051 - Sliding Doors Stories - Part 8

In todays bonus episode of The Pit Pony Podcast, we bring you another trio of powerful Sliding Doors moments – those life-defining experiences shared by our guests since leaving the classroom.

🎙️ Rachael Daniel reflects on an event, that reminded her not all schools are toxic, and some can still feel like home.

🎙️ Kitty White shares how the simple act of walking through the woods in the morning – free from a timetable – helped her reconnect with nature, memory, and peace after personal loss.

🎙️ Rob Newland describes the sheer joy of walking his excitable spaniel in the Cornish countryside at lunchtime – something unimaginable during his teaching years.

Each story is a gentle reminder that life on the other side of teaching can be calm, beautiful and yours to shape.

Buy Us a Coffee ☕️

Loving the Pit Pony Podcast?

We’d be so grateful for your support! We’ve set up a Buy Me a Coffee page where you can make a small donation to help keep the podcast running.

https://buymeacoffee.com/thepitponyclub

Voice Message Us: https://www.speakpipe.com/pitponypodcast

Interested in coming to our conference? https://www.tutorsconference.co.uk

If you've been affected by any of the issues raised in our podcast there are organisations who can help:

• Education Support
• The Samaritans
• Mind
• Andy's Man Club

Join Us:

• Subscribe to the Pit Pony Podcast
• Sign up to our mailing list here: http://eepurl.com/i1L5ck

Thanks for listening 🙏

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

Transcript

Thank you to our sponsors Little Voices. Are you a teacher with a passion for drama, music and performance or feeling stuck in the classroom? Little Voices gives you the chance to step into a role where you can truly inspire young minds through the arts. This is a company I know well and admire. 

They're passionate about child development, highly rated and genuine and transformative. With small group teaching, a focus on confidence and creativity, with the opportunity to guide children through lambda qualifications, you can make a real impact. Plus, with the support of a nationwide franchise network behind you, you can run your own successful business, doing what you love while teaching in a way that truly fits your life.

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 door 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. Rachael Daniel and Sliding Doors. And so in 2023 it was our school centenary year and we had a big garden party, sort of proms in the park style. 

Over 2,000 people came, which was just incredible to know that my boss and I had organised that. And I just remember standing behind most of the crowd, the main sort of school building, which is just, it's sort of like Hogwarts, is the backdrop and just thinking, A, we've organised this, what an achievement, and B, seeing that people can have a positive relationship with schools, to have so many old Canfordians come back to their school, people from all around the world. I think it was just really reassuring that schools can be happy places and I can't let my experience tarnish my opinion of all schools. 

So yeah, professionally and emotionally, it was a pretty special moment for me. Brief interlude, 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. Kitty White, Sliding Doors.

For me, my sliding door moment is just being able to open up the front door in the morning and to be able to walk through my beautiful woodland. I look at it, I walk through there with Kelly, I have a play with her in the morning and just to be able to do that and not actually have to think, I'm on a time schedule, I'm on a time schedule, I've got to get back, I've got to get back and I'm able to just have a few minutes and reflect and just take it all in. I have a through the woodland and I can just look through there, look through there, I can look through the woods and I've got that landscape in front of me and it's just sort of being able to reflect back and just think wow, like I'm here and I feel I wasn't able really to do that sometimes, you weren't able to just have that moment and just appreciate the present, like you're always worrying about something and I am still a bit of a worrier, everybody will say that, but it's just being able to sort of have that reflection time and just appreciate everything around you and I see the robin in the morning and I always think that's my nan saying hello because she passed away last year. 

So again, I was able to have that time with my family and if I'd been in teaching, I wouldn't have got that and so for me that's another sort of moment that actually I was able to spend that time with them, whereas I don't think I wouldn't have had that opportunity, but again I see this robin so I always think I see her and the other day there was this beautiful rainbow when we got our new cottage and I was just like, it's just, you know, it's just everything, you go through these hardships and everybody's different and everything's different for people, but actually, you know, there is light and I think it's just now I'm able to just appreciate things a bit more and I have that mindset and I have that headspace to be able to do it. Hello loyal listeners, I'm going to go full on Charles Dickens in this buy us a coffee slot and as Oliver Twist, we're going to ask for a little bit more. Any pennies you can donate to keep our podcast funded would be greatly appreciated. 

See the buy us a coffee link in the episode notes. Thank you. Rob Newland, Sliding Doors.

It's a weird one because I think there's specific, a specific moment or specific moments where I go I'm so, you're reflective and you go, this is brilliant. So for me, I think it's the clearest moment is when I'm out walking my dog, April, she's a spring Espanol, she's completely lunatic, but you're out in the Cornish countryside when it's the sun shining. I don't often think about this when it's raining, which has been recently, but you know, you're out on a lunchtime, you're in the fresh air in nature, surrounded by hearing birds. 

It's just brilliant. And I look around and I'm going, I could have never have done this while I was still teaching. You know, when I think back to that, particularly since we had our initial chat is I think about it. 

I'm going, I'm just walking around in nature with my dog during lunchtime. I would never have done this in comparison to me sitting in an office, ox breathing, trying to get through the day to day. 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.