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I joined Highgate Hill House School in November 2019. I was initially employed as a Sports Coach having previously coached a wide range of sports and having worked at the local leisure centre. I hold a BSc Hons in Sports Coaching and my speciality is Football, (I gained a Level 2 certificate in football coaching in 2015) and also play for a local team.

I am proud that my lessons in school were constantly deemed as excellent/outstanding and have been supported to manage the SEND of the pupils brilliantly, and I quickly became a key person for many of our young people. After the senior Sports Coach left, I took over this position whilst also working 1:1 with some of our most complex children.

In September 2022, with the support of the school, I started on the teacher training apprentice scheme and have been shadowing teachers within school, observing lessons, and building up my teaching within classes. During this time, I have been attending university 2 days a week and more recently been on placement in another school, a mainstream primary.

I am looking forward to leading my own class when I qualify and definitely want to stay within specialist provision.

After the launch of the school’s ‘Wellbeing Wednesday’ initiative, I have been asked to lead Yoga sessions after school for the staff team. Having achieved my Yoga Practitioner Diploma in 2020, I am keen to use this to enhance our teams’ emotional wellbeing and would also like to develop this further for our students.

I qualified as a dance teacher in 2004 with the International Dance Teachers’ Association and after a long career I was forced to close my school in 2016 due to issues with my spine. Having always worked with young people I wanted to continue in this field and started work at Highgate Hill House School as a Learning Support Assistant through an agency, in 2022.

Over my years of teaching, I had supported many young people with a broad range of challenges and was able to utilise these skills in my new placement. This was recognised and I was delighted when asked to join the team permanently.

Highgate Hill House School and Melrose Education have not only acknowledged my passion for creative arts by offering me the Creative Arts Lead role, but in March of this year, I began my training as a Holistic Integrated Creative Arts Therapist. I am incredibly grateful for this career progression opportunity and am looking forward to bringing this creative and expressive form of support to both our young people and staff.

If you had asked me in 2016 when I closed my dance school if I could see myself having another career that I would love and find as fulfilling, it would have been a resounding ‘no’! So, to find myself seven years later, teaching art, continuing my training, supported 100% with my ongoing spinal issues is more than I could have hoped for.

I started my journey working with children immediately after finishing my NNEB Diploma in Nursery Nursing in 1998. Working in mainstream schools, nurseries and pre-schools for 20 years I thoroughly enjoyed every minute. I also became a mum during these years and this (knowing how much it meant to me that Max got a good and balanced education) motivated me to start my Foundation Degree in Early Childhood Studies.

This created new and big challenges for me as a single mum working full time and studying at the same time. It was the hardest task, but at the same time, the biggest achievement of my academic career gaining a 2:1 BA Honours Degree in Education and Curriculum Studies. I felt very proud of myself and even more confident in my role as an Early Years Educator. I became a manager for a local nursery and had lots of fun along the way learning new information and working to improve my practice every day.

However, I had always had a passion to work with SEN children and after lots of soul searching I decided to move on and successfully gained a position as the ‘Early Year’s Instructor’ and I started at Highgate Hill House School early 2019.

Upon joining the team, I immediately felt that I was part of a school that truly cared about the children/leaners that attended and all staff went above and beyond to create environments and build relationships that would enable the children to thrive and engage in their learning. This was inspirational and once again I was motivated to do my absolute best for the class and team of LSA’s that I lead. I thoroughly enjoyed my role for 4 good years and I was fortunate enough to be supported to do my best by an amazing team of people who felt like family not just colleagues.

Unfortunately, within those years I suffered some traumas of my own which made me gradually start to assess what I wanted to do going forward with my career. I did not want to leave the school I knew and loved and an opportunity arose to become part of the admin team. I was immediately interested in this position and spoke to Kerry, the Principal, to make her aware that I wanted to apply. Kerry understood my need for change and progression and fully supported me even when I had my doubts about leaving my role working directly with the children. After interviewing I was offered the job and I was very excited to accept.

Although I was leaving my work with the children, I was able to stay working within the school I loved. The opportunity to transfer my skills and knowledge of the school has ultimately led me to thoroughly enjoy my new role.

I am just one example of the Melrose Education group of schools, supporting a new career pathway and new possibilities for progression, and I am very happy that I have been able to do this with a workplace and a team that I love.