes below, and we will both see you on the other side. 

Sarah Cowan, sliding door story. Well, again, I have agonised for hours and I kind of was thinking of, oh, the really deep things. And actually I'd like to share one from this weekend, because again, I've really reflected since we've chatted and I think I've missed a lot of them. 

I think I've had so many that I, but I didn't necessarily take a moment. But this weekend was a real sliding doors moment and one I'm really pleased that happened. I just messaged my sister on Friday night to see how she is, because she's recently had a baby and she's all sorts of trouble where he's been diagnosed with an allergy to cow's milk. 

And, you know, it's quite, quite a no sleep zone. And she's also got a six year old. So my niece and I just said, well, do you want me to have my niece for the weekend? Me and my husband, you know, and she said, no, I don't want to impose. 

And I said, oh, just send her over. So my niece, my husband went to pick my niece up quite late, about nine o'clock on Friday night as a last minute, really last minute. I'd planned to binge watch the traitors this weekend and stay in my pyjamas and possibly have a cheeky glass or something.

Well, how that changed because my niece turned up Saturday. She's only six. And so, you know, she's got to be entertained. 

I took her out and we went and had a breakfast and I bought her breakfast and I took her to a charity shop and she was allowed to choose something. And we did her spellings, obviously, once a teacher, always a teacher. We did all those lovely things. 

And then in the evening, we watched some programs that she wanted to watch, some kiddie films. She stayed over again. And she and then it was dropped home on the Sunday afternoon. 

And I know and I've had a wonderful weekend. And as she was going, she said, see you next time. Bye.

I love you, Auntie Sarah. And it just melted my heart. I love her dearly. 

And she's my world. And I know for a fact, for a fact, if I was still teaching, I would have missed all of that because I would have had the panic of must rest my weekend. I must protect it. 

Even if I'm sat doing nothing, I need to have a trauma recovery moment. And my gosh, I would have missed out. I've had the best weekend ever. 

And and I'm so grateful. And here's many more because I'm now saying yes. When when I was a teacher, I was saying no. 

And that's not the case. Hello, loyal listeners. We're not going to go full on Bob Geldof during Live Aid, but if you could give us some of your money, even pennies to help us fund the amazing Pit Pony podcast, the link is in the episode notes below. 

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Ruth O'Neill, Sliding Door Story. Yeah, I think I talked a little bit about it last time, and this is going right back to when I first started. So before my tuition had built up, I found myself doing a bit of the same consultancy, just, you know, a parent had got in touch with me and I did an awful lot of stuff with her, you know, applying for funding for things, helping out with her son for access arrangements.

And I did hours worth of stuff for her because her son had been home educated, very high achieving, but had a number of different needs. And when he'd gone to do his exams, the exam centre hadn't granted any of the access arrangements and it was all a bit of a mess up. So she sort of commissioned me to complain, let's say. 

So I helped to do sort of an appeal, a complaint letter, sorted all that out. We did an awful lot of work together. And it got overturned. 

He got given the predicted grade that he'd had all along rather than the one he got given. And I did actually get back in touch the other week and he's at university doing the course that he wanted to do. And you probably do all of that kind of stuff when you're in teaching, but nobody's ever got the time to let you know. 

And you've never got the time to catch up with anybody else either. Whereas doing this now, I mean, I've got probably 25 different kids I work with each week and I know them all and I know the families and I know what the cats are called and I know what they like to for dinner and I know where they've been on holiday. And I went to stay with one of my students and his mum last weekend in North Wales. 

I went to go and stay with them for the weekend. Thanks for staying with us during another great episode of the Pit Pony podcast. And on behalf of myself, Sarah Dunwood, Mike Roberts at Making Digital Real, we wish you all the very best and we'll see you soon.

If you wish to contact me directly for a support session or a clarity call for your next steps, please find my link in the comments below. See you soon.