Personal Brand Photography - Chloe Pullara from The Phonics Fox - Ware and Hertford

I enquired a few weeks ago on my social media if any local businesses or entrepreneurs would like to be considered for a write up by a local photographer. I do lots of Personal Brand Photography around Hertfordshire and Essex, but never get to share my own impressions of the businesses, and I know there are lots of people out there who want to choose who they go to based on real life reviews.

I was overwhelmed with responses, and really taken aback by some of the wonderful stories behind the business owners and concepts. As I have a 3 year old, I decided to start with Chloe Pullara who runs The Phoenix Fox pre-school classes.

Chloe started her business The Phonics Fox, two years ago in October 2017. The idea came to her a few months prior to this. She was coming to the end of maternity leave with her fourth child and just couldn’t face the idea of going back into teaching - even part time.

"I didn’t want to leave my son for long periods. I was still breastfeeding and that was something I wanted to continue with until he self weaned. Teaching is so full on. The days are long and intense and although it’s supposed to be family friendly, it really isn’t. My girls had got used to be being at home and enjoyed me taking them to school. No one wanted me to go back to work - except perhaps my husband who felt all the financial burden."

Chloe had always been passionate about early reading. "Teaching reading was my favourite part of teaching, but something that never enough time was dedicated to on the curriculum. I had taught a Reception class and seen just what a fast pace phonics is taught at and had noticed that it was easy for some children to just miss it, especially if they had little prior experience. I had taught my three older children to read before starting school and felt that gave them a real advantage. And that’s when the idea was born. I would create fun early years classes to give children the early building blocks for reading and writing skills and empower parents and caters to support their children. I strongly believe that parents are their children’s most important educators."

At the classes each week children are taught a new letter sound using Jolly Phonics actions. The classes are all theme/story based and the children have the opportunity to do a variety of activities which are based on the theme, but are designed to help their reading development and support their fine motor skills for writing. Many other areas of the EYFS are covered too. Children are essentially learning through play and have so much fun, they don’t realise they are learning.

I attended The Phonics Fox Halloween themed class in Ware today and my 3 year old was immediately at ease. I was really impressed with how Chloe introduced the "oo" sound, her enthusiasm with her cuk"oo" clock impression, and that she gave the children all their own sets of "book" and "moon" cards to see how the "oo" can be said differently - but she put it back in the children own hands and said "Don't worry if you don't know which "oo" sound it is, you'll figure it out as you use it". I thought this confidence in the children was really brilliant.

After singing some songs and learning about todays sound, Chloe read "Room on the Broom" and encouraged parents to join in if they knew the book - which they did (especially the dads). Then it was time to choose which crafts the children wanted to do. This week they could make a halloween card, a wand, some spiders or fill a cauldron with painted pasta to make spells... Ezra managed to get through all 4 activities before we were brought back as a group at the end.

I was surprised when we were invited downstairs for drinks and cakes after the class... it was a step beyond what I've found at these sorts of classes in the past, and gave parents a chance to talk before leaving, which was really nice (I talked cameras with one of the dads who has recently purchased a mirrorless fuji - If you don't know anything about cameras, I can tell you - I was jealous!).

All in all, todays class was really enjoyable and educational... I'm kicking myself that we didn't try it sooner, as I've known about it for about a year. If you have a pre-schooler I'd encourage you to check it out for yourselves (I made a point of telling everyone who applied to feature in this blog, that it was about them and their passion, it would not be an advertisement for their business, but I genuinely think Chloe is offering something very special and unique here).

Chloe said "My classes took off very quickly with many of my trials all signing up. I started classes in Hertford and then soon added Ware and Cheshunt. It’s been hard work as I’ve planned as I’ve gone along. I currently teach 8 classes a week and I have my own (shared) premises to at Sucklings Yard in Ware." Now Chloe is settled at her own premises, someone else has joined the team to cover Hertford. Unsurprisingly, demand has continued to be high over the last 2 years and feedback from parents has been really positive.

It's recognised by Chloe how lucky she was that her mother in law has been able to help with her littlest one and said she would not have been able to do any of this without her. She is currently taking the next exciting step of franchising her business and will see where that leads. "I have lots of other ideas in the pipeline but just not enough time to do them!'

If you'd like to know more you can visit The Phonics Fox Website or Facebook page for more information.

Please let me know in the comments below if there is a business you would like to see featured in a future blog?

City skyline

Photo By: John Doe
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One of my other passions is working from my Hertford studio photographing families and newborn baby's... I like following other photographers to keep up with the latest trends, and someone I've been introduced to recently is Newborn photographer from Co. Down in Northern Island, Claire Butler

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