Taunton Deane Champions

List by organisation of champions for Taunton Deane

with twitter links where provided

Getset- Fiona Davies- Early Help Officer, Sam Speed - Early Help Officer

CAMHS - Alison Cackett - CAMHS Taunton

Care Services- Georgina Collins

Somerset and Avon Police - Angela Bolitho

I am currently seconded to a Home Office funded partnership project as the North Taunton One Team Coordinator. I work with colleagues from a variety of agencies including the police in an area of high demand. We try and engage early, offering support to prevent crime, ASB, rent arrears, eviction, DA etc. There are a lot of young people in the area who have negative views of the police, are already known to the police or have wider family and friends who are. I hope to train our PCSOs and share Emotion Coaching with the wider One Team so that our vulnerable and challenging young people can form more positive relationships with professionals who can support them.

Sedgemoor Partnership College - Susan Withers

Note Susan has now moved to Staplegrove Church School, Taunton (September 2015)

Taunton Deane Partnership College - Kate Gallagher- Mental Health Lead, Sarah Sherring, Jackie Morris-Fudge, Samantha Walters

Myname is Kate Gallagher and I am a RMN (Registered Mental (Health) Nurse). I started my career 11 years ago as a staff nurse on an acute adolescent inpatient ward. I then worked for the past 7 years in the CAMHS Outreach and Intensive Home Treatment Team as a CPN (Community Psychiatric Nurse). I started working for TDPC (Taunton Deane Partnership College) at the end of January this year, my role is completely new for the TDPC. The hope is that I will be able to help to improve links between health and education as well as supporting the Pupil referral units and primary and secondary schools around Taunton Deane. I am really passionate about trying to find ways to engage with and support young people with Mental Health problems and I hope that by doing the Emotion Coaching Training I will develop new and enhance my skills with working with Young people and supporting schools to continue to use Emotion Coaching .

Social Workers - Anna Elliott, Gregg Liddington - Social Worker and Charlotte Jeffrey- Social Worker

Anna Elliott - Children’s Social Care Learning and Development . I am a qualified Social Worker and teacher of adults with a background in a variety of work settings. I am also a Yoga Teacher and have a personal interest in Mindfulness and have recently completed a level 4 training in Working Therapeutically with Mindfulness and Compassion with the Mindfulness UK centre in Taunton. I have integrated Mindfulness into Emotional Resilience training with Social Worker Staff and am very keen that we broaden and develop this and build Emotional Coaching training into our Children’s Social Care core training programme .

Gregg Liddington - I am a social worker with the looked after children’s team in Taunton working with children of varying ages and differing and complex needs. We come across children and families with very different needs and link in with other agencies to try and offer as much support as possible to the young people and their families. Through this work we come across children and adults who would benefit from increased emotional resilience and I hope to help develop these skills in those I work with, as well as disseminating these skills to my colleagues, both for their benefit and the families that they work with.

Youth Worker with Wellington Our Place - Steve Altria

I am a volunteer having dedicated a lifetime of my leisure time to working to benefit young people. I am seeking to learn more about how I can understand and help young people. My preferred way of doing this is through the Scout Association where I have been an adult volunteer for the past 33 years (last 18 in Wellington) as I feel the movements wide ranging adventurous activity programme is the best way to help young people develop outside of School. I have held many roles with the Scouts but my preference is directly supporting young people and their front line leaders. I understand that not all young people will wish to be Scouts though and I am a Director of Wellington Community Support Services which serves to help young people aged upto 25 in the Town. WCSS, amongst its services, holds the lease to the Wellington Youth Centre and commissions Co-Motion to deliver open youth sessions year round. I am also a member of Wellington 'Our Place' team. I was Chair Governors at Wellesley Park School for twelve years and then Chair at Court Fields Community School for ten years.

SEN Team, Somerset - Shane Dangar

Further Education

Richard Huish, Taunton - Mary Hudson and Bryony Shaw- Psychology Teacher

Mary Hudson- I am the college nurse at Richard Huish College, Taunton. We are at present mainly an HE establishment for 16-19 year old students but also run Apprenticeships and some FE courses. I have a passion for the health and wellbeing of young people and in my role support many students with anxiety/stress/mental health issues. I feel that Emotion Coaching training will help me to develop new skills which I can pass on to the young people I support. We are in the process of implementing sessions of Mindfulness for our students and feel that the Emotion Coaching will enhance this. My line manager is fully behind me attending the Emotion Coaching Training .

Bryony Shaw - I am a Psychology teacher at Richard Huish College and teach 16-18 year olds. I am an avid proponent of finding ways to improve student wellbeing and I have just spent the last 2 years researching this as part of my MSc in Positive Psychology. As part of this I developed a Growth Mindset intervention which is another way of improving students’ resilience and currently I run Mindfulness classes for students.

Secondary Schools

Castle School- Rebecca Lucas

Court Fields School, Wellington - Steve Appleby -Pastoral Lead and Ross Seaton

My name is Steve Appleby, I am the Assistant Head teacher (Pastoral) at Court Fields School Wellington . I am very interested in the role of an emotion champion to support the needs of the pupils in our school and to guide and share best practice with other staff in our community. I hope that this role will enhance my ability to engage with children in a high state of anxiety and distress, to aid in diffusing and calming difficult situations and help train staff to manage emotional situations wisely. I hope to identify the skills people need to understand their emotions and to build resilience, which in turn will help them succeed in school and their journey into adulthood.

Kingsmead, Wiveliscombe - Deborah Eele PHSCE co ordinator, Alison Vercoe PFSA

Middle Schools

Swanmead Community School , Ilminster - Anna Arnold - Teaching Assistant

Primary Schools and Early Years

Beech Grove Wellington - Mia France SENCo and Terry Luke

Bishop Henderson Primary - Sally Newberry

Holway Park Primary, Taunton - Emma Counter -SENCo and Genna Orton -TA

Little Acorns- Julie Lindley

Lingford Park Primary - Nicki Buda

Milverton Primary- Katie Smith

North Newton Primary - Annie Hudson

My name is Annie Hudson and I work at North Newton Primary School. I am a class teacher (Key Stage 2 curriculum coordinator/Maths leader/Environmental leader) and am undertaking the role of an emotion champion to support the need of the children in our school and to guide and share best practice with other schools in our cluster group. We are looking to possibly develop a daily program that gives children the tools they need to better understand their emotions and to build resilience which in turn will help them to progress both in school (both personally and educationally) and within the wider community.

Norton Fitzwarren and Staplegrove - Tamsin Witchell and Sarah Addyman

My name is Tamsin Witchell and I work across both Staplegrove and Norton Fitzwarren Church Schools as coordinator for our pupils with Special Educational Needs and/or those pupils for whom English is an Additional Language. I am also an advisory teacher for the Physical Impairment and Medical Support Team within Somerset's Support Services for Education. I am undertaking the role of an emotion champion with my colleague, Sarah Addyman (PHSE Lead) to support the need of the children in both the schools in which I work in order to guide and share best practice with other schools in our Academy (Bath & Wells). We have seen a rise in the number of the pupils with social and emotional needs in our schools and although we run a nurture group provision and social skills groups, we are keen to make sure that what we are doing everything that we can to develop key problem solving skills of reasoning, resilience and responsibility amongst all our pupils in order to help them achieve, respect themselves and others and to feel successful in school and in their lives generally.

My name is Sarah Addyman l and I work across both Staplegrove and Norton Fitzwarren Church Schools as PSHE coordinator. I am undertaking the role of an emotion champion with my colleague,Tamsin Witchell, to support the need of the children in both the schools in which I work in order to guide and share best practice with other schools in our Academy (Bath & Wells).I believe that emotional resilience is a vital part of a child's education and if we understand how to support children in developing their emotional literacy then it will increase their life chances and happiness. As a class teacher it is often difficult to support children with this aspect of their learning and I feel that this training will help me to understand how it can be in a developed classroom situation and how then to support colleagues with similar concerns.

Priorswood Primary - Beth Warwick

Rockwell Green Primary - Fiona Robinson

St George's Catholic School - Becca O'Mahony

I teach part time at St George’s Catholic School in Year 2 and Year 6 and am also a First Aid Trainer. I’m very excited by this course as I hope to help our wonderful SENCO with her work. As well as children with emotional and behavioural difficulties, we have many EAL children, some coping with the stresses of moving to a new country, language and school. Many of these children have limited language skills with which to express their emotions. I have become interested in mindfulness recently and firmly believe that we will greatly benefit from helping all our children to become more aware of “self” and emotional intelligence and by sharing our experience with other schools. As a school, we believe that better understanding of their emotions, and that of others, will help our children progress in mind and spirit.