0-25 Specialist Teaching & Support Service (STASS)

0-25 Specialist Teaching & Support Service (STASS)

Bradford Council through Children’s Services, Education and Learning provides a range of specialist teaching and support services to schools and Private, Voluntary and Independent Early Years settings as part of its offer and statutory duties for children and young people aged 0-25 years with special educational needs and disabilities. The service, now known as the Specialist Teaching and Support Service (STaSS) comprises:

Social, Communication, Interaction, Learning Team (SCIL)

Formerly known as the High Incidence Team, the SCIL team are a team of Specialist Teachers, Practitioners, Access and Inclusion Officers and an Early Years funding officer.

They offer specialisms in four key areas:

  • Communication and Interaction (including Autism)
  • Early Years
  • Social, Emotional and Mental Health
  • Learning Support (Cognition and Learning)

Follow this link for more information

Low Incidence Team (Sensory Service)

The Low Incidence team are a team of specialist teachers and support workers, instructors, habilitation officers, audiologists and technical officers who provide specialist teaching and support and outreach work to children and young people who are / have:

  • Visual impairment
  • Hearing impairment
  • Multi-sensory impairment
  • Physical needs

We also manage specialist provision for children who are deaf, vision impaired or multi-sensory impaired in the Local Authority led Resourced Provisions:

  • Grove House Primary School (VI)
  • Swain House Primary School (Deaf)
  • Girlington Primary School (Deaf)
  • Hanson Delta Academy (Deaf and VI)

Local Authority led Specialist Resourced Provisions

Our resourced provisions are hosted in mainstream schools, both primary and secondary, for children and young people with Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs and Communication and Interaction (including Autism) needs.These are currently operational at:

  • Miriam Lord Community Primary school
  • Co-op Academy Princeville (Primary)
  • Hollingwood Primary School; Appleton Academy
  • Fagley Primary school
  • Thornton Primary School

Medical Needs and Home Education Service

This service comprises teachers and officers providing an education service for all children of compulsory school age resident in the Bradford Local Authority area who cannot attend school because of illness and health problems. The service is based at Owlet Road Shipley and in the school rooms at Bradford Royal Infirmary and Airedale General Infirmary.

 

An alternative to exclusions document Sept 2022 updated Apr 23 click here

News Letters:

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

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

 

 

 

Page owned by Lynda Hitchen, last updated on 20/04/2023. This page has been viewed 9,364 times.