My name is Emily Burrell and I am the Inclusion Lead at Lady Joanna Thornhill Primary School. 

I am responsible for our whole school strategic approach to Inclusion and support various different groups across the school, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, our children with English as an additional language and those eligible for Pupil Premium. I am part of the senior leadership team and am responsible for overseeing and leading the Inclusion Team, supporting them in the day-to-day delivery of our SEND provision. I also work closely with teachers and support staff to develop adaptive teaching approaches that meet the needs of all our pupils and ensures an inclusive culture across the school.

I have worked in education for over 9 years and have been a class teacher, SENCO and Inclusion Lead. I hold the National Award in SEND Co-ordination (NASCO) and also have a Masters degree in Transformational Leadership. In my role, I am passionate about ensuring we meet the needs of every child in our care and respect their unique talents and individual nature.

If you wish to arrange a time to see me, I can be contacted via the school office or via email e.burrell@ladyj.kent.sch.uk  You can also often find me on the school playground at the beginning and end of the day.

My name is Alex Devlin, and I am the SENCo at Lady Joanna Thornhill Primary School.

I am responsible for the day-to-day operation of the school's SEN policy. I co-ordinate additional support for pupils with SEND and liaise with their parents, teachers and other professionals who are involved with them.  I am also part of the Senior Leadership Team and contribute to the schools' strategic development with regard to promoting an inclusive culture where all children are able to succeed and fulfill their potential.  

I have worked in primary education for over 15 years now.  During that time, I have been a class teacher, a trainer for the NAS Earlybird Autism Course, a Language for Learning trainer and a Specialist Teacher. When not a SENCO at Lady J, I currently also work with the TES Institute as a Pathway Tutor for trainee teachers in the UK and overseas. Before becoming a teacher I worked as a Clinical Scientist and have a Masters Degree in Psychology. More recently I completed studying for a BDA Level 3 qualification in Dyslexia as part of a school strategy to develop our provision for children with dyslexia.

If you wish to arrange a time to see me, I can be contacted via the school office or via email a.devlin@ladyj.kent.sch.uk  You can also often find me on the school playground at the beginning and end of day.

My name is Janey Read, and I am the Pastoral Support Mentor at Lady Joanna Thornhill Primary School.

My role is to help families with any problems they may have, either school related or personal. I can assist you in accessing relevant information provided by the school and support networks, or sometimes just to offer a non-judgmental, listening ear.  I will ensure that all matters are dealt with in the strictest confidence.

I run 1-1 sessions with children across the school, promoting self-esteem, well-being and nurture and I also 

assist with monitoring Attendance and the School Health Plans.

If you wish to arrange a time to see me, I can be contacted via email – j.read@ladyj.kent.sch.uk or via class dojo, you will also find me on the school playground at the beginning and end of day.

Speech and Language Therapy

We are committed to supporting the speech, language and communication development of all our pupils. We are working in partnership with our NHS link speech & language therapist (Christina Eakins) as well as Specialist Teachers to continue to improve our practice and provision and help to ensure that all our children reach their potential. Your child may therefore come into contact with Christina within their classroom or around school.  The SENCo (Mr.Devlin) will have regular meetings with Christina to discuss our school’s provision. 

If you have any concerns about your child's speech, language or communication skills, please speak to your child's class teacher in the first instance. We will then work together with you to agree next steps. 

You will be kept informed about any plans to support your child. 

Kent County Council (KCC) and NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB) are working together to transform support for children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) within the Kent County Council area. The initiative is underpinned by use of the Balanced System®, an outcomes-based framework and delivery model for integrated services, created by Marie Gascoigne and available through Better Communication CIC. 

The Balanced System® is a whole system strategic approach to supporting children and people with a whole range of needs, that has primarily come out of work in the area of speech, language and communication for over 15 years. It is used by a whole range of stakeholders, including commissioners from all disciplines and providers, particularly of therapy services. 

Emotional wellbeing

Emotion Coaching is built on the work of the child psychologist John Gottman.  In the UK it has been taken up by an organisation called Nurture UK and is commonly adopted in schools.  As a staff team we want all adults to use the language and approaches within Emotion Coaching to support children during times of heightened emotion and be able to guide them to find a suitable response or solution to the feelings they are experiencing.  Check out the short videos produced by Specialist Teacher Heather Woodcock, who ran our staff training sessions on Emotion Coaching this week, it is something that parents can use at home too. There are also a host of other links to our Zones of Regulation approach that we use in school.