0-25 Specialist Teaching & Support Service (STASS)

Alice Ngondi, Strategic Manager, 0-25 Specialist Teaching & Support Service

Alice is an experienced leader in education with an established teaching career in both Africa and the United Kingdom. In the early stages of her career, she was instrumental in developing English language in schools. She also contributed to the shift of special education from the medical perception of SEND needs to that of understanding learning difficulties as a barrier to learning.

She has served as a senior leader in special education in secondary schools in Leeds up to the position of head teacher. As a head teacher, she has led a specialist SEMH AP academy which the gained outstanding grading for Leadership. She was awarded NLE status in 2017.

She has had vast experience working in culturally diverse schools in challenging contexts. She is an expert in special education and has supported schools in transforming SEND and developing personalised learning. She is also an experienced leadership mentor and coach.

Key areas: Special education/Secondary/ inclusion/curriculum/Alternative provision

Lucy Stead, Service Manager, Social, Communication, Interaction and Learning (SCIL) Team

Lucy is an experienced SENCO and primary teacher across Foundation Stage to Year 6. She always champions inclusion within mainstream school, adapting learning environments and adjusting the delivery of teaching and information always in a curious, accepting, empathetic and solution focused way.

Since joining the Local Authority as a Specialist Teacher in 2015, she has further developed specialisms in autism, leadership and coaching through experience and postgraduate study. She led the Communication and Interaction Team before being appointed as the Service Manager of the Social, Communication, Interaction and Learning (SCIL) Team in 2021.    

The vision of the SCIL Team is to collaborate with staff in mainstream schools/settings to equip them to identify and effectively support children and young people with Special Education Needs and Disabilities through high quality teaching, reasonable adjustments and additional provision.

Key areas: SEND/inclusion/specialist teachers/communication and interaction

Karen Turner, Service Manager for the  Deaf and  Multi Sensory Service

Karen is an experienced leader in deaf education and has worked with deaf children for 22 years. Her early career as an interpreter in education with deaf children led to her passion for improving the quality of education for deaf people.  She qualified as a teacher in FE, and a BSL / English interpreter, and later went on to achieve the MA in deaf education.

In 2008 she took up the position of Head of Deaf and Hearing Impaired Services in Leeds, responsible for leading a diverse team working across resourced provisions, special schools and mainstream schools. In 2014, Karen was appointed as the Assistant Head of Sensory Service in Bradford.  Karen’s focus was to improve opportunities and education for deaf and vision impaired children and young people. Karen later qualified as a school teacher and as a strategic lead for attachment aware and trauma informed schools.

In 2019, Karen’s remit widened to lead the provision in Bradford for deaf, vision impaired and physical needs services in education for children and young people. Karen’s expertise in leadership, deafness, British Sign Language and ACEs, trauma and resilience has allowed for close working with a range of settings and agencies to improve quality of education, wellbeing and ultimately strive for better outcomes for deaf and vision impaired children.

Key areas: Deaf education/BSL interpreting/ACEs, trauma and resilience

Jade Cracknell, Service Manager for Vision and Physical Needs Team

Jade has been working as a Special School Teacher since 2013, starting her career in Bradford before going to join a senior leadership team in Calderdale. Prior to this she worked in a generic special school in Leeds as a teaching assistant, then onto a mainstream Primary school in Bradford, leading their nursery/FS1 provision.

Jade is a Specialist Teacher, completing her masters level degree to be a Qualified Teacher of the Multi-Sensory Impaired and has spent the last 4 years working for the Charity, Sense, as a consultant teacher. This involved supporting deafblind young people and their families to navigate the SEN system across over 80 local authorities. She also developed a virtual program of events to coach parents and carers in modifying home schooling to meet the needs of tactile learners during lockdown.

Jade is really excited to return to Bradford to build on the great work that has gone on and make the most of the opportunities Bradford provides. She has created strong network links across the local authorities and is keen to share best practice to improve outcomes and opportunities for the young people of Bradford with Vison and/or Physical needs.

Hannah Whittaker, Service Manager, Medical Needs and Hospital Education Service

Hannah has been working in education in Bradford since 2000, starting as a teacher then a middle leader in two challenging and diverse Bradford inner city secondary schools. In 2016, she moved her focus to specialist education, working in and then leading the Medical Needs and Hospital Education Service.

She is also a governor of two Bradford primary schools and a trustee for a local charity. During her time within secondary schools, her focus, whilst teaching, was children and young people with complex needs who needed  support in all aspects of learning. This is reflected in  her leadership at the MNHES.

She has created strong links with independent and public health services and has an outstanding knowledge of health signposting. Her view of children needing wrap around support in order to succeed in education is paramount to her ethos.

Key areas: Education within health/Secondary/health links/legalities for education in health

Scott Delves-Holmes, Service Manager for Local Authority Resource Provisions

Scott has been working in education since 2006 when he qualified as a design and technology teacher. Initially, working in North Yorkshire, he focused his craft and progressed to middle leadership, taking responsibility for whole school initial teacher training whilst holding a teaching and learning responsibility for KS3 in his specialist area.

In 2014, Scott moved to work within one of our cities largest, diverse and challenging secondary schools where he began to take a great deal of interest in special educational needs.

Since working in Bradford, Scott progressed to senior leadership level, playing a vital role in both SEND and safeguarding as the schools SENCO and DSL.  He has a wealth of knowledge and experience around teaching and learning, pedagogy and Inclusive practice.

In 2016, he gained the national award for special educational needs co-ordination and has further developed knowledge and skills in SEND through post-graduate study.

Scott has a great deal of experience in the development and implementation of whole school intervention approaches, both on and off site.  He has an excellent understanding of resource provisions having worked alongside RPs, numerous alternate provisions and through setting up an off-site specialist SEMH provision for his school.

Scott's vision for the local authority resource provisions is to ultimately gain better outcomes and life chances for some of our most vulnerable SEND children and young people that have SEMH and/or communication and interaction (inc. autism) needs.