When people hear I trained in Meisner technique, they often picture something theatrical. It's almost the opposite of that.

Meisner training comes down to one thing: reacting truthfully, in the moment, to what's actually in front of you. Not performing a feeling. Not saying a line the "right" way.

A child who's afraid to speak up usually isn't afraid of the words. They're afraid of being watched while they try.

That's the part most confidence-building programmes miss. Every class starts with games — not as a warm-up, but because they are the point. Play takes the pressure off, so a child can build real confidence without it feeling like a test.

Before Read Aloud Club had a name people had heard of, it was seven weeks, one hour at a time, with a small group of children.

The group reading was where it clicked. Nobody was reading alone anymore — but everybody still had to use their voice.

That pilot is the reason Read Aloud Club now runs as a proper weekly class, alongside a growing set of digital resources, so families can build these same skills together, wherever they are.

Every class I teach is inspired by his name, so it feels right to actually tell you who he was.

Sanford Meisner (1905–1997) was an American actor and one of the most influential acting teachers of the twentieth century. He believed acting wasn't about performing emotion — it was about reacting truthfully to what's really happening between two people, right now.

He summed up his whole philosophy in one line: acting is "behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances."

That's the exact idea Read Aloud Club is built on — just handed to children through play, instead of a rehearsal room.

I get asked this a lot: what is the Meisner technique, actually? Here's the short version.

It starts with a simple exercise called repetition. Two people sit across from each other. One says something true about what they notice — "you're smiling" — and the other repeats it back, letting it change as their reaction changes. No script. No plan.

The goal isn't to say the right thing. It's to say the true thing.

That single exercise builds the whole technique: really listening, reacting honestly and letting your behaviour come from what's actually happening, not from what you think should happen next.

It's not about performing. It's about being present enough to respond truthfully, moment to moment — the exact skill I bring into every Read Aloud Club session, just adapted into games children can play.

My own family is heading toward worldschooling — learning as we travel, rather than staying in one place. So it only makes sense that Read Aloud Club comes with us.

The plan is to take the club out to worldschool hubs around the world — the same connection, confidence and read-aloud practice, wherever we happen to be. Nothing about the approach changes. Just the postcode.

It's still connect, read aloud, repeat. Just with a different view out the window.

This is still early. I'll be sharing the journey here as it develops — if you want to hear about it first, the newsletter on the homepage is the best place.