Hi, I’m Grace.
Founder of Peaceful Pathways Consultancy. Specialist sleep and SEND consultancy for early years families, based in West Sussex.
Early Years Teacher · Special Educational Needs and Disability Coordinator · Former Local Authority Strategic Lead for Early Years SEND and Inclusion · Qualified Sleep Consultant
How Peaceful Pathways came to be
I started out as an early years teacher, working in and leading Early Years Settings. I am passionate about Early Years education and over time I moved into specialist SEND work, took a university qualification in Special Educational Needs and Disability Coordination, and eventually became Strategic Lead for Early Years SEND and Inclusion at a UK local authority.
Four years in that role taught me something the textbooks don’t quite say: that the families navigating the most complex situations were also the ones for whom the standard support was the worst fit. Sleep advice that didn’t account for sensory differences. Transition planning that didn’t include the family’s voice. SEND processes that left parents feeling small. The pattern repeated. Private practice was the next step — a way to bring this work to families directly, removing the red tape, one family at a time.
Peaceful Pathways Consultancy was born. A private practice that brings the depth of early years and SEND expertise into the home — supporting families directly, working alongside their children’s settings, and treating each child as their own picture rather than a category to be sorted into. The Sensory Sleep Method™ and the SEND Support Pathways are how I do that work today.
Qualifications and experience
Academic
• BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies
• NASENC National Award for Special Educational Needs and Disability Coordination
Professional
• Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS)
• Over 10 years teaching in and managing early years settings
• Over five years as Strategic Lead for Early Years SEND and Inclusion at a UK local authority
Specialist training
Level 3 Sleep Consultancy
Level 3 Early Years Neuroscience
Lullaby Trust SIDS and Safer Sleep for Babies Training
Early Years SEND Transition Training - Dingley’s Promise
Autism Awareness Training
Designated Safeguarding Lead
Sensory Profile 2 Delivery Training - Pearsons
The expertise behind Peaceful Pathways, in brief.
Beyond the credentials
What the qualifications don’t tell you is how much I care about my work. Early years education and SEND aren’t just what I trained in — they’re my bread and butter. My passion.
Some of that runs deeper than professional training. I grew up alongside SEND in my own family, so I understand from the inside what it means to love someone whose needs are not always understood by the world around them — and how much it matters when someone really sees them.
And I’m a mother myself, to a little one in the thick of the early years right now. I know what it is to be tired, to wonder if you’re getting it right, to want the very best for your child and not always know the way. I bring all of that to the families I work with — the expertise, the lived understanding, and the genuine belief that early years support should be better than it often is.
How I work
One principle runs through everything I do:
Working alongside families, in partnership with their early years settings.
For families, that means I’m on your side — championing your child, helping you understand what’s going on, and giving you the language and confidence to advocate for them. You are the expert in your child; my role is to bring specialist knowledge alongside yours, not over the top of it.
For settings, it means I come as a partner, not an inspector. The best outcomes for a child happen when the people around them are working together — and I see my job as helping that happen, never as standing in judgement of the people doing difficult work with limited resources.
Underpinning all of this are the commitments I bring to every family: safer sleep always, evidence-based practice, genuine partnership, and collaboration with the wider professionals around your child. You can read more about what that means on the home page.
Ready to Learn More?
Send us an email or click the button to book a chat.
grace@peacefulpathway.co.uk