Follwing 4 years living in Germany and two short teaching posts I started in Collingwood as a classroom teacher of English. I took over responsibility for training some of our students in public speaking, of which I had some experience. Later I took over the role of exams officer, which needed exceptional organisational skills. In 1996 I decided to move across from teaching English to the area of Special Needs, in which I have always had an interest. I enrolled with Brunel University as a part time student and completed a Post Gradutae Diploma in Special Needs. As the government "Inclusion" policy was beginning to have an impact at this time, I specialised in behavioural, social and emotional problems. In my new role as Deputy SENCo/Behaviour Manager I introduced a number of new, supportive initiatives for these students and worked with a team of about 12 teaching assistants whom I trained myself or arranged specialist training to meet the needs of our students. I retired from full time work in July of 2009, but continue to work part time, as neede, with the Englist Department or Secial Needs Department