Meet the team
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My first job in education was as admin/receptionist in Oldfield School for 14 years. I subsequently became admin officer for B&NES Learning Support Service based in Threeways School. I’d been in post 7 years when LSS was closed in 2013 and I went into B&NES redundancy pool and became admin assistant for B&NES Children in Care and Moving on Team/Virtual School.
I am now full-time admin assistant for B&NES Virtual School. Over the decades I’ve experienced lots - from preventing skiving teenagers from getting past me at reception to celebrating exam success, from manual typewriters to complicated computer programmes. I love it!
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Julia Wallcroft
role: Education Co-ordinator for Early Years
contact: Julia_wallcroft@bathnes.gov.ukJulia spent 12 years teaching English in a secondary school in Coventry. She returned to Bath and North East Somerset after the birth of her son and became involved with her local Pre-School. She discovered she really enjoyed working with this age group and retrained in early years. Julia became Lead Teacher, Deputy Manager and Senco over 14 years working at the Preschool. During that time she was seconded to Bath and North East Somerset as an Area Senco Advisory Practitioner for 2 years and for the last three years has worked in this role.
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Sarah Gunner
BSc (Hons), PGCE, M.A (Education)
role: Senior Education Co-Ordinator
contact: sarah_gunner@bathnes.gov.ukSarah has 20 years teaching experience across key stages 1 through to 4. She started teaching Science in inner Portsmouth secondary schools and within 4 years progressed to lead her own department.
Sarah then moved to a middle school as an academic deputy head responsible for leading teaching and learning across early years and key stages 1 – 3. It was here that she completed her Masters in Education, specifically looking at supporting individual needs.
Most recently, Sarah has taught and been the senior lead teacher for vulnerable pupils across an infant and junior school with the specific responsibility to close the attainment gap between vulnerable pupils and their peers. Sarah left this senior leadership role 2 years ago to join the virtual school, taking on the responsibility of early years through to Year 8.
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Lisa Pollard
role: Education Co-ordinator for Secondary and Post 16Lisa has many years of experience working with young people and their families in order to support them at difficult periods within their education.
Working with secondary schools in London and based at the Pupil Referral Unit she has encountered many challenging situations and has created bespoke programmes to keep young people engaged in education and tailored to their academic and personal requirements. With a strong foundation in multi-agency working and the barriers facing young people in care.
More recently Lisa has worked in promoting Apprenticeships within the Bath & North East Somerset Council and is able to utilise this knowledge particularly at post 16 phase.
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Dr Josie Bainton, D.Ed.Psy Educational and Child Psychology, MSc, MA (Hons), CPsychol, HCPC registeredRole: Educational Psychologist
Josie has worked as an EP for Bath and North East Somerset for nearly two years. Josie completed her training at UCL, and her doctoral research was on the topic of adolescent sleep, with a specific focus on young people who have been excluded from mainstream education. Prior to training as an EP, Josie worked in various roles with children and young people, including working in a secondary school. Josie has an interest in Neuropsychology, having completed an MSc in the subject at the University of Bristol. Josie completed her undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Edinburgh.
In addition to being the Virtual School EP while Dr Alish Rodgers is away, Josie organises and delivers ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) training and supervision in B&NES with her colleague Sarah White, alongside carrying out other work for the Educational Psychology Service.
As the Educational Psychologist for the Virtual School Team, Josie’s work involves providing consultations, an advice line, therapy, training and resource development. Referral to Dr Bainton is only via the Virtual School Team and is often as part of the PEP meeting and process.