Career
I’ve been lucky enough to have spent more than two decades in the field of special educational needs, and have worked with some incredible children, young people and colleagues since I began teaching my teaching journey in Gloucestershire back in 1999. Most of my time since has been spent working as either a SENCO in a mainstream setting or as a specialist teacher for local authority support services; prior to establishing SEND Pathways, this was in Solihull, where I spent seven years leading and developing the services offered by their amazing Communication and Learning Difficulties team.
In addition, I’ve been a qualified specialist assessor for 18 years. During this time I have kept up to date with changes to the identification of specific learning difficulties, in particular dyslexia and dyscalculia, and I maintain an up-to-date assessment practising certificate with the British Dyslexia Association.
Now, I work across Worcestershire and the West Midlands in a range of settings as an independent assessor and SEND advisory teacher.
As a parent of a child with SEND
As any SENCO will tell you, working with the families of children and young people with additional needs and disabilities is both challenging and rewarding at the same time. In 2014, when my son was born, I found that I was seeing the world of SEND through different eyes: as a parent.
Arthur, our beautiful, long-awaited little boy, was born with a genetic condition known as Oculocutaneous Albinism. Although he was not formally diagnosed until he was twelve months old, his vision impairment was obvious from about 6 weeks, when his eyes began to wobble (nystagmus) and he couldn’t see or focus on our faces, even close up. I was devastated at first and found it difficult to imagine what the future might hold for Arthur and for us as a family. All of a sudden, things began to change…our hopes, our expectations, our plans…they all began to shift.
Whilst my feelings of helplessness and my worries as a parent were never far away, my experience as a SENCO was invaluable as he progressed through nursery, and we were also well-supported by a Qualified Teacher of the Visually Impaired (QTVI) from the Worcestershire Local Authority inclusion service, as well as the ophthalmology team at the hospital.
As time has gone on, Arthur has needed, and received, lots of additional support in school. Whilst it shouldn’t be down to luck, my professional experience tells me that not all schools (even those who say they are) are fully inclusive, and so we do feel very lucky that our local school has made lots of adjustments to ensure that Arthur’s needs are met. He also has a diagnosis now of dyspraxia, so this – combined with a vision impairment – means that he needs a fair bit of assistance to ensure he can access the classroom learning environment as well as playtimes and lunchtimes, which are actually the most challenging times of the school day for Arthur.
I am not going to lie, as a parent, I am always worrying about what the short- and long-term future holds for Arthur. The thought of him moving on to a different school setting, getting used to new routines and teachers, integrating with his peers as they all mature…all of this results in lots of anxiety for me. But, I feel hugely grateful that my career pathway has set me up to have the confidence and skills to negotiate the ‘special needs jungle’, which I now know is a much more daunting place to be as a parent!