We are fortunate to have a fantastic staff team here at Secret Garden which form part of our wider community. A community of friends, families, children, directors, staff and volunteers. Everyone contributes and everyone is valued.
If you would like to read more about being involved with the nursery in some way then please head over to our Get Involved page.
Care Manager & Lead Practitioner:
Duncan Barrable
Duncan joined the Secret Garden in August 2024. A qualified teacher, he brings both academic and practical expertise in nature-based learning. He has led outdoor learning programmes in schools across Fife and Europe, and was involved in planning Montessori and Steiner nurseries, developing a nature-based, child-led learning model.
Ellis Goodfellow:
Assistant Care Manager &
Woods Practitioner (Buttercups)
Ellis has had a lifelong passion for the environment and studied Geography at University. Having moved to the area with their family in 2013, Ellis loves the hills and coast of North East Fife and Scotland. At home Ellis enjoys music, gardening and growing food with their young family. Ellis`s children attended The Secret Garden where they fell in love with the ethos of the nursery and the thoughtful way the nursery staff worked with the children. Before starting a family, Ellis managed a Tayside-wide children`s health and wellbeing project and like many before, has seen the benefits of raising a family connected to nature, the outdoors and being brought up using gentle and fun methods.
Vicky Hobba:
Administration Manager & Woods Practitioner
Vicky qualified as an early years educator and a student welfare worker in Australia where they lived for 14 years before returning home to Scotland. They also have a background in environmental law and education administration and have trained and facilitated various personal growth and emergency preparedness courses for adults and children.
Vicky has a passion for social justice and ensuring everyone is treated with respect and dignity. Following a fairly wild childhood exploring Scottish woodlands and an adulthood delighting in the native animals and bush tucker of Australia, Vicky is grateful for the opportunity to support children to immerse themselves in nature at the Secret Garden.
Buttercups staff
Naomi Ellis-Morton:
Senior Sessional Woods Practitioner
Naomi lives locally in Collessie and has a background in Design and Art Therapy, she also enjoys being outdoors and the inspiration nature brings. Having been one of the first Secret Garden Directors and seeing her own children thrive at the nursery Naomi finds it very fulfilling to be a permanent member of staff and share in the unique experience the children have.
Karen Valentine:
Senior Woods Practitioner
Karen has worked at Secret Garden since 2018, first as a sessional and then as a permanent member of staff. Before Secret Garden, Karen spent many years working as a freelance Forest School Leader in Fife, plus a wide variety of other jobs from journalism to running a cafe. As a member of West Fife OWL (Outdoor & Woodland Learning ) Group, she help promote the benefits of learning and playing outdoors to schools and nurseries. Karen is most at home outdoors in nature and can often be found climbing mountains, swimming, gathering edible items or golfing. Music has also been a life-long interest and she enjoys bringing instruments to Secret Garden to share the benefits and joy of music with the children.
Laura McDonald:
Woods Practitioner
Laura started in the sessional team in August 2019 and is a qualified Early Years Practitioner. Laura has a background in IT but embarked on a change of career after her son was born and she was struck by the importance of a child’s experiences in their early years. Laura practices a gentle / respectful parenting philosophy at home and fully embraces the nurturing ethos of the Secret Garden. Laura enjoys the freedom of being outdoors and spends as much of her spare time as possible in nature with her partner, son and rescue Greyhound.
Claire McGarrie:
Woods Practitioner
Claire has a lifelong passion for nature and a particular love of trees and woodland. Perhaps she has elf blood? She simply loves being outside in her natural environment with other woodland-loving human beings; tending to their needs and helping to facilitate their personal expansion through free play. Helping to create a safe space which nurtures a child’s growth but at the same time allows for the expression of fun. For several years now Claire has also worked as a Natural Therapist and has run her own meditation and healing retreats and workshops. She has learnt through this work that both adults and children alike learn best when they feel happy and safe. Claire is an ex nursery parent and her daughter spent several years in the woods at the Secret Garden.
Angela Lumsden:
Woods Practitioner
Angela has a diverse and creative background and has always been very active. After having her own two children she became fascinated learning about child development. Through her own journey as a mother, she has deepened her awareness of emotional intelligence and the importance of being outdoors.
Angela enjoys bringing in playfulness, creativity and supporting a space for intrinsic motivation to children’s development, growing their confidence and independence.
Angela also works with older children in an outdoor learning environment, based in Falkland woods where she mentors children through bringing in games, crafts, discussions and activities to deepen children’s relationship with themselves and nature.
Foxgloves staff
Anna Kinross:
Senior Practitioner & Training and Workshop coordinator
As well as being a woods practitioner, Anna also helps to plan and facilitate some of our training sessions for staff, parents and other groups. An ex-Secret Garden parent with a strong commitment to giving all children opportunities to play and learn outside in nature, Anna is a keen gardener, food grower and herbalist and loves to spend time outside foraging and connecting with plants. She enjoys painting and feltmaking, and has made some beautiful pieces including a forest scene wall-hanging which is currently on display in our office.
Karen McLean:
Woods Practitioner
Karen started her Secret Garden journey whilst studying for her HNC in Childhood Practice in 2021 before joining our permanent staff team in 2022. Karen also completed the Forest kindergarten training in 2024, and continues to grow and learn each time she is in the woods. Karen believes that nature is healing and is grateful to have the opportunity to work in our woodland environment.
Hoiki Kong (Ivy):
Woods Practitoner
Ivy joined the sessional team in August 2022. She recently became a qualified early years practitioner by completing the SVQ Children and Young People SCQF level 7 program while she was working in Secret Garden and another outdoor nursery.
Ivy enjoyed supporting children’s play and learning in outdoor settings as she has witnessed the power of our mother nature. She also believes children, so as adults, learn best by having the autonomy to play with what they like, in the way that their creativity are sparked by their curiosity to their natural environment.
She was thrilled to join the permanent staff team in April 2025 and wishes to keep sharing her energy with the children and looking forward to having more fun and adventures with them in the woods.
Sessional Team
Mazz Brown:
Sessional Woods Practitioner/Content Manager
Yolanda Vico-Tienda:
Sessional Woods Practitioner
Yolanda, also known as Yoli, is originally from a seaside town in Catalonia and now resides in Cupar. She is a qualified Early Years Officer and a Primary Teacher, specializing in Computing and Arts, with over 15 years of experience working with children ranging in age from 0 years old to nearly adulthood.
As she loves songs and stories, she has trained as a Bookbug session leader to bring children songs in different languages and even introduce them to some words in Spanish! At the moment, she is learning how to play nursery rhymes on her yellow ukulele to soon incorporate it into her Bookbug sessions!
Haze Horne:
Sessional Woods Practitioner
Bio to follow
Jess Hermann:
Sessional Woods Practitioner
Kiri Stone
Kiri joined the sessional team in early 2025 and is also a parent at the Secret Garden. She studied Environmental Science at university. After volunteering in schools in Nigeria and India she worked for the Wildlife Trust in Worcestershire before returning to Scotland to begin work as a countryside ranger in Dumfries and Galloway, a job which allowed the opportunity to encourage children’s engagement with the natural world.
Shortly after becoming a mum in 2020, at a time when Covid restrictions were in place, and recognising the many benefits that connecting with nature brings, Kiri started Wildfife Babies, a group which allowed parents, babies and toddlers the chance to connect with each other and nature in the safety of a woodland setting.
Kiri values any opportunity to help children access the many benefits that engaging with nature brings.
After completing a Woodland Leadership course in 2021 she continued to promote such activities through my own ‘Woodswoman’ business whereby children not only learn new skills but also enjoy the physical and emotional benefits that being out in nature brings.
Kiri loves working at the Secret Garden, being able to witness the magic the children create in the woodland and knowing that what they are learning about themselves and nature will stay with them for a lifetime.
In her spare time Kiri can usually be found in a forest somewhere adventuring with her daughters and dogs.
Directors
Louise Durrant:
Director and Training Facilitator
Louise has been inspired by and involved in the Secret Garden since its beginnings. She started as a Secret Garden parent, with both her children attending the nursery, then worked as a woods practitioner with many wonderful children over the course of 6 years. Louise also enjoys working with adults and facilitates Secret Garden “In the Woods” workshops for practitioners, educators and other people interested in the practice and workings of the Secret Garden. Louise is a certified instructor of Hand in Hand Parenting, and loves teaching the listening tools that are used by Secret Garden practitioners to both parents and educators. Louise is currently home educating her almost teenage daughter, continuing to learn loads about education, nature, play, parenting and young people. At Secret Garden Louise relishes her role in training, staff mentoring, and workshop facilitation. Louise believes in meeting people where they are at and working with whatever they bring. Louise is also a Director of the Secret Garden.
Tansy Torkington:
Director
Tansy’s two sons came to the Secret Garden 11 years ago. She so enjoyed being part of its community and it’s unique ethos that 8 years ago she decided to join the Directors team.
Tansy is passionate about the importance of outdoor play so when her children started primary school she took them out on a Friday for them to meet their Secret Garden friends to play in the woods. To this day, these friends continue to be her children’s strongest friendships.
Tansy has a MSc in Environmental Science and is now a Psychotherapist that specialises in Eco Anxiety around climate change. Nature Connection and the 8 Shields Art of Mentoring continues to be an important part of her therapeutic work.
Being a Director enables her to give back to Secret Garden so it can continue it’s vital work immersing children in nature and free play. But it also gives Tansy an opportunity to be part of a community that loves nature, playfulness and compassionate communication, all of which enrich her own life in so many wonderful ways.
Sarah Latto:
Director
Rod Mountain:
Director
Photo and bio to follow