Kate's Blog

These are the things I know about imagination, trust, and the worlds people build when you stop correcting them, at eight or at eighty.

Thoughts and Evidence

Where Is the Child in All of This?

Where Is the Child in All of This?by: Kate

There is a remarkable absence at the centre of the vast apparatus of education research, policy, and intervention. The child.

child's voiceeducation systemresearchpolicyboys literacyoracyStoryQuest
Where Is the Child in All of This?

Boys' Literacy Crisis: 7 Mistakes Schools Make

Boys' Literacy Crisis: 7 Mistakes Schools Makeby: Kate

Boys are behind girls in reading by age 15. Two thirds of the bottom 10% are boys. The seven systemic mistakes schools make when trying to close the gap.

boys literacy crisisreluctant writersschools mistakesgender gap writingoracyStoryQuest
Boys' Literacy Crisis: 7 Mistakes Schools Make

When Children Can't Tell Their Story

When Children Can't Tell Their Storyby: Kate

One in five children in the UK experiences adverse childhood experiences. What happens to their voice when no one asks the right question.

children's voicesilenced childrenadverse childhood experiencesboys literacyoracystorytelling
When Children Can't Tell Their Story

How Storytelling Protects Children Before Harm Starts

How Storytelling Protects Children Before Harm Startsby: Kate

Why early intervention through storytelling is the most effective protection a child can have before harm starts.

early interventionchildren's protectionstorytellingboys literacyoracysafeguarding children
How Storytelling Protects Children Before Harm Starts

BOOK KATE TO SPEAK

Build a world together, and trust follows.

Your people are being asked to trust each other across distance, across generations and through constant change. Most have never been shown how.

Kate Markland has. For a time she had one hour a week with her son Gabriel, on a FaceTime call. They spent it building a world. She asked one question, wrote down everything he said and corrected nothing. That world became three books and a method tested in nine UK schools.

In her keynote, Create the World You Want, Kate shows your audience how trust is really built, and gives them a method they can use the same evening.

For leadership, education and family audiences.

Even the kids who don’t like writing didn’t want to leave.
Tom Hirst Head of English, Dixons Manningham Primary
Even the kids who don’t like writing didn’t want to leave.
Tom Hirst Head of English, Dixons Manningham Primary

STORYQUEST

StoryQuest gives children the freedom to imagine, speak and be heard without being corrected, guided or rushed. It begins with a story. But what families create together is something much bigger: connection.

coNTACT dETAILS

  • +44 7360 270776

© Copyright 2026. The Adventures of Gabriel. All rights reserved.

Privacy Policy