A huge well done to Simon Colledge, who is the first employee in the SENAD Group to successfully complete the Apprenticeship Children, Young People and Families Practitioner Level 4.

Simon received his certificate in December after completing the final End Point Assessment. The qualification was delivered by Derby College and Simon has worked very hard (particularly as he also works nights). I’d like to congratulate Simon on his fabulous achievement.

Simon said ‘I feel very proud to be the first SENAD employee to obtain an Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education Level 4 qualification which will help me to improve the service I provide to the young people in my care. However, this achievement is very much a collective effort and would not have been possible without the support and advice of members of the management team, my line manager (Rikki) and colleagues at Bladon House School.’

The photo shows Simon Colledge, Night Waking Assistant at Bladon House School, receiving his Young People and Families Practitioner Level 4 certificate from Team Leader, Rikki Smith.

We were pleased to welcome Sarah Say, Clinical Nurse Specialist for the complications of excess weight service at Birmingham Childrens Hospital visited Bladon House School to discuss how the school and childrens home, work effectivity with young people with Prader Willi Syndrome. The hospital is setting up an early help and intervention service to support families managing children that have a Prader-Willi Syndrome diagnoses.

Emma Deloughery- Strategic Behaviour Support, Bladon House School

Sarah Say – Clinical Nurse Specialist, Birmingham Childrens Hospital

Heidi Crockford- Deputy Head of Care, Bladon House School

This season we are pleased to sponsor the kit for Spondon Dynamo’s Spitfires. James Hurst, a member of the Bladon House School maintenance team has recently taken over as coach for the team. Last season they played five a side and have now moved to playing 7 a side and have a number of tournaments comuing up. James has grown the team, which now has 14 players.

Spondon Dynamos is a large club, with a lot of teams at various levels and various ages and supports inclusion and opportunities for all.

After 15 years tireless work across the SENAD Group Mark Flynn, Chief Operations Officer has retired and he left the SENAD Group on the 31st August 2022. We wish Mark a long, happy and healthy retirement and send huge thanks to him for all the fantastic work he did for the Group.

We’re pleased to welcome 2 new Directors who joined the team on Monday 5th September.

Suzanne Pennington -Director of Education

After being Head Teacher of a large Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ special school in Buckinghamshire, Suzanne relocated to Derbyshire in 2012, joining the SENAD Group as Head Teacher of Pegasus School. She then successfully commissioned and set up both Ecclesbourne Lodge and OneNineFive transitional homes on behalf of the Group as she struggled to find suitable adult provision for Pegasus School leavers. Suzanne then joined St Andrew’s School in Derby as Head Teacher; a ‘Good’ school with a residential department that was judged to be ‘Outstanding’ at the first inspection under her tenure.

Suzanne is passionate about coaching and mentoring staff to achieve the best outcomes – for themselves and for the young people with whom they work. Suzanne was a Director of the Derby Teaching School’s Alliance, working across the City to provide high quality training for staff in all school settings. The focus was ensuring equality of opportunity and inclusion for learners with additional needs.

Suzanne has worked for over 30 years in specialist settings advocating for adults and young people with SEND. She has been successful at leading schools, colleges and adult settings to become highly effective organisations, also contributing to the development of specialist educational services locally through focus groups and working parties, countrywide through DfE action groups; and internationally in Moscow and Japan.

Mark Ryder – Director of Children’s Social Care.

Mark started his career as a qualified Social Worker and was then a Care Inspector for 11 years, 7 of which with Ofsted. In 2014 he joined the SENAD Group as Head of Care at Alderwasley Hall School and was part of the team in getting the care provisions to ‘Outstanding’ at both the Lower and Upper School sites for three successive years.

Mark has since worked with a large SEN provider as their Senior Regional Operations Manager where he was the Responsible Individual for 5 children’s homes and led on compliance for a further 27 homes. He was also the National Lead Safeguarding Manager for this group and more lately, he leads the care division with a group specialising in SEN and EBD children’s homes in the Midlands area.

Mark has successfully registered a number of specialist homes and received good and outstanding Ofsted grades for newly created and developing services. He is committed to excellent outcomes for young people and is a strong advocate for them, Mark brings a wealth of experience to the role and is looking forward to meeting with and supporting both previous and new colleagues.

Thank you to Kerry Jefferson, Headteacher at Pegasus School & Emma Illingworth, Head of Therapies and Natalie Mills, Assessment Team Manager at Alderwasley Hall School and Sixth Form for sharing their expertise in articles about Solutions for Sensory Issues and the Importance of a Diagnosis in the Spring issue of Autism Eye Magazine https://www.autismeye.com/

Today is Social Care Day of Remembrance & Reflection. It is 2 years since the start of the pandemic and when the UK went into Lockdown. Today is a day for us to pay tribute to all the people who work in social care, whether that be as a carer, maintenance, part of the domestic or catering team, or in a supporting admin role. Thank you.

In May 2021 we launched the very first SENAD Staff Awards to celebrate excellence by recognizing members of our team that have gone the extra mile to make a difference to the lives of those we educate, care and support.
Award winners were announced at the end of the year, with 153 members of staff from disciplines across the group, receiving awards for their contribution to their service. 50 of these winners went on to win the overall SENAD Group awards. Categories included Care Practitioner of the year, Domestic Champion to IT Champion, and nominations were open to all employees. Huge congratulations to all of the 2021 winners… Look out for nominations opening for the 2022 awards soon.