Therapy Teams
Health and Therapy Teams
About us.
Our experienced Health & Therapy Team in the special schools are employed by Whittington Health as part of the Islington Additional Needs & Disability Service. Our service supports children and young people with additional needs and disabilities to reach their full potential, stay healthy, participate in school and achieve their goals. We also provide parents with appropriate information, support and advice for them and their family.
At Samuel Rhodes school, our core team includes Speech & Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy & Nursing. We are based on school site on set days of the week and work in an integrated way with the school and leadership team to ensure all staff have access to appropriate training, that communication and sensory strategies are accessible in every classroom and embedded within the curriculum. We work with class teams to build on student’s strengths and identify areas where they may need more support.
For more information about the Islington Additional Needs & Disability Service, please see our website: https://www.whittington.nhs.uk/IANDS
Areas we support with
How do we work?
The health team aim to work in an integrated manner with the special schools, recognising the specialist service that the schools already provide to their students & families. Therapeutic input from the health team occurs across three levels:
Our roles:
Occupational Therapists:
Occupational Therapists (OT’s) help children participate in meaningful everyday activities. A child’s ‘occupation’ includes activities like playing and leisure activities, engaging in aspects of self care (eating, drinking, dressing, using the toilet), accessing the curriculum and community access and independence.
Speech and Language Therapists:
Speech and Language Therapists (SaLT’s) work with children to help them communicate to the best of their ability, including supporting their attention and listening skills and social communication. This includes working with school to provide an enhanced communication environment.
Nursing:
The special schools nursing team is comprised of multi-skilled registered nurses and healthcare assistants who provide specialist healthcare support through safe, evidence based, person centred care. They work in partnership with parents and carers, education teams, and the wider mulit-professional team in order to meet the individual health needs of students and ensure they are able to safely access education and development opportunities. They provide training to parents, carers and edcuation staff in a variety of clinical interventions specific to individual health care plans such as epilepsy awareness and the management of asthma and anaphylaxis. They also work in partnership with the education staff and planning and deilvery of health promotion. They act as an advocate in providing advice and support for families in meeting their children’s health care needs.
Additional Services:
Dietician:
Within our wider Islington Additional Needs & Disability Service, the Deitician team promote the wellbeing of individuals and communities to prevent nutrition related problems. They help children and families to make informed and practical choices about nutrition. The Dietcian works closely with the medical team and the SALT to help children attending special schools with faltering growth, food allergies, restrictive eating and those who require enteral feeding.
Community Dentist:
The dentist visits the school to look briefly at your child’s teeth to see if they need dental treatemnt. No actual treatment is carried out at these visits. However, if your child needs dental treatment the Dentish will organise this with you, either through your family dentish or the nearest community clinic.
Please see our website for information about a variety of topics:
https://www.whittington.nhs.uk/IANDS
Meet the team
Speech and Language Therapy:
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Kate Sneddon Speech & Language Therapist Working days: Tues/Wed/Thurs Term time | Esther Sunn Speech & Language Therapist Working days; one day flexible | Erinn Gbabre SLT Assistant Working days: wed/ Thurs |
Occupational Therapy:
Brooke Woodfield Occupational Therapist Exact start date & details TBC (expected end of June) Contact Christine Hale Team Lead in meantime for OT queries | Lydiah Mwenyeheli OT Assistant NB – On placement until end of July 2024 |
Nursing:
N.B. The Nursing team work to cover all the special schools, You may also meet Eslyn Sunu- Attah, Amina Rawat, or one of our other Nurses or HCA’s.
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Anna Howard Price, Clinical Lead Nurse | Amina Rawat | Eslyn Sunu-Attah |
Team Lead:
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Christine Hale. Special schools Team lead/ Occupational Therapist Working days: Mon/Tues/ Thurs/ term time only (across both Samuel Rhodes & Richard Cloudesley school) |
How to contact the team:
If you have any questions or concerns or would like to talk to any of the Therapists, or Nurse specifically about your child we would be happy to hear from you. Our email addresses are listed above, and we are also on Class Dojo.