Education and literacy

My mother, as a child, was saved by books. Born into poverty in Monmouth then raised by her divorced mother in South London during the war, she had - for many reasons - no stability in her life. But one thing her mother did give her was books. They read together even during bombings (her mother disliked the shelters). All through her life, my mother remembered being given an edition of the Iliad, allegedly retrieved from a bomb site; of the worlds this opened up. (She could still recite, right to the end, huge amounts of the literature she read as a child.)

My bookish mother gained a scholarship to Christ Hospital School, a charity school, where she boarded, and had a schedule, and finally felt safe. (And was given her first dressing gown!) And from there received an education that led to an exhibition to St Anne's College Oxford where she went on to take a First in Modern Languages. That Iliad, snatched from the rubble, changed my mother's life. For many children, books are an escape; for some, they are also a ladder.

My mother was able to give her own children the stability she had lacked, and a privileged education. I know how lucky I was, and am determined to give something back, and to ensure that other children have the sort of life-changing experiences that my mother did.

Governance

I am a Non-Executive Director and Trustee of Barton Academy Trust (BCAT), a multi-academy trust in Kent that oversees three schools and is in the process of taking in a fourth. They specialise in turning around schools which are struggling, and improving the life chances of children from deprived backgrounds. I sit on the Finance Committee and the Audit and Risk Committee, and also attend Quality Assurance meetings at the Charles Dickens School in Thanet.

Volunteering

I also volunteer, through the charity Schoolreaders, as a reading assistant at a primary school in Dover with a high proportion of SEND children. I sit with the children as they read to me, and give them one-to-one encouragement and assistance. This has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. To be greeted by a Year 8 child on my second week with the words "Are you reading with us today, Mr Potts? HURRAH!" was unforgettable and uplifting.

And this summer I had the pleasure of volunteering with the Canterbury Children's Literature Festival, "an annual celebration of stories and literacy, focusing on inclusion, accessibility and celebrating the joy of stories in all their forms".