Laura Branston

I qualified as a Teacher with a BEd from the University of Hertfordshire in 2009 and taught in a mainstream school for three years before moving to The Walnuts School. During my teaching degree I realised that I truly believe every child should have access to high quality teaching and learning, no matter what disability they may have on paper. Being a teacher means I have the privileged position to ensure this happens. I am thrilled to apply for the post of Specialist Teacher. Not only will this allow me to continue my passion for working with children with communication difficulties but it will also allow me to contribute positively to a collaborative school environment that values inclusive and specialist education.

Whilst working at The Walnuts I have worked with children who are on the autistic spectrum or have social communication difficulties. Some children in the school also present with co-morbid conditions such as learning difficulties, delayed speech and language, ADHD, dyspraxia, anxiety and epilepsy. Many children have a wide variety of sensory needs and behavioural issues. This has given me a good knowledge and understanding of Autism and other conditions which I would now like to extend in order to enhance my own teaching and to further support children with communication difficulties, their parents and my colleagues.

I feel I have exceptional management skills which I have demonstrated throughout my career. I manage large staff teams effectively. Due to the nature of the children I taught at The Walnuts this sometimes meant managing a team of 4-5 Teaching Assistants on a daily basis and is an area I feel I excel at. I have experience supervising staff through their appraisal process. I have also organised and led teaching inset day training in phonics. I was given the opportunity to join the schools leadership team and given the task of gaining the SSAT Cultural Diversity Award. This allowed me to develop my management and leadership skills on a larger whole school scale and I was able to lead the school forward in this area, as well as gaining the gold standard. This then led me on to applying for the role of assessment and data assistant, which I was appointed with in September 2016. I was responsible for managing the transition and training for teachers from using BSquared as an assessment tool to Solar.

I was also a member of the Behaviour and Stress Management team (BSMT) at The Walnuts for many years. This team was made up of parent governors, specialist teachers, department heads, Speech and Language Therapists and Occupational Therapists. Teachers across all sites and age groups in our school would refer complex cases to BSMT. The teacher would then attend the meeting for support and discussion about how best to meet the needs of these children who often display high levels of challenging behaviour or anxiety. As part of this role in BSMT, I carried out observations of children in various classes and settings and have provided feedback to BSMT members on a regular basis. Working on this team gave me a great opportunity to develop my observational skills of children. I am constantly working together with other teachers and teaching assistants to find solutions to issues that are occurring in class. I believe that an area of strength that I have is the ability to provide constructive and sensitive feedback to those that I am working with, so we can work together to find solutions.

I am fascinated by SEND because I have witnessed so many times how adapting resources or tailoring activities even slightly can have huge unlocking potential powers for a child. Throughout my training I was able to undertake a placement in a school for children with physical and neurological impairments. Seeing how well teams of different individuals worked together to improve the teaching and inclusion for those children led me to where I am now. One particular child, who was not much older than myself at the time, was completely non-verbal and wheelchair bound. I was able to witness her being able to use a speaking machine for the first time. She was able to engage in conversations and respond to questions. It opened my eyes to how much understanding and capabilities children with communication needs really have. I fundamentally believe therefore that the children I have had the pleasure of working with are first and foremost children; their SEND is merely another layer. I enjoy working alongside children with SEND, not SEND children. Disability does not define these children and my underlying ethos, if working as your SaLTAP would be to strive to ensure the child is recognised first, as often the disability is what is naturally focused upon.

I have excellent communication skills both with children and adults. I have demonstrated these skills throughout my teaching career in Mainstream and Special School settings through my teaching, and in my interactions with parents, staff and other professionals. I am able to communicate effectively with my colleagues whilst planning; raising concerns regarding pupils and discussing appropriate interventions; making contributions during meetings and training sessions and through the management of teaching assistants. I enjoy working as part of a team. I have also demonstrated that I can communicate well with other professionals. I have regularly incorporated and carried out programmes in class as devised by Speech and Language Therapists and Occupational Therapists. I have also carried out joint working with Specialist Teachers from the SEND team to develop strategies and resources to best support a visually impaired child in my class who exceeded expectations in the progress he made. I have also gained experience of working in partnership with social workers, educational psychologists, and CAMHS professionals. I have also attended meetings with CAMHS professionals with parents to advocate for support for pupils in my class.

I am creatively minded and strive to create an engaging, inclusive atmosphere, which inspires learning and creativity. I strongly believe in learners having responsibility in their own learning and therefore try to encourage an interactive and practical learning environment. From my own experience I have always learnt best when I
have been involved and engaged: ‘Tell me I’ll forget. Show me I’ll remember. Involve me I’ll understand.’