Mae, Duncan and Sarah Davies - 13/01/2017 Our daughter had been to private nursery school from the age of two and was happy and on par with her peers in all areas of the EYFS. But when she started mainstream school in reception that’s when the problems began. She was having real trouble settling into school, she was not engaging with teachers and peers, was constantly upset at school, not wanting to go into school, waking up in the night at home upset and was having wet accidents in the school day. Our little girl has Mosaic Down Syndrome, and until she started school she had no problems in any areas of learning. After a term of having so many problems and a very unhappy upset little girl, we decided we needed help! We contacted all of the local council sections for help i.e. educational psychologists, speech and language etc., which did come in and see her but gave very little help, just said she will settle give it longer! But we were not happy with this, our daughter had turned into a completely different child and was so unhappy! We happened to see a shared link on Facebook for Marie Smith, we thought let’s see if she can help! We contacted Marie and from the start, she was so reassuring and positive that she could sort things out and help, she sent over her plans to visit our daughter, some ideas of how she may be able to help. Marie visited our daughter straight away, she seemed to like Marie instantly which is a good thing as our daughter is very reserved and usually takes a long time to gel with new people. The same day of the visit we received a phone call to tell us how the visit went and her thoughts. Marie picked up the problems at school and managed to put things in place on the first visit that would/did in fact help and improve the situations instantly! We and the school got a full report of the visit which listed the problems and possible solutions to the problems, Marie then planned a visit a fortnight later to the school to see if there was any improvement. Marie did what I can only describe as a miracle, her input had literally changed our daughter overnight! And within a week our daughter had returned to engaging with teachers and peers, the crying and disturbed sleep had stopped, also she had no more wet accidents and now wanted to go into school! Marie continues to monitor our daughter in school, she also attends multiagency meeting and meeting with the school to help and advise on new areas of learning that our daughter comes across, we can contact Marie at any time for advice and help she is so knowledgeable and always helpful, and has lots of ideas of how to help! We cannot recommend Marie enough, there are no words that we can put that can describe how much she has helped and changed our little girls life at school and how happy she has made us all! Marie’s work is outstanding, she is caring, brilliant with Children, supportive to parents, school and children, always ready to help, provides such an efficient and high quality service, we don’t know what we would do without her! Thank you for everything! We continue to be so grateful for your help! Thank you from us all!

Stewart and Zillah Barclay - 06/10/2016 We first met Marie in June 2011 when our son joined an AS base which was attached to Gigmill Primary School in Stourbridge. We were invited to visit the base prior to its opening and it was clear that Marie had been instrumental in the design of the base layout. We watched the base take shape and we were increasingly impressed by the organisational and planning skills Marie demonstrated. Her negotiation, leadership and budgetary control skills were a sight to behold in the first six months of the base being open, as the base was fitted out with a plethora of 'extras' with parents and employees of the school giving up their time and skills freely to make these enhancements. Marie's ability to get people to buy-in to her ideas and bring them along with her on the journey was clearly a strength. Throughout this time Marie continued to show that the children's needs were always her top priority. Marie was quick to bond with the children gaining their trust and identifying which buttons to press and which should be avoided. Efficient communication channels were set up by Marie so that parents and school were always aware of developments in both behaviour and attainment. Each child had their own individual learning plan created by Marie and her team. Marie was the key player in the creation of these plans, identifying with the children's need for routines, yet able to ease them through change and so enabling them to develop. Marie has excellent listening skills which she used to gather information from a wide variety of sources, from parents and the children to high level healthcare professionals. This information would then be used by Marie to identify the gap between where a child is and their goal. Marie repeatedly demonstrated a high level of people development skills by pulling together challenging, yet achievable, tasks or action plans and then putting them in place to enable the child to close the gap and work towards realising their true potential. Marie's approach towards discipline was always appropriate and fair, this coupled with the obvious level of care and nurturing that she demonstrates meant for a happy and productive environment within the base and when outside on visits. In closing we find Marie to be an extremely pleasant, approachable and capable individual, with high level skill sets in relation to the needs of children with special needs, especially those on the autistic spectrum. She has made a significant difference to our son's future life and we are very grateful for the effort she has put in and the care and commitment she has shown.

Donna Parker Hemmings - 02/10/2016 We first met Marie in 2012 when our son Bradley was offered a permanent placement at Gig Mill school, which also had a base camp attached to it for children with autism. Marie took time to visit our son at home on numerous occasions before he went to base camp so that he would have at least one familiar face when he joined Gig Mill school. While Bradley was there his needs were more than met in all occasions Marie has been a great influence on the person Bradley is becoming today we will always be grateful for the help and support that Marie has given Bradley, and even now Bradley will still comment on how he misses and remembers Marie.

Little Owl Childcare Background Contacted by Little Owl’s owner Sarah McCormick for possible support and advice for children with special educational needs within one of her settings. Little Owl were already providing great support to children with SEND but wanted to add to their knowledge and enhance their practice to offer the very best provision for children with additional needs. A meeting was arranged to discuss Sarah’s specific needs and an initial observation within the setting was arranged. This was followed by a meeting with Sarah and the setting manager to agree next steps and a package of support. Package put in place: • 2 half days observations within setting • Immediate advice and strategies offered to Key workers and Manager • Bespoke training arranged to be delivered within weekly staff meeting • Meeting with Manager and owner to discuss observations, recommendations and discuss next steps • Support for staff in the use of the Early Support Developmental Journal • Additional equipment and resourcing recommended to support identified children *Morning arranged to model and coach a session in the new Sensory Room Strategies suggested • Use of Objects of Reference to support SEND pupils understanding of the daily routine and allow more supported access to the environment • Tailored Behaviour Management for individual children • Regular sensory play session • The Brushing Protocol • Use of TEACCH style workstation for 1: 1 sessions • Language enriched whole group activities Training session included • Supporting children with sensory needs and the sensory environment • Developing sensory play sessions • The Brushing Protocol • Visual support strategies including Objects of Reference • Demonstration and discussion regarding suggested behaviour management strategies for identified children • Modelling of language enriched creative activity/ language activity, • Modelling use of TEACCH style workstation • Q & A ‘Brilliant planning, research and delivery of the session. Marie was friendly and approachable and I’ll be embedding as much as possible the strategies suggested into my work with identified children’ Further developments: Following my visit staff at Little Owl decided to further develop their fantastic practice by re-organising their environment and developing a Sensory room to be used by a number of children within the setting that fulfils the requirements of the EYFS but also supports the sensory, language and developmental needs of children with SEND. This is proving a great success and has received lots of praise and positive feedback from outside agencies and the families of children attending Little Owl.