Research & Development Team Staff Bios
Donna Wickens – MA, NPQSL, MCMI, BA (Hons) in Education with Sports Science and PE
Donna is a teacher at The Beacon Folkestone, an all-age special school (3-19 years) offering pupils with complex needs, profound and severe learning difficulties, and physical and sensory impairments a wide range of educational experiences, along with Beacon Plus, a specialist provision for 19-25 year old students. A middle leader since 2014, Donna is currently Leader of Learning for Research and Development, and Senior Leader of Learning for Specialist Classes, as well as the Sensory Link (between the school and the Specialist Teaching and Learning Service). Donna's initial teacher training was primary age-focused with a specialism in PE, but following the realisation that her second child would have lifelong additional needs, a career in special education was an obvious progression. Having a sports science and PE background, along with the dual hobbies of competitive swimming and lifesaving sport, made the specialism of PMLD and sensory learning a natural match due to the expertise in general physical movement, kinaesthesia, proprioception, general sensory awareness and managing emergency response scenarios.
Alison Grimmett - NPQSL, Specialist Leader of Education (SLE) in Early Years, BA Hons Primary Education
Alison is the Designated Teacher for Looked After Children at The Beacon in Folkestone, an all-age special school for children and young people between 3-19 years. She is a member of the Research and Development Focus Group.
Prior to joining The Beacon, Alison was the Assistant Principal, SENDCo and Lead DSL at a mainstream primary school. One aspect of her role was leading and supporting a large Teaching Assistant team, developing their practice to ensure that all pupils were able to reduce barriers to learning so that they could reach their full potential.
Other specialisms include Early Years, having opened and led an Outstanding primary school nursery provision and YR team. As part of her SLE in Early Years, Alison wrote and delivered a training program for local Kent Early Years practitioners, enabling expertise to be shared across nurseries and YR staff, ensuring high expectations and moderating EYFS judgements.
Victoria Tong – MA, NPQML, BA (Hons) Primary Education
Vicky is a Year 7 teacher at The Beacon Folkestone, an all-age special school for children and young people between 3-19 years. Vicky is a member of the Research and Development Focus Group. Vicky also leads on mentoring across all ITT pathways and ECT, and is part of the ITT Steering Group. As well as over 15 years teaching experience; 13 of those within SEN, Vicky has a Masters degree in Special Educational Needs, inclusion and institutional research and The National Professional Qualification for Middle Leadership. Vicky has experience of teaching across Tiers and Key Stages with SEN.
Ana Jôb – UK and Board Certified behaviour analyst, MSc in Applied Behaviour Analysis, BSc in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Proact Trainer, QTS
Ana Jôb is a Teacher at the Beacon Folkestone, one of the largest schools for children and young people with profound, severe and complex needs in Kent. She has worked in education for 20 years, teaching pupils with complex needs, behavioural difficulties, and severe barriers to learning. Ana has specialised in Applied Behaviour Analysis, she is a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst, a UK Certified Behaviour Analyst, and she is the co-lead for the behaviour networking group within the Kent Special Educational Needs Trust. Ana has a special interest in research based practice, with a particular focus on staff training on implementation of proactive and personalised learning approaches, and has been training staff for over 15 years. She is currently developing a training course to provide a certified qualification for experienced staff within The Beacon.
Elizabeth Hetterley - BA Hons in Education (Primary)
Elizabeth is a class teacher at The Beacon, in Folkestone where she trained on a School Direct route to teaching. Elizabeth started her journey into education as a volunteer at a children’s centre after having her daughter. Whilst undertaking a number of volunteering roles and concurrently working part-time in retail, Elizabeth was encouraged to take on a Teaching Assistant qualification before securing a position as a 1:1 nursery assistant for a pupil in a mainstream setting with physical disabilities and complex needs. Elizabeth then progressed from working in Early Years and became a mainstream Teaching Assistant before realising her interest was in special education and moved to The Beacon as a Teaching Assistant (whilst concurrently undertaking her degree in Education Studies with The Open University, where she graduated with a First Class Honours) and then, subsequently trained as a teacher. Having progressed from a volunteer role to a teaching role, Elizabeth is passionate about upskilling and supporting staff on career pathways, she is currently part of the ITT Steering Group where she is supporting Teaching Assistants on their own pathways to teaching. Elizabeth is currently completing a Masters in Education with a specialism in Inclusive Practice.
Elizabeth’s classroom practice is child-centred and holistic; prioritising wellbeing and promoting strategies that support co-regulation and promoting independence to ensure that individuals have the tools to regulate their emotions and look after their own wellbeing in the long-term. Elizabeth is dedicated to fostering togetherness and promoting a sense of belonging, recognising that it plays a vital role in special education.
Andy Oleksin – NPQLT, BA (Hons), PGCE
Andy is a teacher at The Beacon Folkestone, an all-age special school (3-19 years) offering pupils with complex needs, profound and severe learning difficulties, and physical and sensory impairments a wide range of educational experiences, along with Beacon Plus, a specialist provision for 19-25 year old students. Andy has been the Year 6 teacher for Barbados class since January 2019. Prior to this, Andy taught in mainstream schools for over 20 years. He has served as a member of the Senior Leadership Team in two schools and was a Maths Subject Leader in three schools. He has also successfully mentored many student teachers and is currently enjoying supporting some. Andy is part of the Research and Development group, where he enjoys writing in the newsletter about some of the evidence based practice he trials in his class and shares with colleagues, including; Rosenshine’s Principles of instruction, cognitive science and metacognition. He is a creative teacher who is always looking to make the curriculum accessible and enjoyable for the pupils he teaches and is passionate about helping them learn to read. Andy enjoys using the Imagining Autism approach (He has an IA pod in his classroom) and is an Attention Autism Champion, who is always learning and seeking to improve and develop his practice.
Alison Cole - MA Appl. Ling, Dip Applied Psychology, MSc Psych.
Alison Cole is Head of School at the Beacon Folkestone, one of the largest schools for children and young people with profound, sever and complex needs in Kent. She has worked in education for over 30 years and has a background in school improvement, secondary English and SEND. The majority of this time has been spent as a senior leader in a range of mainstream and special schools. She has collaborated with the DfE workload reduction project and piloted several successful projects as part of this, including an holistic approach to the quality assurance of provision and marking and assessment including pupil voice bespoke to need type. She has special interests in ITT and research and development, and has led on these for a number of years.
Hannah Bell – BA Hons Primary Education
Hannah is a class teacher at The Beacon Folkestone, an all-age special school (3-19 years) offering pupils with complex needs, profound learning difficulties and physical and sensory impairments a wide range of educational experiences, along with Beacon Plus, a specialist provision for 19-25-year-old students. Hannah's prior teaching experience is training in Primary Education, followed by being a teacher of pupils with SEMH needs. As Hannah's career in teaching is progressing, she has been fostering an interest in Nurture Practice. She is currently undertaking the Nurture Practitioner course and has a nurture focus in her class. Her focus work in the R&D group will guide her interest further.
Jeanne Lombart - BA (Hons) in Education, PGCE, MA, NPQML, SCQF
Jeanne is a teacher at The Beacon Folkestone, an all-age special school (3-19 years) offering pupils with complex needs, profound and severe learning difficulties, and physical and sensory impairments a wide range of educational experiences, along with Beacon Plus, a specialist provision for 19-25-year-old students.
Jeanne's teacher training was in The Netherlands. Having taught in The Netherlands and The United States, Jeanne moved to the UK and has been working in different schools across the country. She has teaching experience in Special Needs schools for over 16 years, both in primary and secondary.
Jeanne has always been interested in the Nurture Principles and in motivating students to achieve their full potential, applying this to all her teaching. She has successfully set up lunchtime clubs for the Zone 1 students, where she currently teaches Year 5.
Teaching adults to read and to improve their numeracy skills is something she is passionate about. She has been working with parents over the past 2 years, supporting them in school with the help of the Shannon Trust material. She has trained other staff as well to become tutors in this scheme.
This academic year, Jeanne is investigating a ‘Children’s University’, where students get to choose from different extra-curricular subjects one afternoon a week.
Chrystèle Perrier - MSc (Hons) Physics and Chemistry, Diploma in English Language (Distinction), PGCE Secondary Education (Physics and Chemistry), QTS
Chrystèle is a specialist teacher at The Beacon Folkestone, an all-age special school (3-19 years) offering pupils with complex needs, profound and severe learning difficulties, and physical and sensory impairments a wide range of educational experiences, along with Beacon Plus, a specialist provision for 19-25 year old students.
In France, Chrystèle qualified as a Physics and Chemistry teacher, teaching mainly Year 11 to Year 13 pupils. She initiated the Physics and Chemistry Content and Language Integrated Learning – Section Européenne (CLIL) option in lycée (upper secondary pupils), which involved devising, preparing, delivering and assessing the CLIL activities to enable pupils to be successful in their Baccalauréat option.
Chrystèle moved to the UK in 2012 and taught in two local grammar schools for boys, teaching mostly Science and some Maths. This is where she discovered her interest in working with SEN pupils.
At The Beacon, Chrystèle has taught French and Maths. This has been an enjoyable and extremely valuable experience on many levels, enabling her to develop a greater understanding of the potential of SEN pupils. Chrystèle is passionate about teaching Maths at The Beacon, which she finds very stimulating and rewarding. Maths is like a language that conveys meaning using symbols: it can trigger a lot of stress for some of pupils, depending on their specific learning difficulties. Chrystèle focuses on bringing reassurance, offering adapted activities and tries to empower pupils as much as possible. Chrystèle provides ‘Overcoming Maths Anxiety’ training for staff as part of The Beacon’s comprehensive CPD programme.