Ms Diane Stanley
Teaching Awards 2008 Winner
The TDA Award for Teaching Assistant of the Year in London
Brunswick Park School, SOUTH GATE
Diane Stanley joined Brunswick Park School as a nursery nurse, and then applied to be a learning mentor. The job was new and her learning curve was straight up!
But colleagues say she “blossomed” within a year. Now as a senior learning mentor, she contributes to the school in ways too numerous to count. “There couldn't be a job description for Diane because she does everything," says a parent governor.
She teaches social skills to all age groups, and has helped improve the behaviour of children throughout the school. She works with children who are in need of help with developing their concentration and coordination, and counsels individual children in times of crisis. She prepares the oldest children for their move to secondary school and has pioneered new teaching materials with the youngest ones.
In addition she runs after-school clubs, is responsible for the school council, has set up a parents and toddlers group – and is always the fairy at the Christmas bazaar.
Colleagues say she brings energy and imagination to everything she does. “Nothing is insurmountable to her.”
Her learning mentor room is a bright, inviting space that provides a welcome sanctuary for children feeling vulnerable, and both parents and pupils pay tribute to how closely she listens to them. A very rare quality, as one parent points out.
Diane also mentors other learning mentors, runs training days, and has written a new social skills programme for primary school children which will be used across the borough.
She is also currently training to teach adults, and embarking on training, which could eventually lead to a teaching qualification.
Even so, she is always looking for new ways to help. One colleague described her as a "little factory worker who often leaves school with a box full of junk, and returns the next day with Easter bonnets.”
