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PRIMARY & SECONDARY SCHOOLS
CLOSING THE GAP
CONFERENCE PRESENTERS
18th November 2014
Sarah Cernis:
Sarah is an early years consultant with the early years learning improvement team.
Sarah works with schools, children’s centres and private settings across the city
and supports with all aspects of early years practice and pedagogy. Sarah’s
particular areas of expertise within early years are language development, children
learning English as an additional language and inclusion. In 2013-2014 Sarah has
worked on the roll out of the “Every child a talker” programme to Leeds school
nurseries and the introduction to Leeds of the “Early language development
programme” for practitioners working with children 0-3.
Sarah Coltman:
Sarah joined Children’s Services as a school improvement consultant in January
2012 and has continued to work as the Early Years Foundation Stage Moderation
Manager for Leeds which she has done since Autumn 2009. Her consultancy work
has given Sarah the opportunity, alongside other colleagues, to help raise the
profile of Early Years in Leeds. Sarah’s training across the LA has focussed on key
messages about excellent EY practice and pedagogy. She has worked closely with
schools raising standards and attainment in Early Years and helping them to
scrutinise their data and plan from it. Sarah is an accredited moderator for the
Early Years Foundation Stage Profile working with both the maths and literacy
teams across EYFS and KS1 to support work in these areas.
Steve Dawson:
Steve is currently a school improvement consultant with the Leeds Primary Learning
Improvement team. Previous to this role, Steve worked as a literacy consultant for
National Strategies. Steve worked with the DfE on the pilot of the KS1 phonics
screening check and contributed to the published materials on teaching the higher
levels of phonics, available on the DfE website. Steve’s area of expertise is English,
and the majority of his work is supporting schools and teachers to raise standards
within reading, writing and speaking and listening. Steve is an accredited
moderator for both Key Stage 1 and 2, and works closely with the assessment team.
He also supports school s to develop subject and middle leadership and coaching.
Clara Glanville:
Clara is a primary school improvement consultant with the 0-11 Learning
Improvement team. Clara has worked in this position for 4 years, initially
specialising in Early Years and leading the Narrowing the Gap project. Clara has
taught across the primary age range and worked at senior manager level with
responsibility for EYFS and KS1. Clara has recently been working with KS1 colleagues
across the city to support teachers to bridge the gap between EYFS and the new
national curriculum through planning from children’s interests. She is passionate
about making learning challenging yet fun based on children’s starting points and
their key motivators. Clara also works closely with the assessment team and has
completed moderation at EYFS, KS1 and KS2.
Sally Hall:
Sally is a consultant teacher with the Closing the Gap team. She has worked in this
role for 5 years, previously spending 9 years teaching at a Leeds primary school. Her
areas of expertise include Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils and English as an
Additional Language pupils. She is an experienced trainer and specialist in EAL. Sally
offers training and support to schools on increasing access to the mainstream
curriculum for New to English pupils. This includes support with adapting and
differentiating planning and delivering teaching in the classroom. Sally is passionate
about inclusion and diversity and the impact this has on raising attainment for EAL
pupils.
Jill Igoe:
Jill is an SEN Officer with the Complex Needs Team, assessing needs and advising on
provision for some of the City’s most vulnerable pupils. As a specialist teacher and
assessor of Dyslexia she has Associate Membership of the British Dyslexia
Association. With a background in primary teaching, Jill has been Assistant Head of
a multicultural Inner city primary school where she had experience of teaching,
leading and coordinating provision for children with Special Educational Needs. Jill is
solution focussed about inclusion, finding creative ways to ensure that provision
meets needs to accelerate learning.
Dr Emily Jackson:
Emily Jackson is a an Educational Psychologist who works in the East / North East to
support inclusion for children and young people with Special Educational Needs
(SEN) through the application of psychology. Educational psychologists are trained
to understand how children and young people: develop their thinking, learning and
problem solving skills; behave and develop relationships with other people;
understand feelings and control their behaviours; and what may improve their
school experience. Emily has a Senior Practitioner role in developing Learning and
Cognition and has completed further training in Dynamic Assessment and Mediated
Learning.
Patrick Kelly:
Patrick is a Special Educational Needs Monitoring and Quality Assurance Officer. His
role entails monitoring the quality of provision for children with SENs in Leeds and
supporting schools in improving outcomes for children with SENs. His background
includes roles in senior management in both the secondary and further education
sectors, in particular, provision for children with cognitive needs and acute
behavioural / social and emotional difficulties. Patrick also worked as an educational
consultant for a number of years and has worked with a large number of schools and
colleges across the UK. Patrick gained an MA in Applied Linguistics and specialised in
language development in children with a range of learning difficulties and disabilities.
Patrick is a member of RAPAL (Research and Practice in Adult Literacy).
Karen Knepper:
Karen is currently a primary school improvement consultant with the Leeds Primary
Learning Improvement team. Karen is an experienced primary practitioner, trainer
and a specialist teacher for mathematics. Karen has taught all ages from reception
to adults in schools in England, Australia, South America and Germany. Karen
developed her expertise in mathematics through the numeracy specialist
qualification and through her roles as adult mathematics tutors in prisons and
through supporting the mathematics specialist teacher program in Leeds. She is an
accredited Talking Maths, and Numicon trainer and holds the National Centre for
Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM), professional development
accredited lead.
Jan Levi:
Jan is currently SEN Officer for the SEN Inclusion Team in the East North/East. Prior
to this she worked as a teacher and SENCO for many years in secondary education.
She has completed the Diploma in Specific Learning Difficulties (Dyslexia) and is an
Accredited Trainer for Numicon. Other areas of interest are assistive technology for
SEN pupils, dyscalculia and diagnostic assessment, including access arrangements.
Anna Mason:
Anna Mason is the EAL manager in Lawnswood School; she has managed and led the
department there for the last 8 years. Her passion lies in developing outstanding
provision for EAL pupils, New to English pupil induction processes, accelerating
English acquisition, whole school EAL practice, and resource development. Anna has
worked with the Closing the Gap team as an EAL consultant for the past year working
with colleagues to develop outstanding EAL pedagogy and practice in Leeds
Secondary schools.
Therese O’Sullivan:
Therese is a consultant within the Closing the Gap team. She has worked within
this field at LCC for 10 years following many years of teaching experience in the
classroom and at senior management level. She is an experienced trainer and
specialist in the area of English as an additional language pedagogy and practice.
Within this broad area she can offer expert support and guidance on: strategies for
increasing attainment for both new to English and advanced learners of English,
culturally inclusive learning, making the maths curriculum EAL friendly, language
development across the curriculum and meaningful approaches to teaching
grammar as part of the writing process. With reference to the White paper “The
Importance of Teaching”, she increasingly acts as a facilitator of school-to-school
support, leading on the Hub programme and the Arooj Collaborative.
Tracey Thomas-Marshall:
Tracy is a primary school improvement consultant with the 0-11 Learning
Improvement team and the Strategic Lead for mathematics in Leeds.
As a deputy and acting head teacher, Tracey developed her expertise to identify
priorities and actions to raise standards and provide the best education possible
for children with a wide range of ability and prior knowledge.
Tracey has a passion for closing the gap for our most vulnerable pupils and
supports the Maths for All programmes in Leeds.
Additional Presenters :
Sally Gibbs and Jacquie Ambler – University of Leeds Lifelong Learning Centre