Meet the team

Penelope Rodrigues

Penny has worked as an Early Years Education Consultant in Hackney Education for 14 years. She has a wealth of experience working as a primary school teacher for over 20 years across age ranges, specialising in early years and emotional development of young children. 

Her area of particular interest lies in supporting wellbeing and sharing positive behaviour strategies for parents and staff working with children under five. Other areas of expertise include the Solihull Approach, of which she is a qualified trainer; social and emotional development in Early years and infant mental health; and communication language and literacy, including the teaching of phonics.

Hannah Avis

Hannah joined Hackney Education as an Early Years Consultant in May 2024. Prior to that, she gained over 11 years of experience working as a teacher (specialising in the EYFS) in a wide range of infant and primary schools. At her most recent setting, an ‘Outstanding’ primary school in Camden and a member of the North London Alliance Research School, Hannah worked as the Early Years Lead and also carried out Systems Leadership roles in both Oracy and STEAM.

After leaving the classroom in 2022, Hannah used her specialist knowledge of the early years sector to undertake independent consultancy work. She collaborated with a range of education-based clients including early years organisations, a local authority and an education charity whilst also carrying out advisory work and leading CPD for individual early years settings.

Hannah is passionate about putting communication and language at the heart of early year practice and therefore specialises in supporting practitioners to develop high-quality interactions, implement a language-rich curriculum and to transform their learning environment into one buzzing with talk!