Kerry Ashworth

As a Learning Mentor for the Somerset Virtual School the aim of my work is to improve the educational engagement and outcomes for Children Looked After in Somerset.

My core responsibilities include:

• Providing 1-1 support to young people in mainstream, specialist and alternative provisions.
• Fostering positive relationships with students to promote engagement and well-being.
• Chairing PEP's and Multi-professional meetings that explore barriers to learning and provide targets and strategies to improve outcomes.
• Working collaboratively with schools, Foster Carers, Social Workers and any professionals involved in order to support children and young people in a holistic way.
• Providing support and advice to schools to understand the trauma experienced by Looked after children and young people.
• Providing ELSA sessions to support the emotional needs of children and young people within our cohort.
• Providing transition support for children and young people in transition years, but also those that occur due to placement changes.
• Providing personalised academic support to students, improving their outcomes.

As a Teaching assistant in a Special School I worked in a class of six pupils, all with a variety of complex learning, and social needs.

My daily tasks included:

• Implementing positive behaviour strategies and supporting pupils to be able manage challenging situations
• supporting pupils during social activities and outings, ensuring all instructions are understood
• helping pupils to develop their self-confidence and independence
• preparing learning materials and liaising with teaching staff to ensure all resources are accessible
• Mentoring two pupils within my class, being their key adult and liaising with parents and carers and other professionals including Speech and Language therapists and Physiotherapists.
• Providing emotional support during unstructured times

Within this role, I gained a great deal of experience supporting families experiencing a variety of problems, having to identify and respond to their changing needs and adapt my plan of work to fit this. At times, this mean working flexibly, regularly changing timings and meeting places to ensure the client was comfortable and able to access and engage in the work.

Supporting families with a variety of complex and at times extremely sensitive or serious issues, meant ensuring I could build and maintain a trusting relationship. I was often the shoulder to cry on for families and it was imperative I was always approachable, empathetic and open, whilst remaining completely honest with families about the child's wellbeing being at the forefront of my work. It was always a consideration that if my safeguarding concerns were raised I would need to refer this on and increase the involvement from children's services.

I have excellent communication skills and these were tested in this role, ensuring families were aware of what my involvement would be and being explicit about the expectations of them from Children's services. Working as part of a multi-agency team, I am confident liaising with professionals, whether they be from education, health or another field. Working on Child Protection cases, I have supported the case holding social worker and have collaborated with them to set up and organise the work required for the individual family. I have chaired team around the child meetings and I am confident writing reports.

Holding my own caseload meant remaining motivated, to produce the best possible outcomes for families. It was vital to regularly review my work and be flexible and able to change and adapt the work to meet the needs of the family. I have worked with families with a variety of needs, including parents with a mental health diagnosis, learning disabilities or those living with substance abuse. I have supported young teenage couples in establishing routines and boundaries for their young children and parents with teenagers in understanding attachment and how this may have impacted their relationship. I have also had roles in helping parents to understand the impact domestic violence has on their children.

Working as a social work assistant, my work centered around one to one work with children who were the subject of child protection plans. On a weekly basis, I visited children in school and completed 'wishes and feelings' work and 'life stories'.

In this role it was vital to built trust with families through consistent communication and support, offering timely intervention and support when necessary.

I contributed to Child in Need and Child Protection plans and liaised regularly with school, health and any other agency involved.

I carried a case load of children and young people and was extremely organised and able to prioritised work and adapt plans as and when needed.

I have worked with children from a range of experiences and took great pride in setting up a good called 'Bring it on.' This group was specifically for Young people leaving care and was aimed at helping them to expand their knowledge and experience of life skills. Ten young people attended this group and we received excellent feedback from them, requesting the group to be rolled out several times a year.

My role as a Contact Officer involved supervising Court ordered contact arrangements between children in foster care and their parents. This included writing observations and contributions to court reports.

In order to make the session successful, it was vital that I was friendly, welcoming and non-judgemental, whilst also remaining professional and making sure the safety of the children was my priority.

I was able to build relationships with parents and children over time, and this resulted in a safe space for parents to practice parenting skills and build confidence, whilst feeling able to ask questions and seek advice.

Time management and organisation were key to ensuring things ran smoothly and parents and children enjoyed their time together.

This role involved assisting students with a wide range of special educational needs. This included small group work, one to one sessions and supporting whole classes with varying needs and abilities.

I was a mentor to five students and this enabled me to demonstrate my ability to motivate, engage and empower students who were struggling to reach their potential, both academically and socially.

Additional duties included:

• Assisting the head of English with lesson preparation and organizing resources to facilitate smooth lesson delivery.
• Passing on any child protection concerns to our designated lead.
• Developing tailored learning plans for individualised student progression.
• Assisting struggling pupils during class hours, leading to improved grades over time.
• Helping organise after-school clubs, enriching extracurricular offering of the school.
• Working with students on academic and social challenges. modelling empathy and perseverance.

Working as a deputy Play leader, I was working and assisting in the management of a play scheme for 4-11 year olds. This included planning engaging activities that would appeal to a wide range of interests and abilities, leading the activities and supporting children to get the most out of the experience.

I regularly worked on a one to one basis with children with mild to acute learning difficulties and physical disabilities, supporting them to be able to access all of our activities and ensuring they were included and able to communicate with their peers.