Back in 2017, I graduated from UCL with a Physics degree. I landed a tech job and soon became a full-stack developer and data engineer. I learned to code on the job—my degree got my foot in the door and prepared me for a career of constant learning and problem-solving.

Though the salary was great and the work-life balance was solid, I started questioning why so few people from backgrounds like mine—female, state-educated, and from an ethnic minority—were in these careers or degrees. I wanted to change that.

So, I went back to university. The Institute of Physics funded scholarships for aspiring physics teachers, and I took the opportunity to become a qualified teacher. That’s how my journey in education began.

For the past four years, I’ve worked in state schools across London—without a doubt, the most challenging and exhausting job I’ve ever done. Teaching isn’t just about delivering lessons for six hours a day. It also meant marking, planning, attending meetings before, at lunch and after school, handling parents' evenings, acting as a social worker, writing personal statements, offering career advice, and understanding various learning styles and special educational needs. The days often stretched to 12–15 hours, with minimal pay.

Teacher turnover was high. Poor management left staff overlooked, exhausted, and burned out. Lessons often became about survival rather than joy. While this might not be the case in all schools, it was certainly my experience in the inner-city schools I worked in. Everything revolved around attainment and exam results—what about the joy of learning? What about reaching the most disadvantaged students?

It was through teaching with organisations like Coding Black Females, running my own after school clubs and private tutoring that I rediscovered my love for teaching. Knowledge and academic success shouldn’t be reserved for the privileged or locked behind university paywalls of £9,000 a year—or £20,000 for a master’s program.

How do we make education fun again? How do we ensure everyone has access to high-quality education and the skills they need in today’s world? And how do I continue being a teacher, helping disadvantaged students, without burning out and being forced to leave the profession?

That’s when Hacking Education was born.