Robey

My name is Jen and I have worked in education for fifteen years. During this time, I have worked in further education delivering hairdressing at all levels including the school link classes (children from the local high school). I especially enjoyed working with the school link class, these young people were often school refusers or those at risk of exclusion or disengaged from learning. I then went on to deliver the alternative curriculum at KS4 at a large secondary school in Doncaster where I introduced Hairdressing, ASDAN Personal and Social Development and Employability skills to the disengaged learners and those who were at risk of exclusion or were internally excluded. During my time working with this age group, I became aware that no matter what nurturing provision I implemented it did not appear to change the behaviour and thought patterns of the young people that I was working with. This obviously set me off wondering why as the amount of time and effort that I was putting into the young people to see them continuing to make the same mistakes was disappointing. I began to wonder if much earlier intervention were necessary and wondered if this would have a greater impact on changing behaviour, attitude and thought patterns. Spookily a job in my local area was advertised for an Enhanced Mainstream School for SEMH. The EMS was a pilot scheme to see if short term intense intervention could actually break down the neural pathways and reform them in order to promote more socially acceptable behaviours, thoughts and attitudes. I saw first-hand how a consistent, predictable, and fair approach worked in forming these new pathways. Over time I watched behaviours decrease and the new skills that the children had learnt being applied until they were eventually reintegrated back into mainstream school. After seven years I then took on the role of Learning Support and AGT Co- Ordinator and Mental Health First aider for an Independent school in York where I assessed need, implemented and tracked appropriate interventions to ensure that every child’s needs were being met. I then took a job Running an autism unit and eventually moved into training teaching assistants, delivering the CACHE Supporting teaching and Learning In schools Level 3 Diploma and TA standards.