ROUNDWAY CENTRE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Educational Consultant & SEND Specialist
- Educational Consultant and Special Educational Needs Advisor
Denise has worked in education for over 25 years in various senior roles in specialist independent schools, colleges and further education.
She has dedicated her work to enabling pupils and students to grow in confidence as learners and to be able to realise their self-worth and own potential and overcome obstacles. Denise is committed to fostering the vital relationship between young people, parents and educators, and she sees this as the key to a successful educational journey.
Her broad understanding of educational processes enables her to support parents seeking EHCPS, working alongside schools to guide the graduated approach and securing this essential support framework for young people and their families. There is nothing more meaningful than to see a child fulfil what they are capable of, to be part of removing the barriers to their learning and to facilitate exceptional outcomes.
She works with young people and their families to help them navigate the journey's complexities and foster self-esteem and confidence.
Her overall aim is to enable young people to gain a "toolbox" of skills that allows them to problem solve, gain emotional understanding, find practical support strategies to foster self-help and thrive independently. Working on a one-to-one level, she helps find the best fit for young people through their unique profiles and supporting adjustments to bring about the best possible outcome.
During these years, she worked in the areas of Equality and Diversity and Academic Quality and standards.
In more recent years, after years living in France with her family, she started a new chapter working in a small, specialist independent school.
Denise's career path from SENDco, Head of Learning Support, Deputy Head, and Headteacher has equipped her to understand the unique needs of young people with SEN in education. And how to make practical adjustments that enhance the SEN process and a school's Local Offer and Quality First Teaching. Denise works closely with individual education establishments to build upon existing skills and protocols and progress their SEN practice.
Denise's work with these establishments currently includes;
Jude is an experienced and highly regarded psychologist. She qualified as a Child and Educational Psychologist in 2009 and has supported children of all ages.
She worked in both local authorities and directly for schools to promote children's and young people's welfare and drive change. She is experienced in providing specialist psychological assessments for pupils of all ages and strategic advice and support at a whole school level. Current whole school projects include responding to challenging behaviour, systemically supporting behaviour, transition and speech and language in the classroom.
Jude is a speaker at national conferences on challenging behaviour and provided expert opinion for a national paper on school transition, and has spoken on BBC national radio on mental health in young people. She undertakes work for SEND tribunals. Jude is also an honorary lecturer at Manchester University.
Jude has presented at national conferences, provided expert opinion for a national paper on school transition, and has spoken on BBC national radio on mental health in young people.
Before working independently, Jude worked as the lead psychologist in a Multi Academy Trust. She established and led a specialist team who provided excellent service to schools.
Jude has developed specialist knowledge in social, emotional and behavioural needs; autism; children with delayed development; and speech, language and communication needs within the school. Jude has extensive casework experience in these areas for pupils of all ages and has advised schools at a strategic level.
Local authorities, families and solicitors often call upon Jude to provide the expert option of the type and scope of provision required to support a child or young person within an educational setting.
Jude has many years of experience providing comprehensive assessments and reports for children with complex communication needs in all educational settings.
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Consultant Speech and Language Therapist / Research
Dr. Catherine Aldred is the founder of Roundway Centre, developed to listen to the needs of children and families. The principles of our approaches are natural and easy to embed into daily life to make the changes needed to foster the best supportive environment for all. ‘Less is more' is a key principle, where accurately targeted intervention can bring about the best results.
Catherine is a clinical expert; she holds a research fellowship at the University of Manchester and is the director of Roundway Centre, with a focus on early development and autism intervention.
Catherine formed Roundway Centre to implement holistic multi-disciplinary expert assessments and interventions for children and young adults based on high-quality research evidence in close collaboration with expert colleagues, including paediatricians, education consultants, child psychologists and psychiatrists.
She has worked within public sector organisations and the N.H.S., developing and refining early care pathways. Catherine has over 40 years of experience developing and supporting specialist Social Development Clinics, undertaking assessment and intervention innovation with autism and other conditions that affect social development.
She is a certified trainer in ADOS-2 (Autistic Diagnostic Observation Schedule, University of Chicago, U.S.A.), BOSA (Brief Observation of Symptoms of Autism), A.D.I.R. (Autistic Diagnostic Interview, University of Newcastle) and PACT.
Catherine has also trained in iBASIS V.I.P.P. (parent-mediated, video-aided feedback therapy intervention).
Catherine developed pioneering autism intervention based on her PhD work on parent-mediated early intervention, leading to over 20 years of collaborative research trials in PACT, Paediatric Autism Communication Therapy. This showed high effectiveness in improving long-term outcomes for autistic children.
PACT has been widely implemented internationally and successfully adapted for low-income contexts in South Asia using task-shifting (PASS, COMPASS). Catherine is currently collaborating on a number of international trials of parent-mediated therapy for autism in infancy and early childhood.
Catherine has developed sensitive outcome measures for autism trials, including the D.C.M.A. Dyadic Communication Measure of Autism, widely used in international research trials and clinical practice. https://www.pacttraining.co.uk/ http://research.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/pact/
Catherine has formed a not-for-profit social enterprise, IMPACT C.I.C., where she is co-director with Professor Jonathan Green.
Job Titles:
- Educational Specialist / PACT Therapist
A former lawyer, Emma retrained as a teacher because she is passionate about helping all children succeed and flourish.
Emma trained in the state sector and then moved to a high-performing independent school, where she relished researching and differentiating the curriculum to meet her pupils' needs.
Emma enjoyed developing a rich and broad curriculum, which was tailored to the needs of the pupils, their interests and stage of development. Emma believes in adopting a flexible and nurturing approach to build pupils' confidence and self-esteem.
Emma understands how to make practical adjustments to better support SEN and appreciates the importance of quality first teaching. Emma recognises the importance of keeping language simple and tailoring tasks so that they are visual, kinaesthetic, and auditory.
Emma delivers PACT intervention therapy, which brings families, caregivers and children together to better understand and communicate with each other. Emma is dedicated and deeply driven to support others in their journey.
Job Titles:
- Senior Specialist Psychologist and SEN Consultant
- Senior Specialist Psychologist SEN Consultant
Helen is a professional educational and psychology specialist with 10 years of senior leadership experience in outstanding, high-performing schools, starting as Assistant and Deputy Head, and progressing to Head Teacher in recent years.
She has been a committed teacher with 15 years of experience developing and implementing diverse curriculums covering a wide range of subjects.
Helen is dedicated to outreach support with schools, supporting inclusion and excellence in teaching for pupils and staff.
Helen is committed to supporting all pupils to reach their potential, working closely with families to build a strong home-school relationship.
Helen supports children's academic, emotional and social development, offering a safe and nurturing environment as a proactive approach to boost pupil learning and well-being.
She is dedicated to building pupil confidence to enable them to flourish and realise their potential, removing the barriers to their learning, and working with supporting agencies as part of the Roundway Centre holistic team.
As SENCO, Helen has experience supporting pupils with complex additional needs, working with pupils, staff and families as part of a therapeutic and holistic approach to ensure each pupil has personalised support for their needs.
Helen supports schools with the SEND process and can help them complete EHCP plans to provide additional support from the local authority.
She is a Designated Safeguarding Lead, working closely with external agencies to support pupil safety and wellbeing.
Helen has experience in coaching and mentoring staff to support their professional development and personal well-being in a safe environment and meet the needs of the school as a whole.
Helen is highly experienced at planning and leading INSET training within schools, grounded in current educational and psychological research to inspire, motivate and engage practitioners as self-reflective, lifelong learners.
She is passionate about practice-based inquiry, bringing academic research into the classroom.
Job Titles:
- Senior Speech and Language Therapist, Clinical Lecturer and Researcher
Jacqueline Gaile is a speech and language therapist with over 30 years of experience working with children and young adults with social communication and language needs.
Jacqueline was the research therapist on the Social Communication Intervention Project (SCIP) and remains an active researcher with an emphasis on understanding the process and methods of therapy delivery.
Jacqueline gained her speech and language qualification from Leeds Metropolitan University in 1991 and an MPhil in Speech and Language therapy from the University of Manchester in 2014.
In clinical practice and research Jacqueline has emphasised working closely with children and their parents as partners in setting goals and supporting them to learn new skills and make the changes they want to make to enhance their communication, develop relationships and enrich their quality of life. In research, Jacqueline has developed methods to interview children about their preferences and experiences of intervention. The findings have been used in developing and delivering subsequent research projects.
Close working with parents, teachers, and other professionals help to achieve generalisation and improve outcomes. Jacqueline provides bespoke training and support to ensure that the child's home and school environments are attuned to their strengths and needs and that those closest to the child are confident in their understanding and provision of environmental adaptations and support.
Kellie is the Roundway Centre secretary, dedicated to providing parents/ clients with the best quality experience. Kellie takes great pride in providing an empathic and efficient response to help families and clients feel listened to and valued.