Eve Oakley

Read Write Inc Phonics Lead

As the RWI Phonics Lead I am responsible for overseeing and supporting the successful implementation of the RWI phonics program within a school.

Key roles include: providing training and support to staff, assessing student progress, and ensuring the program is effectively embedded in the curriculum.

Responsibilities as a RWI Phonics Leader:

Leadership and Support:

• Provide guidance and support to staff, including coaching, training, and development activities, to ensure effective phonics instruction.

Program Implementation:

• Oversee the successful implementation and ongoing refinement of the RWI program across the school.

Assessment and Monitoring:

• Regularly assess student progress in RWI, using data to monitor progress and identify students who may need additional support.

Staff Training and Development:

• Lead the development and delivery of RWI training for new staff and provide ongoing support for existing staff.

Curriculum Alignment:

• Work with other teachers and leaders to ensure that the RWI program is effectively aligned with the overall curriculum and learning goals.

Communication and Collaboration:

• Maintain effective communication with staff and other stakeholders, ensuring everyone is informed about the RWI program and its goals.

Data Analysis and Reporting:

• Analyse assessment data to identify areas for improvement and report on student progress.

Resource Management:

• Ensure that all necessary resources, including materials and training are available for the effective implementation of the RWI program.

EYFS Leader

Under the direction of the headteacher, one of my responsibilities has been to lead the EYFS to secure:

• High-quality teaching
• Effective use of resources
• Improved standards of learning and achievement for all
• Strategic direction responsibilities
• Provide vision, direction and leadership of the Early Years Foundation Stage.
• Ensure high quality early years education that improves outcomes and narrows the gap between those children who are disadvantaged and the most vulnerable.
• Monitor and evaluate the impact of policies and practices identifying developments needed and using strategies for improvement.
• Working in partnership with senior leaders and wider professionals to achieve desirable outcomes.
• Ensure the successful development and implementation of high quality, developmentally appropriate, inclusive learning environments in a Foundation Stage unit that integrates Nursery and Reception class together.
• Creating and developing a curriculum that provides a balance between learning through play in an enabling learning environment and ensuring learning opportunities that support learning and progression and develop readiness for the transition into Year 1.
• Promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social, cultural, physical and emotional well being alongside cultural capital.
• Review and evaluate the assessment management system to ensure it remains an effective tool to track the progression of learning, identify gaps and plan accurate next steps to challenge and extend knowledge, understanding and skills.
• Work in partnership with senior leaders in the cycle of school evaluation and development planning
• Work with colleagues in external settings and in Year 1 to ensure high quality transitions between phases.
• Work with the special educational needs coordinator (SENCO) to ensure the curriculum meets the needs of all pupils, including disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
• Ensure the Early Years provides young children with their entitlement to education and meets the criteria for a successful Ofsted inspection.

Other responsibilities included:

Leading the Curriculum

• Developing and reviewing regularly the vision, aims, principles and purposes for the EYFS.
• Monitoring changes to teaching, learning and school improvement and use effective communication to share with staff.
• Developing a curriculum and using effective monitoring to ensure it is diverse and inclusive, meets the individual needs of all children and the requirements of the EYFS.
• Providing a curriculum that is well structured to show the sequence of learning, personalised to meet individual needs and organised to support the achievement of the Early Learning Goals.
• Ensuring assessment processes illustrate a positive impact on learning and illustrate achievements.

Leading and managing staff

• Working together with senior leaders to deploy Early Years staff effectively.
• Acting as a role model for staff in all aspects of work.
• Developing positive and professional working relationships with all staff in the Early Years.
• Assisting in creating expectations of responsibility and accountability by monitoring and evaluating practice, delegating roles and responsibilities, providing constructive feedback that develops the effectiveness of staff and challenge where necessary.
• Supporting the leadership team in the performance management of the EYFS staff.
• Ensuring that staff development needs were identified and all staff were supported to engage in the cycle of continuous professional development to ensure high quality practice and provision.
• Organising EYFS team meetings to discuss policies, initiatives, training, the curriculum, planning, assessments, record keeping and moderation.
• Managing the collection of data in the EYFS.
• Using data analysis to evaluate progress, achievements, areas for concern and formulate strategies for implementation.
• Monitoring staff wellbeing and work in collaboration with senior leaders to address wellbeing challenges where needed.
• Using efficient and effective deployment of resources.
• Creating a safe, welcome and enabling learning environment.
• Auditing the indoor and outdoor learning environments to evaluate the quality of the overall learning environment.
• Implementing change to the indoor and outdoor learning environments to provide high quality provision.
• Ensuring resources are diverse, inclusive and accessible.
• Creating and establishing a continuous provision both indoors and outdoors that aligns with the curriculum, developmental stages of development and individual needs to support learning and progression.
• Auditing and consistently monitoring resources and the learning environment to ensure it aligns with individual and curriculum needs.
• Managing the EYFS budget effectively to ensure it adds value and enhances learning experiences.

Special Educational Needs Coordinator

I have a wide range of knowledge and expertise regarding Special Educational Needs. My role as a Special Educational Needs Coordinator has witnessed me as a SENCO across Early Years and Primary Education.

My experience as a SENCO has involved me working in a single primary school and I have also worked as a SENCO across two primary schools together in the academy. In both settings I have reconstructed and implemented special educational needs provision using a systematic process.

Roles throughout my experience include:

Leadership

• Reconstructing special educational needs provision.
• Ensuring all members of staff recognised and fulfilled their statutory responsibilities to pupils with special educational needs.
• Providing training opportunities for learning support assistants and other teachers to learn about special educational needs.
• Disseminating good practice in special educational needs across the school, supporting first quality teaching, reasonable adjustments and SEN support.
• Delivering regular training to staff regarding research based practice, provisions, interventions and role of the adult.
• Monitoring the delivery of SEN provision.
• Identifying resources needed to meet the needs of pupils with special educational needs.
• Ensuring responsibility for provision for children with Special Educational Needs and illustrated a working knowledge of the SEN Code of Practice.
• Creating a Special Educational Needs Policy and SEN Information Report.

Maintenance of Professional Standards:

• Maintaining a consistent awareness of educational and other appropriate developments whether national or local, and assessed their impact.
• Ensuring the highest standards of professional conduct and confidentiality at all times.
• Ensuring the development and maintenance of a team culture that enabled all staff to be effective in their roles.
• Implementing the development of a collaborative culture which demonstrated loyalty and integrity towards school leaders.

Making referrals

• Developing a strategy for referrals for Statutory Assessment and collecting the necessary evidence using the graduated approach cycle.
• Illustrating that a child will be at a disadvantage without additional support and required special educational provision to be made for in accordance with an EHCP.
• Liaising with professionals to seek professional reports as needed if a referral was accepted.
• Maintaining regular contact and communication with professionals and the Local Authority to ensure all progress and updates were communicated.
• Maintaining communication with parents and carers to ensure all updates were communicated.
• When a child obtained an EHCP, conducting a planning meeting to form objectives and short-term targets.

Education Health Care Plans

• Monitoring the implementation of provision to support the achievement of progress towards desired outcomes.
• Organising termly reviews of implemented provisions and support.
• Ensuring regular communication and monitoring with staff to monitor progress and impact of interventions.
• Establishing frequent communication with parents and carers to provide updates of progress, achievements, impact and any further barriers identified and addressed.
• Continuing to support all pupils to receive all provisions through the graduated approach.

Annual statement reviews

• Conducting annual and interim reviews of EHCP pupils in align with the SEN Code of Practice.

Transition

• Liaising with feeder schools and schools in the next phase with regard to those with Special Educational Needs in order to ensure continuity of care.
• Ensuring that when a pupil transitioned from the school, all their records were passed to the next school that they attended.
• Advising staff in the new school, to understand the educational implications of various conditions and the needs of individual children, also supported teachers to think of ways of adapting the curriculum, teaching or classroom.
• Providing support to parents and carers throughout the transition process.
• Educating parents and carers about the Local Offer.

Early Years

• Developing a process for early identification and intervention of need.
• Forming positive and professional relationships with outside professionals to support children in the Early Years with additional needs.
• Attending multi disciplinary meetings for children’s assessment
• Supporting parents and carers through the pathways of assessment.
• Establishing SEN provision in the Early Years.

Pastoral Support Programmes

• Implementing evidence based pastoral support programmes as interventions and provisions to support children with additional needs.
• Liaising with Educational Psychologists to implement provisions and programmes that supported children with social, emotional and mental health needs.
• Organising training for staff and provided continuous professional development opportunities to support this area of need.
• Monitoring the impact of provisions and addressed further areas of concern as identified.
• Monitoring the impact of staff training and the effectiveness of this on progress and implementation.

Local Authority Panel

• Attended and participated in panel meetings organised by the Local Authority for EHC Needs Assessment requests.

Safeguarding

• Adhering to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people.
• Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

My roles and responsibilities as a teacher involved:

• Managing planning, teaching and learning as a Reception class.
• Planning teaching to achieve progression of learning.
• Delivering a high quality Early Years curriculum.
• Planning and resourcing continuous provision both indoors and outdoors and adult focused activities to support learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage.
• Maintaining resources in the classroom / outside learning environment ensuring they were kept up to date, accessible and supported learning.
• Planning for the individual needs of children by providing structured learning opportunities that developed the areas of learning and the foundations for fostering literacy and numeracy attainment.
• Using a variety of teaching strategies, that involved planned adult intervention, first-hand experience and using talk as a vehicle for learning.
• Planning to meet the individual needs of children and personalising teaching and learning where required.
• Supporting and encouraging children’s development of self control, resilience, independence and their ability to work collaboratively, concentrate and persevere.
• Supporting and fostering the development of communication and language skills.
• Assessing, recording and reporting on development, progress and attainment for every pupil in the class.
• Using and developing assessment processes / systems to ensure they were fit for purpose.
• Assessing and recording pupils' progress systematically and kept records to show progress and attainment.
• Monitoring progress, using assessments to inform planning and creating next steps for learning.
• Developing positive parental partnerships with parents / carers and families to support children’s learning and progression.
• Developing positive and professional working relationships with staff using open communication and collaboration.
• Ensuring the effective and efficient deployment of classroom support.
• Forming professional working relationships with outside professionals and the wider community.
• Collecting and maintaining an evidence file to support judgements about pupils’ learning, progression and attainment.
• Planing, organising and measuring the impact of intervention strategies on individual children’s progress.
• Contributing to the whole school’s planning activities and to the key areas of school development in line with the School Improvement Plan.
• Adhering to policies and practices of the school.
• Providing every child with the opportunity to develop as a learner and meet high expectations.
• Contributing positively and effectively to keeping children safe in education by following the school’s safeguarding procedures and policy.
• Contributing to the corporate life of the school through effective participation.
• Engaging in continuous professional development and duties in relation to school policies and practices.
• Supporting the aims and ethos of the schools as set out in the values, vision and mission statement.

Other professional roles

• Leading phonic teacher for the Local Authority