Press & Events

Alison attended the launch of the latest edition of the Black Business Magazine in London sponsored by Lloyds Bank Business & Commercial.

Justice Williams MBE & Dr Tru Powell have created a much needed platform to showcase black entrepreneurs. The front cover and lead interview celebrates Nala’s Baby founders Sasha Gilbert & Casyo Johnson. It was inspiring to hear their purpose driven story.

Alison felt humbled to be featured in this edition alongside so many inspirational individuals. To read Alison’s contribution subscribe here.

Andy Street made time in his incredibly busy calendar to come and visit the children of Shirestone Academy to hear how Little Chicks Life Lessons has made a difference to the way they see their opportunities in life.

The children shared heartwarming examples of their dreams and the steps they’re already taking to achieve them.

Andy talked with every child about their aspirations and even shared his own inspirational story.

View the video of Andy’s visit here

An incredible evening spent at the National Education Awards with the inspirational Jas Rohel and her team delivering a first class event with the Solihull Moors Foundation as their chosen charity partner.

Thank you to all the sponsors and judges who provided their support and expertise enabling so many to be recognised and supported from the education sector.

Alison was completely overwhelmed to have won the category of ‘Transforming Lives Through Partnerships’ for our education programme ‘Little Chicks Life Lessons’. We were in the amazing company of Aston University Engineering Academy and Birmingham City University.

This is only made possible through the extraordinary efforts from the Little Bird team, sponsors, primary school children, teachers and parents with their relentless commitment to make a difference for our future generations.

Thank you to Alison’s wonderful guests who made the evening extra special and thanks to Andy Street for taking the time to give his personal congratulations.

Finally, congratulations to all the nominees, finalists and winners on the night with beautiful images captured by Edwin Ladd. Our combined passion and commitment is the power that fuels our daily decisions to make a difference.

Such a fantastic evening created by Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce with opening speeches from Henrietta Brealey & Prof Deborah Leary OBE D.Univ,FRSA celebrating and elevating Birmingham Business.

Although we didn’t win our category for ‘Excellence in Training & Education’ to be a finalist in the company of such amazing companies is humbling.

Congratulations to all fellow nominees and the winner of our category, BMet College.

Thrilled for Unity Trust Bank winning ‘Excellence in Responsible Business’ & ‘Business of the Year’. So very well deserved.

A huge thank you to my table guests, Kevin Delaney, Gordon Gillies, Will Grover, Alexia Tsalkitzoglou, Jas Rohel, Charlotte Brooks-Bowd Assoc CIPD, Rebecca Bartlett & Harj Millington for making the evening so enjoyable with laughs and dancing.

Finally, well done to Ed James 🚀 Raza Hussain (Wuzzamill) and Aston Performing Arts Academy for keeping everyone engaged with high energy and fun entertainment.

And to Jas Sansi for always capturing events so beautifully and making us look so fabulous in the photos.

Alison didn’t win the award for ‘Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Year’ but the best reward was spending time in such a humbling environment recognising and celebrating the huge contributions we’re making to our communities.

Congratulations to the winner of ‘Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Year’ Kamran Saleem MD of MotorServ-UK. You had an amazing night, winning 3 awards.👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

I felt truly grateful to share my table with 9 fabulous women at the top of their game.

Little Chicks Life Lessons were delivered to 60 year 6 children at Coleshill Heath School in celebration of ‘Money Matters Week’.

We have recently partnered with Wesleyan who have sponsored 1000 children in Primary Schools across the West Midlands to receive our Dreams Packs and workshops that encourage our children to Dream, Believe and Achieve.

It’s amazing to have this kind of financial commitment to provide essential support to build confidence, resilience and self belief in our little ones. And even better when our partners join us to experience the impact and incredible difference they make.

We’re excited to announce that due to the amazing sponsorship from Wesleyan, Little Bird have been able to provide Little Chicks Life Lessons to a further three schools!

Alison has added two more books to the ‘Little Bird Adventures’ series, Little Chick Finds His First Best Friend and Little Chicks Nest Egg completing the Little Bird education purpose, Dream, Believe, Achieve.

The sponsorship has not only enabled Little Bird to support the Children with Little Chicks Life Lessons but also help provide financial support and advice to the teachers.

Team Little Bird spent the morning at Chantlers Primary School, Bury launching these new workshops with a surprise visit from the Author herself.

When speaking to Phil Barlow, Headteacher at Chantlers Primary, he stated; “When the children saw the packs, all their books, the piggy bank and all of the resources, the excitement in the assembly hall was amazing, I think the children will remember it forever. A huge thank you to both Little Bird and Wesleyan .”

The sponsorship also sees Little Chicks Life Lessons roll out to Shirestone Academy and St Chads Primary School in Birmingham during this school term.

Alison was nominated for Best Coach and Most Inspirational Business Woman, and although there were no gold trophies that night, Alison and her guests enjoyed a fabulous evening. To view the Gala Evening click here  

Alison made a return to Chantlers School in Bury which, around 10 years ago was the very first school to experience Little Chicks Life Lessons!  This time Alison met some of the Little Chicks in Reception who all received a copy of Little Chick has Lunch on the Moon!

After a year of uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Alison was keen to find a way to deliver her annual World Book Day Little Chicks Life Lesson session. Working with the team at Shirestone Academy, headed by the incredible Mr Bashir, together they devised a way for Alison to appear ‘live’ to the children to talk to the children via the power of Zoom and Jam Board! 

After an early start with an appearance on BBC Radio WM which you can listen to by clicking here, Alison appeared ‘live’ with the in-school bubbles, reading her book Little Chick has Lunch on the Moon and talking to the children about their dreams for the future.

Then she hopped over chat with each year group on their Jam Boards, and finished the day with an appearance on Midlands Today with Mr Bashir…phew! Check out the feature .

All of this was possible thanks to the generous support of Wesleyan who have sponsored the day. Because of their support, every child at Shirestone received a copy of Little Chick has Lunch on the Moon, and the same number of books will be donated to women’s refuges in the Birmingham area.

Alison and the Little Bird Dream Team made one of their regular visits to Coleshill Heath School to visit Year 4 and 5. With the help of Nikki Tapper from BBC Radio WM and Sarah Harley from the Birmingham Airport Fire and Rescue service, Alison facilitated a wonderful day of exploring the children’s dreams and breaking down gender bias. Victoria Birmingham from Birmingham City University joined the Dream Team to observe and document the impact that Little Chicks Life Lessons are having on the children that Little Bird works with.

Alison had a fantastic evening at the HSBC ‘Congratulations’ event in London. This celebration was for graduates who have taken up a destination role in the last few months with HSBC, to congratulate them on their first appointment and provide them with support as they develop in their first role.
Alison delivered an interactive workshop to focus on how to consciously understand and influence stakeholders whilst retaining integrity to gain win/win outcomes, and the feedback from the graduates was incredibly positive

Alison was invited by KPMG andP inset Masons to deliver a workshop to the West Midlands Women in Tax group, which enabled them to explore career aspirations and the possibilities for progression in their chosen profession.

Alison experienced a fantastic day as one of the guest speakers alongside Dame Esther Rantzen at the Hampshire Headteachers Conference. A day full of inspirational messages and examples of how we’re really making a difference for children in education.

Alison was truly honoured to take part in the West Midlands Women’s Voice International Women’s Day event on 6th March. Amongst the speakers were Dr Helen Pankhurst CBE, Andy Street and Sam Smethers, CEO of the Fawcett Society. Alison took part in a panel session discussing how Music and Art can help make positive changes within communities, and how the impact of literacy can be life changing. Also on the panel were Tru Powell from Aston Performing Arts Academy, Laura McMillan from Coventry UK City of Culture 2021, Mary Wakeman Sloan from Birmingham Town Hall and Symphony Hall, Dr Sarah Browne from University of Wolverhampton and Marika Bee, singer, songwriter and founder the YAP Network..

It was a pleasure to be a speaker at CITF #TakingControlofYourCareer event. Alison shared her thoughts about how ‘It’s time to ‘turn up’ in your career, talking to the delegates about how achieving your career goals requires a strategy and a plan. Successful people invest the time to create and adjust their strategy which is essential if we wish to remain relevant in this rapidly changing world of work. The seminar gave delegates the opportunity to help shape their future by taking their work and career potential into their own hands and developing new confidence and ability to position themselves for success.

Alison returned to one of the very first Little Bird Ambassador schools, Chantlers Primary School in Bury to meet the Little Chicks in Reception who are at the very beginning of their exciting learning journey! During the Dreams Workshop, Alison read her self-published book, Little Chick has Lunch on the Moon and encouraged the children to join in with some lively story telling. Afterwards, the children were encouraged to explore their dreams for the future and share these with the class.
Last year Chantlers won two national awards from the Schools, Students and Teachers Network for being one of the best performing schools in the country. They were awarded the ‘Educational Outcomes Awards for Children’s Attainment – top 20%’ and ‘Children’s Progress – top 20%’ which recognises their significantly higher than average levels at KS2

More recently the school was recognised in national league tables for exceptional progress in their Key Stage Two SATs results. Children at the school made well above average progress in reading, writing and maths ­— one of only two schools in the borough to record such an achievement in all three subjects.

It was a pleasure to be a speaker at CITF #CultureInAction Conference and hear the thoughts from leaders across 30 organisations on the importance of Leading With Empathy and how to develop our leaders with the skills to do this effectively. We typically don’t encourage conversations about how we’re feeling in the workplace yet we see an increase in emotional and physiologically related absence and mental health issues continue to soar! Do you think we’re doing enough to support our people?

Little Bird joined The Mitie Foundation’s ‘World of Work’ event at Greenwood Academy in Birmingham. It was an interactive challenging day helping students understand the world of work and inspiring our young people to be all they can be.More recently the school was recognised in national league tables for exceptional progress in their Key Stage Two SATs results. Children at the school made well above average progress in reading, writing and maths ­— one of only two schools in the borough to record such an achievement in all three subjects.

Brilliant insights into meaningfulness, self awareness & leadership from Alison at the Birmingham Futures event. Key takeaway of the night: believe in yourself, challenge the perceived limitations, align your core values with your mission & make an impact. With awareness comes change.

Alison and Little Bird hosted a very special World Book Day themed Dreams Workshop at Shirestone Academy in Birmingham, sponsored by Little Bird’s corporate partner Birmingham Airport.More recently the school was recognised in national league tables for exceptional progress in their Key Stage Two SATs results. Children at the school made well above average progress in reading, writing and maths ­— one of only two schools in the borough to record such an achievement in all three subjects.

Alison presented her journey to a packed assembly hall at Coleshill Heath School. Teachers, business women and entreprenuers listened to how Alison’s family and loving upbringing helped her create Little Bird and is the motivation for all the fantastic work she does to empower children and adults.More recently the school was recognised in national league tables for exceptional progress in their Key Stage Two SATs results. Children at the school made well above average progress in reading, writing and maths ­— one of only two schools in the borough to record such an achievement in all three subjects.

Keynote seminar and workshop delivered to Teachers and Educators from all around the UK on the importance of never letting go of your dreams, and how we can encourage children to feel the same.  Click here for a video of the Workshop

Delivering a talk to Teachers, Educators and Business Leaders from around Birmingham on the importance and the impact of Little Bird’s Dreams Workshops

Delivering a Confidence Building and Self-Belief workshop to children from Little Bird schools around the country.