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Linda Tallent was for many years an early years teacher. In this role she was involved in the early identification of children with special educational needs. She worked in collaboration with the local I CAN nursery to ensure that children with speech, language and communication needs succeeded within the school. Her knowledge of child development and early years practice enabled her to support and suggest strategies to help teachers through out the primary school to integrate children who had a range of additional needs. In recent years she has worked in Gateshead as a Primary Teaching and Learning consultant, providing advice, support and training both locally and nationally to early years practitioners, senior managers and local authority officers. She has worked with the Primary Teaching and Learning consultant for SEN and written a booklet called Curriculum Access to Literacy and Maths (CALM). This is used by teachers in Gateshead to support the inclusion into mainstream schools of children with special needs. Jean Thompson was for many years a practising Special Educational needs teacher. In this role she was involved in teaching and meeting the educational needs of children with moderate to complex special educational needs. She later worked for the Ministry of defence in a number of Service schools in Germany, here she taught children ranged from 5 years to 11 years and held the post of Special educational needs co-ordinator. Following her ten years in Germany, Jean was appointed lead teacher in a mainstream resource base for children with complex Speech, Language and Communication needs. Over the years, Jean has developed a passion for meeting the individual needs of all children, in particular, those with Special educational needs and Learning difficulties and disabilities and ensuring the successful inclusion into the appropriate provision. In recent years she has worked in Gateshead as early years Area SENCo and is currently SEN & Inclusion consultant, providing advice, support and training to practitioners working within the Primary phase, senior managers and local authority officers. She works closely with a range of Health professionals and sits on a range of multi disciplinary teams to ensure the successful early identification and intervention of children aged 0 - 19 |
