Specialist Teaching and Advisory Service (S.T.A.S)​

For general enquiries, please contact the team by email: senservice@halton.gov.uk

Stacey has worked for Halton Borough Council for 7 years. Her background is in Speech and Language Therapy and she now works as an specialist advisor supporting the inclusive education of children in early years, primary and secondary schools.

Stacey has extensive experience of identifying, assessing and supporting children with a range of communication difficulties including speech and language and social communication/autism.

What is  Stacey’s role?
Stacey’s role is to support settings in Halton to identify and meet the needs of children with communication difficulties. This support involves setting visits, observations and the providing advice and guidance on how best to meet the needs of children. The role also involves offering training to nurseries and schools.

Stacey also co-delivers post-diagnostic training to parents and carers of children who have autism.

Contact Information
Stacey Holleran
Specialist Advisor for Communication and Interaction
Tel: 0151 511 6061
email:  stacey.holleran@halton.gov.uk

Cathy has worked for Halton for over 16 years, supporting the inclusive education of children with Special Educational needs in both primary schools, early years settings and Portage.

Cathy has extensive knowledge of early childhood development and education. In addition, she has a comprehensive experience of supporting the assessment, development and inclusion of children with a variety of conditions including: Global Development Delay, Social Communication Difficulties, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cerebral palsy, Epilepsy, Down’s Syndrome, prematurity, genetic disorders and children with Profound and Multiple Learning difficulties or life limiting illnesses.  Cathy is a licensed Makaton tutor who delivers training to parents and settings within Halton.

What is Cathy’s role?
Cathy is now a Specialist Advisor for Autism and Complex Needs, supporting settings to meet the needs of children with Autism and complex needs by offering SMART target advice, next steps, completing setting observations, modelling specialist teaching strategies and delivering training for practitioners/teachers,

Contact Information
Cathy Whyatt
Specialist Advisor for Autism and Complex Needs
Tel: 0151 511 6176
email: cathy.whyatt@halton.gov.uk

Maria has been working in early years for over 10 years and has a wide range of knowledge of child development. She has gained experience from supporting children and families within Halton Children’s Centres and working closely with children with SEN within a nursery setting. Maria is passionate about her role and eager to share her knowledge with parents and professionals.

What is Marie’s role?
Maria is an Early Years SEND Support Practitioner

Contact Information
Maria  Crabb
Early Years SEND Support Practitioner
Tel: 0151 511 7240
email: maria.crabb@halton.gov.uk

Annie has been working in early years private and local authority settings for over 8 years and is a qualified early years teacher with an additional degree in early years practice.Throughout her years of working with children she has supported children with SEN and has a variety of experience.

What is Annie’s role?
Annie is an Early Years SEND Support Practitioner

Contact Information
Annie Moss
Early Years SEND Support Practitioner
Tel: 0151 511 8722
email: annie.moss@halton.gov.uk

Judith has worked in Halton since 2012 after completing training as a Specialist Dyslexia Teacher and is an Associate Member of the British Dyslexia Association. Prior to this Judith worked as a one to one specialist teacher in Halton and Cheshire East whilst also working as a private dyslexia tutor.

Judith has extensive experience of working with children who have cognition and learning difficulties (dyslexia, dyspraxia, moderate learning difficulties) and identifying and assessing their progress. She has also completed a Post Graduate Certificate in Autism.

What is Judith’s role?
Judith’s role is to provide schools with advice on identification and support for students who have difficulties learning. She provides advice through a variety of methods which could involve classroom observations, observing reading/writing, providing training to settings, assessing: phonic/ whole word knowledge, reading, spelling, memory, phonological awareness and also providing schools with information on dyslexia/dyscalculia/maths screeners. Judith also provides training so that schools can become confident in identifying, screening and support children who have dyslexic type difficulties. Judith also offers support to some of the Resource Bases in Halton and is a co-tutor delivering Elklan Speech and Language training courses.

Contact Information
Judith Hughes
Specialist Teacher Cognition and Learning
Tel: 0151 511 6955
email: judith.hughes@halton.gov.uk

Sharron has worked for Halton since 2013 and has taught in Halton since 1998. She holds an honours degree from the University of Wales, a Post Graduate Certificate of Education (English and Drama, 11-18) from Edge Hill University and a Post Graduate Certificate in Advanced Educational Practice (Dyslexia) from Liverpool John Moores University.

She taught A Level and GCSE English Language and Literature and GCSE Drama at Cronton Sixth Form College and Riverside (Halton) College for nine years before working in a local high school to gain more experience in supporting learners with a wide range of additional educational needs. She has also been a mentor to new colleagues.

What is Sharron’s role?
Sharron’s role is planning and delivering bespoke 1:1 literacy intervention lessons to children and young people of all ages in school settings. Learners are referred in to the service by SENCOs after teachers have reported that they are having difficulties in literacy which haven’t been impacted by initial in-school support cycles. Sharron approaches her intervention with the aim of discovering the underlying skills areas which are preventing learners from developing their literacy. She writes reports for schools advising on specific intervention strategies and any necessary referrals to other support providers which are needed for the learner to progress. She works closely with teaching assistants so they can observe her lessons, discuss strategies and resources and utilise them in their own role to deliver intervention with more precision. Sharron offers classroom observations and consultations to schools, giving advice regarding specific students. She also delivers a variety of literacy/dyslexia related training to school staff online and in person.

Contact Information
Sharron Edwardson
Specialist Teacher Cognition and Learning
Tel: 0151 511 7065
email: sharron.edwardson@halton.gov.uk

Sharon has worked for Halton since 2013, initially working with the Home Tutor team and then moving on to work part-time with the SEN Team, Cognition and Learning. Sharon taught Humanities in a High School before becoming an SEN, behaviour and Inclusion teacher. She later took on the role of SENCO in a High School in Warrington. She has previously worked in primary, as well as secondary schools.

Sharon qualified as a teacher and was awarded a Teaching Certificate, going on to gain an M.Ed. in SEN. She achieved the NASENCO Award in 2011.

What is Sharon’s role?
Sharon’s role is to provide advice to schools for children who have been identified as having difficulties.

Contact Information
Sharon Passey
Specialist Teacher Cognition and Learning
Tel: 0151 511 6623
email: margaret.passey@halton.gov.uk

Julie has worked in Halton since 2004 and has been a member of the Specialist Teaching and Advisory Service since 2016. Julie started her career as an Early Years Specialist Teacher at Westfield Primary. Later she became SENCO of the school and in 2011 Julie completed National Award for Special Educational Needs Coordination at Edge Hill University. After completing an Outstanding Teacher Programme and Adding Leadership Value with University of Manchester in 2012 she became a member of the schools Senior Leadership team.

In 2014 Julie took over as the Lead of the Deaf Resource base at Westfield and in 2015 she completed a Post Graduate Diploma for Deaf Education.

In April 2016 she changed roles and joined the Specialist Teaching and Advisory Service at Halton Borough Council as a Peripatetic Teacher for the Deaf supporting Deaf children across Halton Borough Council 0-25.

In 2019 Julie completed a Postgraduate Diploma for Teaching Learners with a Vision Impairment to become dual qualified.

What is Julie’s role?
Julie’s role is to support children and young people (0-25) with a vision impairment (VI) and/or deaf or have a hearing loss (HI).  Julie provides support from the time the child is diagnosed often at just a few days old until the child leaves education or is no longer under audiology or ophthalmology.  Julie will provide training and support for any adults supporting children in a school or setting and she will carry out environmental audits of the school or setting to ensure the best possible environment for a child who are deaf, have a hearing loss or VI. Julie provides home visits to families of pre-school children to support with all aspects of deafness/hearing loss/vision impairment and its implications. Julie will support with medical information from visits to hospital clinics and she will support children and families in transition between nurseries and schools.

Contact Information
Julie Metcalf
Qualified Teacher of the Deaf Children and Young People and Vision Impairment
Tel: 0151 511 7065
email:julie.metcalf@halton.gov.uk

Lyndsey has worked in Halton since 2016 as a Qualified Teacher of the Deaf Children and Young People.

Lyndsey qualified from Edge Hill University with a BA Hons with English and QTS in Key Stage 2/3 Education in 2004 and subsequently started her teaching career as a mainstream secondary and Post-16 English teacher. She has taught in a number of large secondary schools, gaining promotion as Literacy Coordinator within an all-through school. In 2016, Lyndsey completed her Postgraduate Diploma in Deaf Education at The University of Manchester and gained employment at Halton Borough Council.

Lyndsey has almost completed her British Sign Language (BSL) Level 6 qualification through Signature and this enables her to ensure that children and young people, which are taught within our service, have good quality access to communication. Lyndsey also has personal experience of deafness as her daughter is profoundly deaf, uses BSL and also wears a cochlear implant and hearing aid.

What is Lyndsey’s role?
Lyndsey’s role is to support children and young people (0-25 years old), who are deaf.  As the service is between 0-25 years of age, children and young people who receive a diagnosis of hearing loss at audiology or through Newborn hearing screening are able to access the service and this means that support can be given in the home for preschool children all the way up to Post-16 education. The service extends to the families of these children and young people and also school staff to enable them to fully understand how to support the child or young person by promoting language and communication, understanding Deaf awareness strategies and also adhering to reasonable adjustments that can be made to ensure the best possible progress for the young person. This can be carried out in a variety of ways: home/school visits, pre and post teaching, INSET, signposting, environmental audits, liaising with multiagency support, liaising and supporting with information from audiology appointments, support with equipment and transition between key stages.

Contact Information
Lyndsey Hignett
Qualified Teacher of the Deaf Children and Young People
Tel: 0151 511 7449 or Mobile: 07770 855951
email: lyndsey.hignett@halton.gov.uk

Lisa has worked for the SEN Service in Halton since 2017 as a Qualified Teacher of the Deaf Children and Young People.

Lisa is an experienced primary school teacher and has worked in several primary schools prior to joining Halton. Before becoming a Qualified Teacher of the Deaf, she spent five years teaching in a large primary school in Manchester with a Deaf Resource Base, so she has a lot of experience in teaching deaf pupils in mainstream classes. During this time, she was also lead for KS2 English. Lisa has an MSc in Deaf Education, which was gained at the University of Manchester.

What is Lisa’s role?
Lisa works with deaf children and young people (0-25), their families and education settings. Babies are often referred to the service following the Newborn Hearing Screening, meaning support can begin in the home and then through to Post 16 education. Lisa supports pupils directly, but also provides guidance and training to any adults caring for or working with a deaf child. She will carry out environmental audits to ensure that the implications of a hearing loss are understood and that the home and school environment are suitable to meet the need of deaf children and young people. Lisa also helps schools with managing hearing equipment such as radio aids, hearing aids and cochlear implants. She provides support with transitions between nursery/school and key stages; and liaises closely with audiology to assist with medical information, appointments and hearing aids.

Contact Information
Lisa Turner
Qualified Teacher of the Deaf Children and Young People
Tel: 0151 511 6169 or Mobile: 07771 345310
email: lisa.mart@halton.gov.uk

Ian has worked for Halton since 2019 as a Qualified Teacher for Children and Young People who have a Vision Impairment.

Ian has worked in the vision impairment and education fields for over 20 years, having been a rehabilitation specialist for people who have a vision impairment before becoming a primary school teacher.  These previous roles have seen Ian working in the voluntary sector, social services and education settings.

Ian holds a degree in Rehabilitation Studies (vision impairment), Qualified Teacher Status and the mandatory qualification for teachers working with children and young people who have a vision impairment.

What is Ian’s role?
Ian undertakes functional vision assessments with the children and young people that he works with, providing the necessary support, advice and teaching to help meet their needs. He liaises with parents and carers and supports the teachers and teaching staff in making the necessary adjustments and providing the necessary support, including staff training as required.

Contact Information
Ian Hebborn 
Qualified Teacher for Vision Impairment
Tel: 0151 511 7199 or Mobile: 07818 046349
email: ian.hebborn@halton.gov.uk