Specialisms
Biography
Debbie has worked as a teacher within Step-up and progress for 19 years. She previously worked in primary education as teaching assistant for 8 years and soon realised that she wanted to help young people who were struggling to adapt in a school environment.
Debbie started at West Notts College one afternoon a week as a childcare teacher for students on school links a provision. The provision was for year 10-11 students that struggled to be in a school environment. The class sizes grew and Debbie was asked to join West Notts full-time. At this point Debbie studied her teaching qualifications at Nottingham Trent University and passed her Certificate in Education, and she then went on to complete her Professional Certificate in Education, her specialism being behaviour management.
During her 19 years Debbie has worked with many young people struggling to access a school curriculum. Debbie worked off-site at Bay6, a café that was set up for students with learning disabilities, here she enabled many young people to equip themselves with the necessary skills in order that they get realistic work/volunteering in a café or similar environment.
Debbie also worked over at Ashfield where she taught a group of learners on the NEET project, these were challenging students but the majority of them went on to courses within mainstream college.
Debbie has successfully liaised with staff across college to set up Bridge to FE where students had a day in a vocational area, again students went on to progress and most qualified in their chosen areas.
The most recent project Debbie had was running Stepping Stones. These were 14-16-year- old students that were previously home educated for many reasons, mainly they were too anxious, nervous to go in to school because, again the majority of these students after two years progressed on to mainstream programmes many of them qualifying at L3.
Debbie has a new challenge this year, Debbie is going to be delivering a warehouse and logistics course at Level 1. Debbie is excited at the prospect of young people getting the necessary skills, work experience and knowledge so that they are able to apply for jobs within this sector.