'School Staff Thank You Scheme' reward for Josie

Josie has been nominated by her Deputy Headteacher for the Exeter Consortium ‘School Staff Thank You Scheme’ and has been selected to receive an award for the support she provides for children in her role as After School Club Leader, Pupil Premium Advocate and Teaching Assistant.

The Deputy Headteacher explained that "Josie is a dedicated, selfless member of our team who has transformed our after school club. Not only has she made it incredibly exciting, with a well-planned rotation of activities that evolve over the year, she is amazing with high-needs children. Josie has made sure that the children with the highest needs in the school can still thrive at ASC. In fact, Josie has made it so good, children beg their parents to go!" 

About Josie and her role as After School Club Leader, Pupil Premium Advocate and Teaching Assistant.

"My name is Josie and I have been working at my school for nearly 8 years. When I first started working here, I was a 1:1 TA supporting a pupil with additional needs. Since the beginning of my journey at the school I have had fantastic support from SLT to develop my career and have managed to work my way up to be the leader of the After School Club provision. In this role I oversee and manage up to 140 children and 8 team members.

I have made loads of changes to the ASC provision as the children were not enjoying their time in the club previously and I made it my priority to make sure that the children enjoy their time here and feel relaxed and comfortable as they have such a long day in school.

One of my biggest achievements is revamping our old café area into a chill zone area, where I have made it similar to a home setting so the children can go there if they struggle with the busyness of the club and can go there to have that ‘feel at home feeling’ where they can relax. Our SEN children particularly enjoy this area and its close to my office so I can make regular check-ins to see how they are doing.

I have also had the privilege this year to take on a new role that has not been done before which is a Pupil Premium Advocate. This role is all about how I can help our wonderful PP children have better opportunities in school by making sure they have access to clubs, mentoring, emotional literacy and more!

Fortunately I still get to do 1:1 support in the middle which I really enjoy!

My 3 roles come with challenges as all jobs do but I absolutely love working with children and wouldn’t change my busy schedule in school for anything! My faith drives me to do better and do more where I can. 

A HUGE thank you to the Exeter Consortium and to my Assistant Head who nominated me for this reward. It was a lovely surprise and am blessed and fortunate to do the job I do."​

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​The ‘School Staff ‘Thank You’ scheme’ is open to all Exeter Consortium partner schools as listed on our website HERE and a school can nominate one member of staff per year. To nominate a member of staff from your school please use the Google form HERE. The deadline for nominations is the last Friday before each half term break.

For information about the Exeter Consortium ‘School Staff Thank You Scheme’ please contact [email protected]