BY SOPHIE, CARLOTTA, JESSIE AND SIENNA

Welcome back to the Teacher of the Term, we can’t wait to reveal this term’s winner.

We are especially passionate about this person because they help lots of children who can find school more difficult at times. As well as this, we are keen to get this particular candidate into The Week Junior’s “Teacher of the Week” segment because we don’t think they have ever nominated a SENCO before. So follow along for our campaign!

If you haven’t already guessed who it is we can exclusively reveal that the winner this term is MS. GEORGIA!

We conducted a series of interviews with the winner herself, the children and teachers. We asked everyone about this teacher’s role, how they assist and why they are so inspirational and amazing.

First let’s hear from one of our own: Mog Chronicle reporter Jessie, in Year 5, who has worked closely with Ms. Georgia.

What makes Ms. Georgia so amazing to be a SENCO?
Jessie: Because she is kind and motivating!

How has she helped you?
Jessie: I came to JKPS when I was in Year 2, when I was 6 because my old school was…. how do you say it? My old school didn’t teach me correctly. JKPS has less people and it is less big. Then I started Year 2 and I wasn’t very successful… I found it hard. And then when I moved into Year 3 Ms. Georgia was my teacher and she started helping me with different exercises, ways to teach, different apps
and top tips.

At the time was she already SENCO?
Jessie: Yes! When I was in Year 3 I got diagnosed with ADHD and then I moved up years. I keep having my teacher’s support to get better. I have achieved a lot as well as celebrating my neurodiversity to the class and school. This week, I stood in front of the school and presented my slideshow on neurodiversity to the children. Without Ms. Georgia’s help, I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this.

Here is what some of the JKPS teacher say about Ms. Georgia and why she is such a special member of our school community:

“Ms. Georgia was my partner teacher when I first joined JKPS and she taught me A LOT… She is fun, caring, thoughtful and hard working. I think you would struggle to come across another teacher who cares so much about every one of her students … and not just her students … but ALL students at the school.”Ms. Katie.

“Ms. Georgia is the best person to help children with SEND. She is very valuable to our school and we don’t know what we’d do without her.”Ms. Georgia (the other one!)

“She is incredibly helpful and a very nice person,” said Mr. Aidan.

“Ms. Georgia knows the children in this school better than anyone else,” said Mr. Patrick.

“She is very proactive and is always ready to help,” said Ms. Niya.

“She gives me so many ideas that I would have never thought of before,” said Ms. Ellen.

“She is incredibly supportive and approachable,” said Ms. Chloe.

“She is very understanding and caring to everyone she treats,” said Mr. Bruno.

“She is beautiful inside and she is a wonderful SENCO,” said Ms. Julia.

“She is beautiful and joyful. She is careful and kind. I like her the most and I like her hair and eyes and shoes and dress. She is always nice to people. She is generous and courageous and clever and very, very nice. And I like her personality. She helps people and is kind 24/7. She is very funny. I like her makeup and personality. I like her real hair. I like her clothes and bracelet,” said Mr. Bruno and the Year 1 students.

But that’s not all. Let’s hear from Ms. Georgia herself about why she loves being our SENCO and what the job is all about.

What does your role include?
I get to work with the child, their teacher and maybe TAs and then also the family so the parents or carers to try and make their time at school a little bit better and to make sure they get everything they need to reach their full potential and have an amazing time at school.

What do you love about helping?
I get to work with children all the way across our school. I get to work with children from nursery to Year 6, which is really fun. And I just get to meet so many different children that although they have additional needs they all have their own superpowers and they all have things they’re really amazing at. So it’s really nice to do that.

Is there any point where it’s difficult?
There are points where it’s difficult. Part of my job is that I have to work with so many different people and sometimes I have to fight to get children what they need. And that can be quite tricky. But I’m doing it for the children. So even though it’s difficult at the time and maybe sometimes the parents might be upset, the child might be upset, but we’re all working together to try and make everything better for the child. So it’s not ideal but I have to do that to be able to make sure they have a good time.

How do you juggle it with being a class teacher?
I love being a class teacher because when you’re in a classroom it’s completely different to being a SENCO. So it’s nice that I have two separate jobs. They both take up a lot of time. So I wouldn’t necessarily say I juggle it, I just put a lot of effort and time in. I do work on my evenings and weekends sometimes but I do that because I love my job.

If money wasn’t’ an obstacle what would you do to help children with SEN even further in school?
I’d like to have a sensory room. So it’s a room where sometimes it can be really dark, it might have lots of soft things in it, it might have different textures, because some children struggle with their sensory needs. And if they find a big classroom like this really overwhelming, they need somewhere really calm to go to take a minute and to regulate themselves again to make them feel better.

How can you tell that a child has a special educational need?
I think at first it’s if they’re finding something tricky. Then the teachers might say: “I’m a little bit worried, they’re struggling, they’re finding it really difficult.” And ultimately you don’t want a child to find anything really difficult while they’re at school. You want everyone to have a really good time and to reach their full potential and to feel happy and confident. So you might speak to their adult at home, you might speak to their teachers, they might have noticed things, the child might have even noticed something themselves and they’ve asked for help. So for different conditions you look for different things but in general it’s if someone is finding something tricky in school day that even with adjustments we’ve not made it any better, then we might need to look at if they do have a special educational need.

What experience do you need?
Technically, you have to be a teacher and you have to have taught for two years. But I think it’s not necessary what experience you need. What you need is an interest in that area. So to be able to want to know about special needs. You have to have lots of compassion and care because there are some really tough times that these families and children go through where sometimes these children might be really struggling and they might get quite upset so sometimes that’s really hard at home.
You need to have lots of care and compassion for these people. You need to have a knowledge of these conditions as well.

What can you do to help someone with special needs in your family and friends?
I love that question. That was a really beautiful question. I think ask them what they need first of all. That’s a really big things. Because it’s really important for
a child or however it is to feel that they can advocate for themselves. They can tell you what they need. Some children, especially the little ones will struggle with that, but the main thing is to ask them what they need help with. And then listen to them and work with them and create a plan with them. Say if somebody is really struggling with dyslexia and we’re just giving them all the spellings – maybe they don’t want that. Maybe they want a different way – maybe they want some help to work through learning to spell them as opposed to just giving them all the words. It’s about including a child or a person or family member in the decisions and making those decisions together.

We think you’ll agree, Ms. Georgia is pretty special. And she said that the best bit of her job is that she gets to work with us!

“It’s so nice to sit there with children who are finding stuff difficult and make it work. Two children in my class that really struggled with spelling found a new way to do their spelling test and they are so confident and happy now and it’s because of something I’ve done that has made them more confident and that makes me feel like my job is worth it. Their spelling has improved and it’s because of what we’ve put in place as a school that those things have happened which is magical.”

Ms. Georgia says she works a lot of late nights and sometimes works at the weekend too but it’s worth it. “I just really care about children that have additional needs. You get some of the coolest kids around that are really creative and funny – and I get to work with these kids who are really fun.”

CONGRATULATIONS MS. GEORGIA!!!

Here at the Mog Chronicle we think you’re amazing. Thank you for everything you do!

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