I am one of two Assistant Heads at Bowker Vale and have responsibility for leading the Specialist Support Centre for children with EHC plans naming a specialist provision for SEMH. I have been at Bowker Vale since September 2011 and an SLE since July 2016. I am also a Designated Teacher for LAC and a member of the Designated Safeguarding Team.  I have recently completed a MSC in Psychology.

I originally trained as a secondary teacher with an English specialism and worked in a high school for four years. I then made the transition to primary, with lead responsibility for developing a new provision for both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 children either at risk of, or permanently excluded from school. I worked in this provision for nearly three years and developed an extensive knowledge of curriculum planning for children with SEND, in particular in the area of SEMH. In addition to leading and teaching within this provision, I also wrote and delivered the programme for the Primary Support Centre, a twelve session intervention for children at risk of permanent exclusion. Through delivery of the programme alongside specialist TAs, I delivered a CPD programme for teachers and teaching assistants in Manchester schools who attended the Primary Support Centre with the children they supported. The CPD programme included visits to other schools and meetings with teaching and senior members of staff, offering advice on best practice for children attending the Primary Support Centre.

In addition to leading the provision at Bowker Vale, I have also led an outreach programme for North Manchester schools which has offered both outreach support and inreach placements for children with SEMH. Outreach support has included class based observations, meeting with teachers and non teaching staff and developing pupil focused support plans.

My role at Bowker Vale also includes in house support and advice for children with SEMH within the mainstream provision and I have delivered a number of staff meetings in this area.

Recently, in my role as an SLE, I have supported a mainstream school with CPD in the area of SEMH and delivered two workshops at the Heart of Manchester conference.

I am also one of two wellbeing leads in school and have developed a new whole school wellbeing curriculum.

Current Scheduled CPD Opportunities

In addition to being available for deployment to support specific schools, Kate is involved in the facilitation of the following Scheduled Professional Development Opportunities which are open to all.

There is also the opportunity to be interviewed as part of Kate’s research project: SEMH, is it SEND? Whose role is it anyway?.  To find out more; click here.  

Bowker Vale Primary School

Bowker Vale Primary School is a larger than average two form primary school in North Manchester.

Our school is one of two schools in Manchester with a resourced provision for children with social, emotional and mental health difficulties. We were recently awarded the Inclusion Quality Mark.