Who we are
At Go Flourish, each team member brings a unique blend of expertise and dedication to making outdoor learning an essential part of every child's development. Together, we’re committed to transforming education, one garden at a time.
The Trustees
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Julia Jane Gladwin is garden designer and director of Black Isle Brewery which she and her husband started in 1998. She now focuses on the horticultural aspect of the business to grow organic produce for the two Black Isle Bars. She has over 30 years of experience in horticulture. As a high-end garden designer with public commissions under her belt, she has a clear aim to incite an appreciation of plants, to ignite wonder at the richness and curiosity of the natural world and to encourage her clients to be hands on gardeners.
For 30 years she and her husband have hosted young people through the WOOF organisation (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms) and grown increasingly aware of the disconnection from nature so many young people experience and the profound negative impact this has on their ability to work cooperatively, to empathise, on their resilience and stamina, and on their sense of fulfilment and happiness.
To help address these issues she founded Go Flourish, a charity whose aim is to reconnect children to nature. Go Flourish put well-designed gardens into schools which come with a Liaison Teacher and the gardens used to give real world context to curriculum learning. Partnering with St Andrew’s University to measure outcomes, Go Flourish aim to provide a cost-effective mechanism for national roll out and demonstrate that mental health and learning outcomes are improved.
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Raoul Curtis-Machin has 33 years of experience in horticulture and heritage. He has been Director of Horticulture at the Horticultural Trades Association, a National Trust Gardens and Parks Adviser, landscape historian, private estate manager, garden designer, publisher, author, lecturer and more. Born in Dundee he developed his childhood interest in horticulture through studying for a degree in landscape management at Reading University.
He has a wealth of heritage, politics, communications and landscape management experience. Raoul also helped protect some of the Scotland’s most valuable landscapes when he was the Landscape Historian with Historic Environment Scotland. In his twenties, he managed Sir Winston Churchill’s former estate in Sussex and ran a successful garden design business in London. In his early thirties he set up and launched The Northern Garden Magazine, for gardeners in Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland.
As the HTA’s Director of Horticulture, he helped lead the UK garden industry by playing a key role in developing the Ornamental Horticulture Roundtable Action Group and he represented the UK Government as Commissioner-General at the Antalya Expo 2016. In 2018, Raoul returned to Scotland to be the National Trust for Scotland Operations Manager for Culloden Battlefield, which has given him hands-on experience of Scottish heritage tourism, as well as conserving one of Scotland’s iconic heritage assets. He has a Certificate in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors, as well as Postgraduate Diplomas in Journalism and Public Affairs.
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James is an independent fundraising and marketing consultant. He began fundraising in 1992, after a short career as a Land Agent. For ten years he managed a national team handling regional appeals, grant bids and PR for conservation charity, The Woodland Trust. James moved to Tonbridge School in 2003 to set up a new Foundation, moving on to King’s School, Canterbury in 2011, before setting up his own consultancy in 2013.
During his time with schools, James taught English and Creative Writing and was a house tutor. He continues to stay involved in education by helping run Tonbridge School's climbing trips.
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Theodore Shack is an architect based in Edinburgh and working across Scotland. He leads Croftworks, an architecture practice focused on ecology-led construction. Projects span retrofit, historic restoration and sustainable new build and are all grounded in considerations of site-wide biodiversity and low-carbon construction. Theodore lectures and tutors in Architecture and Landscape Architecture at Edinburgh University. His research interests include low-tech design, embodied qualitative map-making and drawing, rewilding in architecture, material reuse, and play. www.croft-works.com
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Jamie McGowan is an Advocate and member of Axiom Advocates. He works mostly in public law, dealing mostly with judicial review challenges. He has a particular interest in Human Rights litigation and Environmental Law. He often advises public authorities and private clients on matters of public law and he has experience in dealing with Charity Law and Tax Law. He is also a Tutor at the University of Edinburgh and he is a PhD candidate at the University of Glasgow in Constitutional Theory. In his spare time, Jamie is also a gold panner and likes to spend time prospecting up in the hills when time allows.
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Honor is a Landscape Architect for Tom Stuart-Smith. Over the last five years she has lead projects for the studio, most notably, the creation of the Rewilded Garden at Knepp Castle in Sussex and the gold medal show garden for the National Garden Scheme at the Cheslea Flower Show 2024.
The design studio has close links with The Serge Hill Project, a CIC set up by Tom and Sue Stuart-Smith based on the understanding that working with nature can radically transform people's health and wellbeing. The project provides a diverse educational program for local community groups and practitioners from further afield.
Honor gained a BA in Fine Art at City and Guilds of London Art School and followed by a two-year masters in Landscape Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art. During her masters, she worked with Maxine Sloss supporting her in founding The Super Power Agency, a literacy charity based in Edinburgh. Her landscape practice is varied with an overarching interest in the impact that nurturing creativity and nature can have on people’s lives. For the Cheslea Flower Show Garden she worked with Sunnyside Rural Trust, a charity and social enterprise offering training and work experience for over 170 vulnerable people, mending discarded tools for display in the show garden shed. Her pro bono work includes a new garden for the Koestler Trust, a charity that encourages people in the criminal justice system to change their lives by participating in the arts.
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Richard brings deep expertise in embedding nature principles and outdoor learning into school culture, making him a natural fit for Go Flourish's mission to reconnect children to nature through school gardens and Liaison Teachers.
Richard founded The Harmony Project after developing a transformative approach to learning while serving as Headteacher of an Ofsted-graded Outstanding school. The Harmony approach integrates subject knowledge around real-world enquiries, grounded in principles of sustainable living: Interdependence, Cycles, Diversity, Adaptation, Health, and Oneness.
He now shares this methodology across the UK and internationally through workshops and school support programmes. His teachers' guide has been adopted as a blueprint for Education for Sustainability and translated into nine languages.
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Annalee Robertson dedicated the majority of her professional life to Scottish and local government as an international policy specialist, advising on European and International law, while fostering diplomatic, business, and cultural connections worldwide. An honours graduate in Law and Politics, Annalee worked in partnership with notable organisations at home and abroad such as Festivals Edinburgh, UNESCO, Scottish Development International, and the Ambassadorial and Consular Corps.
In her prominent role as Business and Civic Services Manager to the Lord Provost and Lord Lieutenant of the City of Edinburgh, Annalee's responsibilities included project management and advisory support to the Lord Provost’s Office and the Royal Household. She coordinated with key city agencies to organise high-profile events, including Royal Week for HM The Queen, The Lord Provost’s Garden Party, Honours Presentations for CBE and OBE recipients and Homecoming Military Parades with The Princess Royal.
In 2018, Annalee relocated back to the Highlands to focus on raising her young children. Currently, she serves as Co-Director of her family property business and holds senior roles in various community organisations, including Chair of the North Kessock Primary School Parent Council and Secretary of the Helmsdale Highland Games.
Annalee is passionate about using her skills developed from a career in public service to support children's education, ensuring they have the best start in life, by creating supportive and nurturing environments where they can explore, learn, and grow. Her commitment to community engagement reflects her belief that strong, cohesive communities are vital in providing the foundations for children to thrive.
Every child can learn and grow through nature
The Go Flourish Team
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Laura has 20 years of experience working in education and has worked with children and young people across the globe, including New Zealand, Australia, India and of course the UK. As a graduate she returned to her hometown of London where she worked for a Lloyds of London syndicate and became involved in the Tower Hamlets scheme, volunteering time to support primary literacy skill development in a socio-economically deprived area of the city.
She has an abundance of teaching, leadership and project development experience. Laura has worked for the Ministry of Education in New Zealand, managed a research centre in northern India and was invited to partake in the first New South Wales local government Food Leaders programme. She’s worked in food forests in Australian Primary Schools and, more recently, taught in Primary Schools in Aberdeenshire and Inverness. Laura has worked with children who have been displaced, who are neurodiverse, who have additional support needs and who have experienced early childhood trauma.
Now based in Inverness, Laura is passionate about reconnecting people to nature, regenerating the land and creating secure food systems. She believes this goes hand in hand with the regeneration of our communities and our own health and wellbeing. For Laura, this starts with education and a meaningful experience of nature from a young age. She is a qualified Primary School Teacher, Yoga Teacher, ESOL Teacher and has a Postgraduate degree in Social Anthropology.
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Lyn grew up in the Highlands and has a background in Health and Social care, working with both children and adults with additional support needs. In 2015 she went to Canada to work on various Wwoofing projects and discovered the impact of having the opportunity to connect to the land and where our food comes from whilst spending time in nature can have.
Nearly 10 years on, Lyn and her partner have just finished building their straw bale house where they now live.
She was a project officer for MOO Food which was based in her home village of Muir of Ord and worked as part of a team to deliver the MOO Food Growing our Future project, which included the education programme at Tarradale Primary School. She also worked as a Project Officer for the Highland Community Waste Partnership project through Transition Black Isle as one of the 8 partners across the region. She has extensive experience of coordinating and delivering community projects and believes that every child should have access to the health, educational and environmental benefits of learning outside in nature.
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Roman has spent the past 15 years collaborating with FTSE 500 companies and global leaders as a creative technologist and production director. He currently leads Kingsview, a company that develops software for luxury property developers.
Living as a crofter on the rugged west coast of Scotland, Roman has a deep appreciation for working in harmony with nature. This has inspired him to study microbiology, with the goal of enhancing his understanding of permaculture from a scientific perspective.
In addition to his professional work, Roman is dedicated to local well-being. He serves as secretary for a non-profit group in his area and is developing a semi-automated organic farming solution aimed at helping remote communities grow nutritious food year-round.
Roman's passion for fostering a strong connection between younger generations and the natural world aligns seamlessly with Go Flourish’s mission to promote ecological literacy and mental well-being through hands-on learning.
Be part of the change and help us nurture the future generation
With your support, we can bring the life-changing benefits of outdoor learning and gardening to even more children.
