About Up To Something Clever
A broader way of understanding how children learn.
I'm Sophie Ricard, an educator and doctoral candidate specialising in cognitive diversity. For more than twenty-five years, I've worked with children, families and schools in the UK and US.
My work brings together research, evidence and educational practice to better understand children with spiky learning profiles: the barriers they encounter, how they learn, what engages them, and the conditions in which they are most able to show what they can do.
My perspective is both professional and personal.
I've worked across community education, teaching, academic leadership, alternative provision and school governance. My experience includes working directly with children and young people, supporting families in navigating education, working alongside schools and educators, and contributing to educational leadership and decision-making.
I hold a master’s degree in education from Bank Street College of Education and am currently completing an Ed.D. at Elmbridge University, specialising in Cognitively Diverse Minds.
I'm also the parent of a child with a spiky learning profile.
That experience has introduced me to a different view of the challenges within education. Suddenly, I was the parent trying to make sure the system understood my child.
That combination of evidence, educational practice, academic study and lived experience shapes the work of Up To Something Clever.
Imagining an education where curiosity leads, and different ways of thinking, learning and engaging are recognised.
Why Up To Something Clever?
Clever comes in many forms, but education doesn't always recognise them equally.
A child can think deeply, make complex connections, solve problems, create, question and develop extraordinary knowledge, while struggling with the ways they are required to demonstrate academic ability at school.
Up To Something Clever makes space for a broader understanding of what it means to be clever. Because children are thinking, learning and doing clever things all the time, whether or not the usual measures of education capture them.
My TEDx Talk
My TEDx talk explores what can happen when the challenges experienced by twice-exceptional children become more visible than their abilities, and why recognising strengths matters.