Kate Buckingham

Name Kate Buckingham
Job Title and Organisation
Assistant Head – Springwell School

Springwell is a primary school for children aged 4 – 11 years with complex learning difficulties.  All our children have a severe level of learning difficulties and many have associated disabilities such as autism, speech and language disorders and challenging behaviour.

Lead Specialist for SEND, Autism, Shared Attention – Southampton Inclusion Partnership (SIP) and Southampton Advisory Outreach Service (SAOS)

SAOS provides a range of support for pupils and students with SEND and behavioural needs in mainstream schools and settings.

SIP is a Teaching School supporting mainstream and special schools to develop provision for pupils with SEND.
Introduction/Background (experience, qualifications, current work/research, etc.)
I have been at Springwell School for over 10 years, initially starting as an NQT and have been Assistant Head for the past 3 years. During this time I have achieved a distinction in my Masters in Autism from Birmingham University and qualified as an Advanced Practitioner and Licenced Trainer for Attention Autism.

My works varies from supporting provision for pupils within Key Stage 2, to supporting complex pupils across the primary school in developing their Learning to Learn skills. I also deliver training and workshops to professionals across a variety of settings and parents.

I strongly believe that action research should be an integral part of every classroom and as such have completed a number of action research projects.
What does the ACoRNS project mean to you? The ACoRNS project presents an opportunity to be at the forefront of current research and good practice in order to offer the very best outcomes to our pupils. It also allows us to share our good practice with the wider community to ensure collaborative working across a range of settings.
Areas of interest Attention Skills

Developing Learning to Learn skills

Interactions and Relationships

Research in the classroom