West Somerset Champions

Children Looked After Service - Cassie Jones

I taught English as a Foreign Language abroad (in Singapore, Poland and Spain) and in the UK (at Bath University and the Honda Factory amongst other places) before qualifying as a primary school teacher at Bath Spa University. I then remained in the UK and taught at schools in West Somerset for six years before joining the Traveller Education Service. (During which time I also completed a Psychology degree with the OU).

I worked as an advisory teacher for the Traveller Education Service for almost ten years, leading on a number of projects and initiatives to raise the participation rates, attendance and attainment of Gypsy and Irish Travellers. These projects included: delivering alternative provision to KS4 Gypsy Travellers not accessing mainstream provision; setting up a Girls Group, providing peer support to traditional Gypsy girls at risk of withdrawal from secondary school due to cultural reasons; participating in ELAMP – The DFE’s electronic learning and mobility project, which aimed to provide Traveller pupils with access to electronic learning opportunities; and producing a number of teaching resources and texts to promote the awareness of Traveller culture (including a PSHE scheme of work, My Week and My Year, a GRTHM teaching pack, DVDs exploring transition to secondary school and issues affecting Travellers within education).

In January 2015 I took up a secondment with the Virtual School and since April 13th I have been the advisory teacher with the Children Looked After service, covering West Somerset, Taunton Deane and South Somerset (primary) schools.

Fostering and Adoption Recruitment Service - Kate Bridges Social Worker

Getset- Lizzie Woolcott (mindfulness lead), Wendy Smith, Tracey Bland, Andrea Osborne

Lizzie- I have worked for the local authority for 19 years predominately within children’s services. I began my career working in local authority residential units working alongside teenagers displaying challenging behaviour. At the same time, I qualified as a youth worker with the County youth service before promotion to team leader of a residential unit. I have also enjoyed secondments with; Team 8 the local authority adolescent crisis intervention team, the training team as a physical restraint instructor, being a seconded student on the Social Work degree programme and more recently with getset, which encompasses the local authority early help offer. I am a Social worker by profession and would love to see my practice develop to more of a therapeutic/preventive intervention, having been a social worker within Safeguarding/child protection for the last 5 years. I am passionate about the benefits of mindfulness, having completed the 8 week MBSR programme in November last year.

General Practice- Dr Catherine Smith

I have worked as a General Practitioner for 9 years in Somerset and North Devon. Prior to that I have worked in South Africa in a small rural hospital and Christchurch in New Zealand, as well as various training posts in the UK. I trained for 5 years in Paediatrics before going into General Practice.

I am looking forward to learning more about Emotion Coaching to help in my work and also have a personal interest having 6 and 4 year old children.

Public Health Advisor - Fiona Moir

Fiona Moir - Fiona comes from a background in primary teaching and school improvement. In 2009 she moved from education into health leading the South-West Healthy Schools Plus Programme in Somerset. Since 2012, Fiona has taken a joint leadership role in coordinating the Somerset Health and Wellbeing in Learning Programme as part of Public Health within Somerset County Council. The team commissions health and wellbeing programmes for schools including the Somerset Children and Young People Survey (SCYPS). Her lead areas are in Primary and Early Years with specialist focus in parenting & resilience and healthy weight.

Secondary and Middle Schools

West Somerset College - Jo Borthwick, Eva Godfrey, Emma Dutton

Jo Borthwick -I have worked at West Somerset College in Minehead in Post-16 for six years latterly as pastoral support, but since last year as Student Support Leader and am currently finishing off a degree through the Open University: BA (Hons) in Youth Work. Previously I worked as a swimming instructor and coach working mostly with children and young people, including coaching a local swimming club and running junior lifeguard programmes and was also a tutor/instructor in Water Fitness and a dance exercise. However, I am still a RLSS trainer assessor of pool lifeguards.

Eva Godfrey -I have been working as a Student Advocate (Pastoral Support) with KS4 students at the West Somerset College in Minehead since November last year. Previously I was completing my degree, first class BSc (Hons.) in Psychology, at the University of Murcia in Spain; where I lived for 11 years. I’ve also had experience working with drug and alcohol rehabilitation patients, undertaking psychological assessments and assisting in the preparation of expert witness reports for court cases.

Quantock Federation - Sue Burt PFSA , Sarah Tanner SENCo

Sue Burt – Parent & Family Support Adviser for the Quantock Federation and Knights Templar Schools. I work with parents and children across four schools and am based in Williton Children’s Centre