Before any teaching can take place, I believe children must feel safe, secure and understood to thrive. I will always build positive and trusting relationships with the children by taking the time to learn and get to know every child. I want all children to feel seen and valued.
I have been a Primary School teacher for 16 years. I have taught across KS1 and KS2 and over the last 7 years I have been a SENCO at my current school. I have worked at 2 primary schools over my teaching career. I have wide experiences of working with children with SEN. In my current position, I have set up a provision in my mainstream primary school. This is to support 4 children with complex needs such as non-verbal, ASC, global delay and ADHD. I have set this provision up with the support of a specialist school in the borough. It has been up and running for 2 years and I support the HLTA and LSA who are there full time. I plan and resource the work and ensure the children are thriving in their adapted environment. We use TEACHH to support the children learning and concentration. Some of the children are using PECS to support their communication and communication and fringe boards too. We have created an individualised learning timetable to suit the children’s needs, this consists of sensory circuit, identiplay, sensory play, food play etc. This provision is a great success for me to see how far the children have progressed, academically, emotionally and verbally. The feedback from the parents and multi agencies involved is phenomenal.
Over the years, I have worked alongside other professionals to support children in my school with a wide variety of needs. I work closely with SALT, ASD Outreach, OT, EP, CAMHS, Waterside, Child Therapy companies and STEPs.
At my school currently, I am working closely to support a child with Downs Syndrome with learning and increasing his independence. I have researched and found different ways to support his reading and writing through special tailored schemes for children with Down syndrome. Whilst supporting him, I worked closely with the sensory specialist team and hearing aid team to support meeting his sensory needs and learning. During this time, it has been a learning curve for me and pushed me to further my knowledge and understanding.
Over my teaching years and when I worked in a People Referral Unit (PRU) I have worked alongside many children with SEN. I have supported each child uniquely to them, ensuring that I am tailoring their learning to meet their needs. I truly believe in the whole child approach, seeing the whole child and working with everyone involved.
For some children, my support has consisted of supporting them to meet the national curriculum in their mainstream classroom. For other children it means to adapt and differentiate the curriculum to meet their needs and interests, whereas for other children it consists of ensuring they feel supported emotionally. I have worked alongside TA’s and Class Teachers to establish a relationship with the child and family and then worked together to ensure the child is fully supported. For example, ensuring they are emotionally supported which might consist of putting in sensory or movement breaks or sensory circuit time. Ensuring the learning meets their needs by the use of sensory trays and sensory learning, or by ensuring they have the appropriate resources which might be word mats, visual personalised timetable, sensory toys, Now and Next boards, PECS, regular check ins with the child, ensuring the learning is of interest to them. Over the years I have worked with children who have required a highly differentiated curriculum which has meant it is completely personalised and we have focused on real life skills as well as the national curriculum at the appropriate level.
A few years ago I worked with a child who was diagnosed with Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA). Throughout her years at my school, I worked closely with her family and through her transition to secondary school. I always planned by giving her 2 options, ensuring her sensory needs were met as this would impact her learning. Also, I supported the child and family with life events such as parents getting married, christmas, concerts and going on holiday etc. I made social stories and videos to reduce the anxiety before the event and then supported parents to put things in place e.g. through the wedding day, having a room with her favourite things in, timetable of the day etc.
My school was awarded the dyslexia friendly quality mark award. I have been trained by different companies on how to support children with dyslexia. In my current role as SENCO, I am now pre-screening children and supporting teachers and parents to understand the diagnosis. This consists of training all school staff. I have been working with different agencies in the Borough to support children with dyslexia. I have worked with children with a diagnosis of visual stress. I always ensure the children have the correct coloured paper and overlays, word mats, support with organisation and resources, speech pens and a variety of speaking dictionaries.
Over the years I have supported children with SEMH. I have supported families and the children with coming into school by meeting them outside of the gate, walking in, sometimes the children have still refused and we have had to walk them in with their family. Once they were in school, we would ensure they had a timetable that did not change, they were supported by the school counsellor and had regular check ins from key adults. I would adjust the school day, adapt the length of their learning initially, ensure they had subjects in their timetable that they enjoyed each day, consistently praising them and supporting other staff members to do the same. I have worked with the Borough and CAMHS to support some children too. I have worked with the school kitchen staff to adjust the food options for some children as this was important to them, we also gave the recipes to mum as they found comfort from eating the same school food at home too. On the school journey, although I didn’t attend, I put things in place for some children with SEMH such as adjusting the meal times, the location they ate their food, taking food from home they wanted, creating social stories etc to ensure they were fully supported and felt confident to attend.
My experience of supporting children with ADHD expands over my years of teaching. I have had children who have struggled to go inside a mainstream classroom to carry out learning. They found this isolating so we created an environment where they were comfortable, put in regular sensory and movement breaks, broke the work down into achievable goals, broke instructions down so they could be easily followed. As part of my role as SENCO, I would ensure the children are supported at lunch and playtimes too and if necessary they are met at the school gate and walked out at the end of the school day too. For some children this could mean entering the school slightly earlier or later than others to ensure they didn’t become dysregulated when they entered and exited school. I have timetabled the use of the sensory room and sensory circuit at appropriate times to them too, this could be first thing in the morning or after assembly etc.
Recently I have a child who started school who suffered from epileptic fits, these would occur every 10-20 mins. After working closely with the nursing team and parents, we were able to successfully support her return to school after a long time in hospital. Her learning was affected but due to the support we put in place, differentiated learning and resources, we are seeing progress academically.
A child with spina bifida joined the school 3 years ago, as I truly believe in being inclusive, we adapted the school for her. I organised getting ramps put in to an old Victorian school. My main role within the school was to support staff’s understanding and support the adaptations that had to be made. This child is now thriving in school and professionals and family are extremely pleased with the success she is achieving, both academically and socially.
I have supported and then led on achieving an Inclusion Quality Mark (IQM) for my school. We were the first school in Greenwich to hold the Flagship status. This also consisted of me visiting different schools which weren’t around my area. I learnt a lot from this and was able to bring a lot of different skills, interventions and ideas back to my school which I have implemented. Sometimes this would be a whole school approach or it would be directly and uniquely for one child in particular. This training has been invaluable to supporting children with SEND.
