Director of Sport, nine year PE teacher, and a dad who took his son to a toddler sports session, sat through every flat minute of it, and built something better. A sporting home where every child is seen, every step forward is noticed, and nothing worth celebrating goes unnamed.
The founder story
I’m Ryan Mulhere — Director of Sport at a secondary school in Kent, nine year PE teacher, and a dad to a brilliant little boy who is the reason any of this exists.
I took him to a toddler football session expecting nothing fancy. He was tiny. I just wanted someone to greet him, run around with him, give him a fun forty minutes. What I got was a coach who didn’t really seem to want to be there, no real plan, no warmth, and a clear sense that nobody had thought about what these little ones actually needed.
I sat there as a dad, but I watched it as a teacher. And the thing that wouldn’t leave me afterwards was this. The first time a child experiences sport shapes how they feel about it for life. That moment is too important to leave to someone showing up with a bag of cones and no thought behind them.
What also stayed with me was what nobody noticed. The child who tried something scary and smiled. The one who shared without being asked. The moment a parent would have kept forever, if only someone had seen it and said something. So I built the version I wanted for my own son. Teacher led. Properly planned. Multi-sport from day one. Every step forward noticed, named and celebrated. ActiveED is that idea, in real life.
I’m also a parent to a young son with Type 1 diabetes. He’s the reason I built this. He’s the standard I hold every session to.
Being his dad has changed how I see almost everything, including this business. When he attended sessions where nobody asked about his condition, where his medical needs weren’t even part of the conversation, it told me everything I needed to know about how seriously some providers take the children in front of them.
So I made a decision. ActiveED would be the kind of place I’d trust him with. A place where every child’s individual needs, medical or otherwise, are taken seriously, planned for, and handled with care. He’s my biggest motivation and a huge part of the reason this business exists. Every parent who books with us benefits from the standard he set without ever knowing it.
Currently leading sport at a secondary school in Kent — designing curriculums, managing teachers, and accountable for the quality of physical education across hundreds of children every week. That standard comes with me to every ActiveED session.
From reception children taking their first balanced steps to post-16 athletes chasing county honours. That range is where I’ve seen how motor development really compounds — and exactly where the windows for fundamental skills sit.
Enhanced DBS, paediatric first aid and safeguarding training all in place and refreshed annually, in line with KCSIE. The non-negotiables. Treated as exactly that.
Every parent who books with ActiveED gets the version of us I’d want for my own son. That’s not a marketing line. It’s the standard every session is held to.
Every ActiveED session is planned around the five strands of early childhood development: physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and communication and language. That’s not a framework we bolted on. It’s how every session is built from the ground up.
Multi-sport is central from day one for a reason. If a child only ever plays football, football is all they’ll ever know. A varied diet of movement builds confident, coordinated, curious little humans — and lets parents see what their child genuinely loves before anyone makes them specialise. Football, rugby, netball, gymnastics, throwing and catching, music and movement, parachute games — a hundred things that look like play and are actually proper development.
Sessions are structured but flexible. For the shy ones, patience and consistency. For the ones bouncing off the walls, channels and challenges. For everyone: warmth, clear routines, lots of repetitions, and small celebrations. And when a child truly reaches a milestone, their coach names it, awards it, and makes sure you know. Because those moments deserve more than a mental note.
Safeguarding, risk assessment, paediatric first aid. All of it is in place before any session begins, tailored to each setting, age group and activity. Not because a form says so — because we’ve sat on the other side of that drop-off moment and know what it feels like to hand your child over and hope the person receiving them has actually thought about it.
Safeguarding training is refreshed annually in line with KCSIE. Communication with parents isn’t an admin task — it’s a quick word at pick-up, a note when something worth noting happened, or a certificate arriving on your phone because your child did something brilliant. We believe parents should be part of their child’s journey, not spectators of it.
Yes, children leave ActiveED moving better. More control when they run. More confidence when they throw and catch. More balance, more coordination, more intent. Those are the visible wins and they matter.
But the wins I care about most are the ones parents notice at home. The child who used to hide behind a leg, now joining in from the whistle. The toddler who didn’t want to share, now taking turns. The pre-schooler who used to give up at the first wobble, now trying again without being asked. Confidence. Resilience. Friendships. Language. Listening. The five strands, doing their quiet work.
Those are exactly the moments the ActiveED badge system is built to capture. When your coach sees a real breakthrough — in any of the five strands — they award it. You get a personalised certificate for that specific milestone. No comparison, no ranking. Just your child, that moment, kept forever. See how the journey page works →
I want ActiveED to be the name parents in Kent and South East London think of first when they think about their child’s early years in sport. Not because of the marketing. Because of what happens in the sessions.
Beyond that, I want to develop the next generation of coaches and leaders who understand that early years sport is too important to be improvised — people who plan properly, notice properly, and celebrate properly. And most of all, I want to pass on a genuine love of movement. If every child leaves with a journey page full of badges, a stack of certificates, and a reason to look forward to Saturday morning — we’ve done the job.
Credentials, plainly put
Nine years in education, experience from reception to post-16, and a child centred approach shaped by both professional practice and parenthood.
I’m always happy to chat about your child, their needs and the kind of session that will help them feel confident, included and excited to join in. Drop me an email and I’ll reply personally.
