Staffing Structure
Leadership
Louise Sullivan
Louise is the Proprietor and Director of Roots and Shoots Learning
Louise is a former SENCo, as well as DSL and Senior Leader who has experienced some of the most challenging and distressed behaviours within the educational system in the UK, as well as in the local community as a youth worker in areas of high substance abuse, poverty and deprivation.
She has worked extensively and across large settings with care-experienced children and those on the edge-of-care.
Louise trains teachers and tutors to ensure the care and educational support they offer is trauma-sensitive, using the work of psychologist Dan Hughes to inform the approaches she advocates, specifically the acronym PACE for children in distress, and who have been traumatised by their
experiences within the education system as well as in the context of relational trauma in the home.
As a qualified and experienced teacher of over 15 years, having developed to Senior leadership level with oversight of an extensive Wellbeing provision, an Inclusion team as SENCo and the Senior Safeguarding Lead, Louise's expertise across whole settings and up to GCSE and A level has led her to her work today. Working with a team of Wellbeing Practitioners, an Arts and Education Practitioner and other professionals, we hold the same ethos and approach of trauma-informed and applied learning embedded within all of our programmes. Some students are referred to us by schools and Local authorities, others by parents. We offer a unique model which accepts that we work with students at their own pace and with their wellbeing at the forefront. Essentially, to borrow a Health and Social Care phrase, we work in a truly person-centred way. This model tends to rely on a heavy dose of collaboration and for us, it’s always with nature-based work at its heart. Nature offers a “safe container” for overwhelmed and distressed children and young people, but also allow us to access literacy and numeracy-based activities in creative and low-demand ways.
We interweave academic learning with therapeutic and wellbeing tools, while offering alternatives to traditional models of therapy for young people who may find themselves unable to talk about their challenges. Furthermore, we offer stability and consistent experiences of trusting adult relationships for those who have experienced disrupted school experiences or failed placements for mental health reasons or lack of trust in the adults in the school environment. Our students tend to be on EOTAS packages or reduced timetables in school and as such we use whatever means possible to “hook” them back into learning and to engage them in activities that are interest-led which enables them to experience success and find their way back to a love of learning and hope for their future potential. It’s what we’re all about at Roots and Shoots Learning.
Our Team
- Louise – Head of Provision (Safeguarding Lead)
- Erin - Site Lead / Wellbeing Practitioner
- Laura and Sophia – Wellbeing Practitioners
- Catia - Tutor
- Rachael - Equine Learning Practitioner
- Keira Radice – HCPC Registered Speech and Language Therapist
- Joanne – Business Support Manager
- Volunteer team – parent buddies and admin support
Our Wellbeing Practitioners will deliver Ecotherapy* and bespoke 1:1 support, delivering Roots and Shoots Learning programmes.
* "Restoring Wellbeing through contact with nature”.
COLLABORATORS
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