I am an experienced primary teacher with over 18 years of experience working in a range of schools; state, independent and a specialist school for autistic children and young people. I have been a class teacher for every year group from one to six and therefore have extensive knowledge of child development and curriculum progression. In my former role, I was part of the senior leadership team, led subjects and monitored teaching to ensure best practice.
My specialist experience teaching children with ADHD: I have taught many children with ADHD and appreciate that it presents differently in each child. I have found that children with ADHD often prefer to work on wobble cushions or at standing desks or alternate between the two. I ensure that I plan structured sessions with clear targets, incorporating plenty of movement breaks.
My specialist experience teaching children with dyslexia: Over the years, I have taught many children with suspected or confirmed dyslexia. Dyslexia can be frustrating for children so I ensure that I plan sessions which focus on building confidence as well as strategies for reading, writing and spelling. Examples of these strategies include using highlighters to focus attention on key information, key spelling cards (often with pictorial cues), learning spelling through mnemonics, recording information and using mind mapping when planning. Children with dyslexia are often very creative and imaginative and because of this, will often find unique ways of doing things which often just need to be tweaked to help them progress.
My specialist experience teaching autistic children: Having always had an interest in working with children and young people with autism, I completed the first year of an MA course culminating in a PGCE, ‘Working with children and young people who have autistic spectrum disorders’, early on in my teaching career. I have used this knowledge ever since in my classrooms (whether in a specialist or mainstream setting) and gained valuable experience when teaching in a specialist school for autistic children. I have experience of using PECS, ALD boards and colourful semantics with non-verbal children, as well as the TEACCH approach to learning. I was also incredibly lucky to receive social story training on two occasions from the developer of Social Stories, Carol Gray, whilst working in a specialist ASD school.
Every human being is an individual and every autistic person is unique. I take time to get to know each autistic child and get to know what motivates and engages them so that I can plan stimulating activities and rewards. I ensure that each session is structured with a clear timetable of events (written or pictorial) to reduce anxiety and depending on the student, I may use a ‘now and next’ board or visual timers. I understand that many autistic children require kinaesthetic supports to aid concentration and I am an advocate of using deep pressure to calm anxiety.
My experience supporting children with OT programmes and sensory processing disorders (SPD): I have supported many children through specialist OT programmes devised by Occupational Therapists to develop sensory, gross and fine motor skills. I have facilitated sensory circuits for children with the aim of aiding sensory processing to help children regulate and organise their senses so that they are more able to access different learning activities.
My specialist experience supporting children with anxiety, their emotional regulation, boosting confidence and self-esteem: I have always been interested in supporting children’s wellbeing and one of my most recent roles in school was ‘Director of Pastoral’ with the responsibility of supervising the pastoral education of all of the children in the school, including writing the Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) curriculum. I truly believe that in order to learn, each individual needs to feel happy, secure and able to regulate their emotions.
In my experience, young people with anxiety do not always feel confident to use their voice aloud initially and it is important to give people the opportunity to communicate on their own terms, whether this be through other means such as written notes or comic strip conversations. I have always given any child the time and support they need, and I have been praised for going above and beyond to build up relationships with children.
In the last few years, I have found the zones of regulation a useful tool in developing emotional understanding and allowing children to self-identify how they are feeling. Being a lover of children’s books, I also like to use books as a discussion starter about feelings and situations we may find ourselves in. I have a keen interest in Play Therapy and a few years ago, completed a five day Play Therapy summer school at the University of Roehampton.
My specialist experience working with students with SEN to develop trusting and meaningful relationships: Trust between tutor and student is fundamental to a positive working relationship and I always ensure that I prioritise building up a good relationship with each child that I work with. Children need to feel secure, heard and listened to and if they are happy, they will engage with their learning.
My specialist experience teaching English including phonics, reading, spelling, handwriting and writing: Being an experienced primary school teacher, I understand how important it is to model good interaction skills and everyday reading and writing, and I ensure that I am always a good role model.
It is fundamental that children build up strong phonological skills within the development of early reading, spelling and communication skills. I teach phonics using a structured approach and ensure that writing is taught alongside phonics. I have had great success using mnemonics when teaching the spelling of tricky and common exception words – children retain mnemonics and often like to make up their own. Handwriting also goes alongside spelling, and I enjoy watching children progress with their handwriting after some focused 1:1 support. Many of my early phonics, spelling and handwriting sessions are taught in a fun, kinaesthetic way, aimed at developing confidence, rather than committing straight to paper.
Many of my English sessions are built around high-quality children’s books to stimulate and engage the child. Reading and writing are enjoyable when you are reading and writing for meaning.
My specialist experience teaching Maths and children with dyscalculia: It is essential that children have a solid understanding of numbers and an essential foundation of key facts before they can master more sophisticated manipulation of numbers and shapes. I therefore begin by assessing how confident children are with the fundamentals; place value, counting, number bonds etc. I then plan sessions from the child’s starting point incorporating a range of games and specialist Maths manipulatives: Base 10, numicon, counters etc. I ensure that the sessions follow the ‘mastery approach’ and include problem solving tasks as well as working on fluency.
Children with dyscalculia need lots of confidence-building activities and benefit from using a range of kinaesthetic manipulatives. Children with dyscalculia often need to spend longer on fluency before moving on and as an experienced teacher, I can create a range of different activities on a theme to prevent disengagement.
My specialist experience teaching Science, History and Geography: Having been teaching for nearly twenty years, I have vast experience of planning and delivering the whole range of subjects taught in primary schools. I ensure that the sessions have clear learning objectives and are taught through a wide range of engaging tasks – ideally through ‘hands-on’ activities or using the outdoors.
My specialist experience providing fun sessions to help children engage in learning: Throughout my time in the classroom and tutoring on a 1:1 basis, I have always planned fun, stimulating sessions based on the interests of the children that I am working with. I use songs, video clips, games (online and board games), kinaesthetic activities and manipulatives, high-quality literature and tasks with a purpose to engage children as well as including ‘brain breaks’ to help maintain concentration.
My experience preparing children for 7+ and 11+ examinations, including verbal and non-verbal reasoning: Having worked as a teacher in the independent sector and prepared children for examinations, I am well versed in the expectations schools have of students sitting the 7+ and 11+ examinations. I can help children develop strategies for solving verbal and non-verbal reasoning papers as well as prepare children for the English and Maths papers. Children sitting the 7+ and 11+ examinations need to develop a toolkit of skills which they will need to demonstrate (particularly with regards to the written element of the English paper) as well as confidence and stamina. I can rehearse a range of questions and go through practice papers in order for the child to feel prepared.
My skills and experience supporting children to develop their independence: Developing independence skills has been one of my main aims as an educator, and I believe that these skills should be taught from Early Years. Strategies I use when supporting children to develop their independence include non-verbal cues, structured timetables, sequenced instructions and praise.
My experience teaching life skills: In order to live as a happy, independent member of a community, people need to develop fundamentally important social skills and life skills. Through working in a specialist SEND setting, I have experience of taking children out into the community to rehearse and develop these skills and confidence. Outings have included trips to local shops, garden centres, cafes, museums and theatres.
