Leah Webster

I am organised, focused, and ready to help make a difference working with children and young people with mental health. My eagerness to become involved, cooperative skills, and adaptability will assist me throughout this course. I am prepared to go the extra and I am committed to developing my skills and knowledge. My ambition is to provide children and young people with a safe environment they feel comfortable to ask for help or express themselves freely. I aspire for them to believe in themselves because even what may seem the smallest of tasks to us can be the biggest challenge to that child. I aim to provide them with a voice but also be their voice if they need that extra help. Outside of work, I find enjoyment in spending time outdoors, whether it's hiking, staying active, or having family days with my partner, daughter, and dog. This healthy work-life balance allows me to return to work feeling energized and focused.

While teaching I used restorative practice to help children handle and resolve conflicts. I taught the children to look at their behaviours and actions and the impact they have upon others, but also to reflect on their feelings. This helped them to process their emotions and understand their and others' behaviours more. I empowered children to confidently make decisions, inspiring and encouraging them to achieve their full potential. Giving them advice showed them support and developed their self-esteem. I would promote independence and encourage student-led decision-making, empowering them to make responsible decisions with less guidance from myself. This would be done by allowing them to make their own decisions and choices and learn effectively from their mistakes, while developing collaboration within teamwork. The reflective practice would enable the children to evaluate their actions and decisions and discuss if anything needs to change or be handled differently next time a situation arises. It wouldn’t be about asserting blame but would be about forgiving mistakes.

After I graduated I worked at Kelford Special School as A level 3 Teaching Assistant specialising in Physical Education. My studies gave me the knowledge to pioneer new swimming awards and develop an inclusive swimming curriculum for children with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties, Nonverbal, Language processing disorders, and Visual perceptual/visual motor deficits. This enabled all children to access and use the pool, with the support of staff. The staff were able to support the needs of individuals and help them progress to the next stages.

While in post as a teacher I worked with many children that had complex needs. In particular, I worked with a child who self-harmed this was a grieving response as a result of losing a sibling. Another child I supported had attachment difficulties, towards their mother, but also demonstrated aggressive behaviours towards her. I also worked with children who had been diagnosed with ADHA alongside autism and with select mutism. I learned British Sign Language so I could differentiate my lessons to include signs, symbols, and pictures. In addition to this, I taught the class BSL so they could communicate and support the boy. This increased the confidence of everybody in the class, it meant the boy had access to the national curriculum, and he was no longer isolated.

In 2019 I joined the fire service. As a firefighter, I needed to be extremely adaptable as no two days were the same and I had to adapt to a range of challenging and time-critical situations at a moment's notice. This role required me to think individually, but also work effectively as part of a cohesive team, in sometimes stressful environments. We carried out debriefs after incidents, to self-evaluate both our own and the team’s performance, highlighting improvements for the future. I feel that actively doing this regularly has improved my awareness, and has led to me being able to admit when I’ve made a mistake so I can learn from it. As well as this I had to handle sensitive and at times traumatic information depending on the job. I embraced many new and challenging situations and was pushed out of my comfort zone.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed working as a firefighter it gave me the time I needed to self-evaluate and figure out what I am truly passionate about. It has highlighted how much I miss working with children and young people. It has enabled me to look more deeply into an area I couldn’t specifically address as a teacher and ignited the desire to train and develop my skills in these areas to help children and young people.

I graduated from Leeds Metropolitan University with a 2:1 BA(HONS) Sports Development in 2010, this lead me to complete a Graduate Teacher Program course in 2012 at Sheffield Hallam University giving me Qualified Teacher Status. In 2019 I successfully completed South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue course resulting in me becoming an operational firefighter for 5 years. In 2023 I completed a level 2 course in understanding children and young people’s mental health through Rotherham College (RNN group).The course context included: Understand factors that may affect children and young people's mental health, Understand children and young people's mental health concerns, Understand the impact of children and young people's mental health concerns and Understand how to support children and young people with mental health concerns. In 20024 I have completed online course on Safeguarding Children - Levels 1 and 2, Mental Capacity Act, Education Health and Care Plan, Emotional Abuse, Online Safety - Risks to Children, Safeguarding Children with Disabilities and Safeguarding Children in Sport.