Nicola

I have over twenty years experience teaching pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN). I started my career teaching in a special school for pupils with social emotional and mental health difficulties. I was lead teacher for behaviour and worked across the county offering support to local schools in order to help them put in place interventions for pupils who required additional support. During this time I also became interested in furthering my knowledge in the area of autism.

I moved to a school for pupils with generic special educational needs and taught across all key stages covering all types of SEN including autism, multi-sensory impairment, visual impairment, hearing impairment, speech and language difficulties, mobility difficulties, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). I had whole school responsibility for behaviour which included monitoring and recording, and most importantly, supporting staff in implementing strategies and resources in order to improve behaviour.

During my time at the generic SEN school, I was offered sponsorship to complete a Masters Degree in Education (specialising in Autism: Children). I jumped at this opportunity and spent three years immersed in the wonderful world of Autism. I thoroughly enjoyed both the theory and practical parts of the course and especially valued using the knowledge gained to influence and improve my practice in the classroom. I was completely inspired by all the autistic speakers at conferences and was more determined than ever to use my specialism in order to improve the lives of children and young adults with autism. I learned during this time to always have the highest of expectations and was passionate to ensure every child I taught got inclusive opportunities and experiences, enabling them to reach their potential in their learning and life.

I taught many pupils on all scales of the Autistic Spectrum and had great success in teaching pupils with high functioning autism in particular. Through creative teaching methods, and extra hours of 1:1 teaching using individual pupil interests, I was recognised by external agencies, senior managers and Ofsted as an outstanding practitioner in relation to the pupils in my class and the school who had high functioning autism. All pupils with high functioning autism who I taught on a 1:1 basis progressed from under achieving to making outstanding progress in English and Maths.

Since achieving the Masters qualification I have had many amazing opportunities to use my knowledge and expertise to help children and their families. I was on a panel for diagnosing Social and Communication Difficulties (SCD) where I observed children, wrote reports in line with DSM5 criteria and fed back in panel meetings. I was part of a regional team involved in developing a new assessment tool for Autism (PIVATs) where I wrote 'user friendly' assessment statements for Behaviour for Learning and also contributed interventions and resources to go alongside these. Most importantly I piloted the tool, using it in my teaching, and found the strengths and errors of the tool in order to further improve the resource ready for National distribution.

I feel lucky to have had such a varied career in SEN and more recently took a position in an Independent school as this was an area I had not yet experienced. I now have knowledge and understanding of how state and independent schools are similar and how they differ. I was Headteacher in this role but the part of the job I enjoyed the most was teaching. I found balancing classroom based learning with outdoor and practical learning the key to enabling the Secondary SEN pupils to succeed. I loved seeing pupils gain their Duke of Edinburgh as well as their GCSEs and/or vocational skills.

I feel I now have an exceptional range of knowledge, skills and experience in all areas of SEN but in particular autism which is where my passion lies. I wish to continue teaching children with autism as I thrive on observing them progress and love having an impact on their lives. I wish to be the teacher they remember forever and were inspired by. I continue to further my knowledge of autism as there is ever changing pedagogy of which every practitioner should be mindful to keep up to date with. I believe that extensive knowledge is essential and should influence everyday practice.