035 - Pit Pony Ruth O'Neill - Classroom to SEND Consultant and Tutor

In today's episode of The Pit Pony Podcast, we sit down with Ruth O’Neill, an educator who spent over 20 years in the classroom before stepping into a new role as a SEND consultant and English tutor. Ruth’s journey took her from teaching in the UK to classrooms in Cairo and Costa Rica, before returning home to take on a challenging SENCO role. Over time, the pressures of the role, increasing workload, and systemic challenges pushed her to breaking point.

Ruth opens up about the realities of working in SEND, the emotional and professional toll of the job, and how she ultimately found a new, fulfilling way to use her expertise outside of traditional education. 

Now, she supports families navigating the SEND system, helps children access the right support, and provides English tuition—all on her own terms.

If you’ve ever wondered what life after teaching could look like, or if you’re a SENCO questioning your next steps, this episode is for you.

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Edited with finesse by our Podcast Super Producer, Mike Roberts of Making Digital Real

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Pit Pony podcast with myself Sharon Cawley and me Sarah Dunwood in which we talk to teachers from all walks of life who exited the classroom from what they thought was a job for life and thrived on the other side of teaching. Coming up in this episode... You know at my to-do lists I was writing stuff up my arm. I was going around school with lists because I was running from one place to another thinking of something. 

The kids are like what's that? Well that's my to-do list and it's all the way up here, it's ridiculous. I was making lists on this bit of paper, lists over there and I just felt like I was never ever getting to the end of it. You know and it's half past six on Friday and the caretakers are saying can you go now please we need to lock up and I'd sort of have that feeling coming home on a Friday thinking oh I've got this and this and this and this and this and this that needs to be done on Monday, that's before the week starts again. 

Hello and welcome to a great episode of the Pit Pony podcast with Ruth O'Neill and Sarah and I know Ruth. We know Ruth from the world of tutoring, our paths have crossed physically and virtually so it is great to have a familiar face with us today. And Ruth, are you ready for this Sarah? Ruth went into teaching so she could do a year extra at university to stay with her boyfriend. 

Oh yes and when she went to her dad who was an English teacher he said to her you do know that this is a vocation not a job and that was the advice he gave her because when her dad went, his dad, he had a choice of either being a priest or a teacher so again the key vocation was very much at the forefront of the career advice that Ruth was being given in her life but she did the extra year, she loved it and she found that vocation. So from 2001 to 2022 Ruth did an initial five years in the classroom, taught in Cairo for four years, loved Egypt and the total freedom, the great kids, then Costa Rica for three years still as an English teacher but it was when she relocated back home to the UK through the route of supply the agency offered Ruth a role as an autism teacher and the end of her career was spent in a role that was one that you're incredibly familiar with Sarah, it's your world, it's your role, it's Senko and it was the role of Senko in many ways that resulted in the exit from Ruth's time as a teacher. So Ruth welcome, thank you and can you tell us what it is you do all day please? I'm currently a SEND consultant and I also do English tuition as well so my bread and butter is my English tuition but I also kind of offer SEND support for families alongside that as well and for other tutors as well actually.

Perfect, perfect. So let's start at the end, let's talk about that role you found yourself in when you returned to the UK, how did that come about Ruth? What was the story? When I came back to the UK I sort of initially went, well I moved back in with my parents and then initially sort of started off with supply and I had some sort of short-term, long-term, daily bits of supply teaching English or you know cover supervisor, that kind of thing and then the agency that I was signed up with asked me if I consider being a specialist autism teacher which was something I hadn't done before but something I was quite excited about, the opportunity to have a go at. So I did that on a temporary sort of basis for a number of months and then the job came up permanently and I was encouraged to apply for it. 

So I ended up doing that for two years I think, maybe a little bit longer than that and that involved basically running an internal alternative provision in a sense, it's what we call like the base within the school and that was for children with EHCPs, quite high need EHCPs who were also autistic and my sort of overarching role within that was to support and prepare those young people to eventually join the mainstream part of the school, sort of bit by bit to transition out from the base that we had. So it was a really interesting role, it was really exciting, you had quite a lot of autonomy over it, I was teaching English, math, science, RE, French, all sorts of different things and I was sort of mirroring what the kids would be doing if they were in mainstream. So if they were in year seven and Monday morning they'd be doing math then I'd be doing math on Monday morning to mirror it so that when they were ready to join that sort of theoretically they could seamlessly sort of start going back into the lessons.

So yeah, I told the subjects, the staff were great, they shared all their resources, all the teaching materials and everything so I could literally follow alongside what they would be doing in class and bit by bit with sort of transitions and visits and the teachers would come and visit us in the base, we'd take the kids out into the lessons and bit by bit over time they'd then be in mainstream for the majority of the lessons. Usually most of them by the end of year eight would be pretty much full-time back out into the classroom but they'd come back to us for, you know, life skills, just sort of quiet time with us, they'd eat with us in the base, they'd come back and have mentoring sessions with us as well so there's always that support back for them but it was really lovely to get them back out into the mainstream when they were ready for it. So yeah, it was really rewarding, really enjoyable. 

I oversaw my teaching assistants, my learning mentors, did a lot of liaison with staff, you know, to make sure it was all right for when the children were ready to sort of join, to make sure the support was in place, lots of liaison with parents and families as well but it was just a really nice job because you could physically see that you'd got, you know, the kids back out into the classroom and that they were managing and they were capable and that was really nice to be able to work like that with them. Well that sounds lovely, that sounds blissful, that sounds exactly what you would want to be doing with your job within education. Did it stay like that? No. 

Changed a little bit, over time we had one of those, is it a 2p transfer type thing, because initially I was working for the local authority but in the school, so the base and the staff within it were employed by the local authority, so initially I started off working with them but then the school, the academy trust expressed an interest in us then becoming part of the school rather than being something separate and that change resulted in a lot of different things, a lot of shuffling about, things being quite a lot different. Suddenly they wanted me to teach English lessons back out into mainstream again and I was sort of coming away from being able to manage the base and more about sort of being into the mainstream school which is not really what I started off doing and it just became harder and I felt like I was getting further and further away from the children that I actually wanted to be helped, not that I didn't want to help the other children but moving further away from the children that I thought I was primarily there to support and it just became quite difficult in terms of sort of time and in terms of wearing so many hats and sort of trying to manage that really unfortunately. So you pulled back in to mainstream to a certain extent but still expected to do the role you were Yeah. 

So at that point is your role within the school the SENCO? No, it's a bit of a mouthful my first job because it was specialist teacher in charge of ASD provision, that was my initial role for the local authority then when I sort of transferred over to working for the school I was ASD lead teacher so that took me away from managing the base more into the mainstream teaching and also then I was delivering training and inset to mainstream staff as a whole on autism, ADHD, you know that special needs kind of background so it sort of it became a much bigger wider role after that. Okay so Sarah what are your thoughts at this point? I'm back in SENCO trauma, I went the other way around so I was teacher of business studies, I was an assistant head then the long-term SENCO was retiring and it's always it'd always been somewhere where I was really interested right the way back from my very first school so I I volunteered, I said I'll step in, I'll do the I'll do the NESENCO award and do that and I think I stepped into that 2013 maybe at a point in time and and at a point in time is a phrase that I use a lot now when we're talking with with pit ponies at a point in time where you could focus on the needs of the kids and putting the right interventions in place and there were enough support staff as members of your team that you could deploy them effectively and it was very much what special needs should have been about in terms of nurture, supporting transition into mainstream, it was it was everything and I think for me over time what changed was and I got I was out of the system before the system has gone to the level of collapse that it's at now because I know it's it's fully broken now but it it shifted over time to a system that became about the paperwork and the and the stuff that sat around it rather than the actual time with the children doing the interventions, doing the support, doing the mentoring, having those conversations with parents and everything became a a treadmill of rush and I don't know what it was like for you Ruth but as a as somebody who was still teaching a 60 percent timetable and was a member of SLT because the school took it seriously that that they wanted the Senko to be on SLT but I was already there with a with a big kind of this sounds really egotistical but it was a big portfolio of stuff under SLT there weren't enough hours in the day to do the Senko role as a full-time Senko never mind sitting alongside other things so as I heard you talking about being pulled back into mainstream all that went on in my head is and those children lose the the focus and the intent of somebody who is there for them full-time. Well is that was that your experience Ruth could you see that is that how you ended up? Yeah I mean it's like Sarah was saying I mean it was as it was a you know a job offer that I hadn't really considered it wasn't something I'd massively done before but I was learning on the job and really really enjoying it and I know it's that sort of cheesy kind of thing but you could see the difference you were making you know and like Sarah said I had a team that I could allocate wherever I thought was appropriate so I had my some of my team were working in the base doing interventions some of them were out in the lesson supporting the young people that we transitioned into you know outside. 

Somebody told me that we didn't do French for autistic children because autistic children can't do French so I was like right then we'll do French we'll have a go at that so I was you know it was like it was such a nice thing to do because it was giving the kids the opportunities and I thought well let's try with these two new year seven children I've got they like the idea of it let's have a go they were amazing and I was I never taught French before but they had enough scaffolding and enough support from the languages department to be able to to do it with kids and they both joined French lessons in year eight alongside their peers it was ace I haven't done that kind of thing before I've been an English teacher before but being able to have all of those different roles was really really lovely and then yeah like we said the the more I got pulled out initially I thought that's great I'm ASD lead teacher I'm going to be delivering training I've gone up on the pay scale that's fantastic I'm going to be really important but it sounds silly doesn't it and it sounded like a great career move at the time but again it just became unmanageable and I couldn't teach 50 percent timetable and manage that base in the same way and it just became more and more difficult relationships with staff with the staff I'd got on really well with previously became a bit more difficult as well because there wasn't the time to be able to do that you know when I wanted to be working with my staff I was planning English lessons and writing reports and doing that not that I don't like that but it was very hard to do both at the same time unfortunately I think that's where that's probably where the system now is is really really struggling but my hold on just mentally counselling my second school the SENCO was full-time SENCO full-time and I don't believe the role of the SENCO can be done alongside teaching a full-time yes teaching in terms of again the the lady I'm thinking about taught within the base so did have a teaching role and was liaising with people outside exactly what you've just described but her full-time role was SENCO and everything that came with that and I think at the risk of getting on a soapbox about SEND which which is not what the episode is is about but until there is recognition that that needs to be the case in schools that there needs to be somebody who is not rushing off from a meeting to go and deal with 30 children in their own classroom and that there is time and appropriate training for them and appropriate support sat around them SEND kids are going to be failed and and it and it isn't for the it isn't for the lack of desire to do the right thing for the children the support systems and structures around them just aren't there to support the adults who support them and that's that's where we're at but I think you're absolutely right and Ruth eventually what did your working day and your workload look like as this these joint roles continued to develop when you were at the school? It just sort of felt like you've been pulled in lots of different directions and for somebody who'd by that point taught English and had really good lesson observations and feedback for many many years suddenly my lessons weren't good so it's one of those things and it just became more of a sort of struggle to keep up with everything I wasn't enjoying it I was becoming very very stressed quite fed up with everything and it it just sort of came to a point where it was no longer manageable and I no longer had that position I moved on from there. So what did you move on to do then? When I say I've never had any ambition I don't mean it like that but I'd never ever thought in teaching that I wanted to be a head or a head of department or anything but I love teaching English I was happy to be just I've just done rabbit ears I do that all the time with the kids but you know that just English teacher I was really happy doing that but then when I had that job as the ASD lead teacher and managing that base I really enjoyed working on a more individual bespoke kind of basis and I'd really enjoyed working with the children I was working with so when I started looking for my next job I deliberately started looking for SENCO positions and that's what I decided I'd like to move into thinking that it would be like the initial role I had where you know all my focus would be on the young people that needed my help because of special needs and disabilities but that's what I decided I wanted to do next so I started applying and I got a SENCO role. Brief interlude to dear listener a couple of questions are you a tutor or even a pit pony considering tutoring and do you fancy getting in the room with myself and Sarah Dunwood learning about the wonderful world of tuition then why not join us at the National Tutors Conference hosted by Conexus Tuition on the 29th of July 2025 it's at Chesford Grange Kenilworth links to the tickets are in the show notes below and we will both see you on the other side. 

Okay how did how did that work was that in a mainstream school was that yeah that was quite a small secondary mainstream school initially really really supportive like Sarah mentioned the SENCO award I did that alongside doing the job because I needed to have you have to have that certification obviously to do it the school gave me day release to do the assignments I mean I think speaking to other people doing this similar thing that was quite generous and yeah and I wasn't going to the university every Wednesday but they gave me that day to release to do assignments to go up and down to York to go and do the you know the course and it worked really well initially I mean the main thing was I took the role on three weeks before lockdown so that was quite strange so we hadn't moved by that point we were looking to sort of relocate so I was living on school grounds sort of temporarily so when the lockdown happened I went back home to West Yorkshire and I did the first four months of my SENCO role in our home office at home which was quite a strange one yeah and it was that was when you know we were calling home families every week I had my list of families that I check in with and have chat with I overhauled the send register because I made sure I did I did my eight till five every day or whatever it was so I overhauled the send register got to know my team we used to do like a weekly zoom check-in we rewrote all the individual learning plans for all the students we we did a lot of stuff between us and I sort of did all the policy stuff I suppose did a bit of English online learning there wasn't a lot that we did that first time round so yeah the first couple of months of that were actually at home which seemed like a bit of a strange introduction but then you know back in as normal in the September it's probably a bit of a gift actually to not be in a school building being pulled all over the place while you're trying to get to grips with the the processes that you want in place the policies that you want in place the send register because I know picking up from somebody else it's you kind of have to have that unpicking process before you can start moving forward so perversely I suspect that period of time was probably a little bit of um actually not a bad thing is that fair yeah I mean it was great because I got all the time to like you said to put in that the processes get to know my staff you know as SLT we sort of shared out the families between us you know the vulnerable children the children so I you know I contacted everybody with an EHCP and some others so I got to I really got to know a lot of the families before I'd ever met them because I was sort of I think every Friday pretty much put the whole afternoon aside for all the phone calls and it was really nice actually it was getting to know the family chatting about you know somebody's cooking this somebody's been out there for the day I've just bought a new hoover it was just you know just random conversations getting to know that the families it felt like this is going to be really good I've already got these relationships in place before I actually turn up at school and meet the parents and it felt like it was going to be great to be honest because I had that time to get ready okay so I'm hearing it felt like it was going to be great and in light of the fact you're still not doing the role now what was the reality when we went back into school I mean initially to start with and I was saying it was easy but I felt like I could manage and I was still getting to know people I was given time to meet with staff to do certain things and a reasonably low timetable to start with you know I was able to put the TA's timetables in place check the kids timetables properly meet the families with EHCPs those you know with higher needs and sort of yeah that the first term I mean we had a bit where we were back out of school for a bit then we were back in again then we had I think the following year where we were out again for a couple of months but as SENCO and SLT I was expected to be in every day so I was in every day anyway and most of that was sort of supervising the vulnerable children who were in school and then doing some of your own online lessons as well so in fact the more I think about this it was quite an odd start to the job because it was very artificial for quite a long time it was probably quite a long time into it before I started doing the job proper if that makes sense yeah so that's where I mean sort of feet felt or seemed okay to start with and then the timetable kind of increased I had to put my SENCO on pause I deferred it for a year because I just couldn't manage it so I deferred that and then sort of started again the following year I was as you said Sarah's member of SLT I was a form tutor I was designated teacher for looked after children I had a 50 teaching timetable and you know like you were saying before you you sort of you're running out of looking after a child to go and teach a class of 30 kids somewhere else and you I always felt like I was leaving everything half done and it just started to feel more and more and more uncomfortable and I just started to feel more and more out of my depth I thought I can do the job I just can't do it like this and it just became really really unmanageable and you know I was overhauling the policies I was training staff I was doing inset you know doing my own cpd managing my ta's liaising with cams and I mean so you'll be familiar with all of that as well won't you and it just got more and more and more isolating I just you know like that idea of spinning plates and I know it's a cliche but it's true it's it's it's a cliche because it's true you you you are pulled from from pillar to post and and intrinsically you want to be doing the right thing by everybody and and when you it's something's really landed with me that sense of feeling that everything's just being left half done that when you are certainly I was as a senko I wanted everything to be right I wanted it right for the kids I wanted the right support being put in place for the staff and so when when you can't fulfill that you start to feel that you're letting people down and you internalize it when in fact actually it's not you it's what's that around you that that causes causes that situation to be the case I just felt like I was you know at my to-do list I was writing stuff up my arm I was going around school with lists up my arm because I was running from one place to another thinking of something the kids are like what's that well that's my to-do list and it's all the way up here it's ridiculous I was making lists on this bit of paper lists over there and I just felt like I was never ever getting to the end of it you know and it's half past six on Friday and the caretakers are saying can you go now please we need to lock up and I just sort of have that feeling coming home on a Friday thinking oh I've got this and this and this and this and this and this that needs to be done on Monday that's before the week starts again I was in school at seven and I was getting home at half six seven o'clock I just sort of felt like I was failing like I couldn't do it and I was making mistakes and I was dropping things and I wasn't following through on things I should have done things were becoming a bit more problematic I think I said to Sharon when we spoke a couple weeks ago my partner said and he didn't tell me till after I came out he said he used to almost dread the sound of my car coming into the yard at the end of the day because he didn't know what he was going to meet when I walked in the door because I'd be either upset or angry or you know my brain would be flat but I didn't realize that till afterwards and that kind of said a lot but he'd almost be on tenterhooks as I came in wondering what what mood I'd be in Wow and I suspect you would then carry on working when you got in in the evening you would work over the weekend and it was it was really interesting your weekend Sarah's gonna really relate to this tell us what Sunday lunch meant for you Ruth yeah I remember a while back my partner's sister only lives 45 minutes from us and they invited us to Sunday look they invited us on the Saturday for Sunday lunch the following day my first initial response was no I can't and then when my partner was like that's a bit off isn't it I got up at six o'clock and did all my work before we went to make sure it was done and I probably still did more when I got back afterwards but I remember sort of putting saying I couldn't do things on Sundays or I didn't want to go out on Saturday night because maybe I wouldn't be in the right frame of mind on Sunday so and then you know holidays evenings answering phone calls in the sort of the issues that made between me and my partner because it was just always school all the time and I think that's important for Sarah because at the time you had a deadline on your Sundays didn't you what did five o'clock mean on a Sunday for you I I had to be back home little little James as he was then had to have had his tea and and because I needed to do work that was it if you know Sunday lunch at dad's no gotta go now got things to do go and and and it's and it's nonsense got things to do is is not something that's in my that's in my vocab now oh well oh well it is actually that's a slight lie I was asked if I wanted to go out for a bike ride before no I've got a podcast to record but that's my choice do you know what I mean and and I think listening to so many of of our previous guests who who I just go oh that was me that was me sat in a car marking books waiting for waiting for him outside his his guitar lesson or it was like every spare minute had to be filled with there's there's a job that needs ticking off the list and that's no way to live it's no way to live so at what point Ruth you're you're working seven o'clock in the morning till 6 30 in the evening you're coming home you're doing work your weekends have gone you you're working all those hours and by your own admission it's still not great balls are dropping you've got to-do lists up your arms I I always think about what you said Senko it's a coordinator's role it's not a one person's role so in my mind because I've never I've never done this at all surely the teens below you there would have been an assistant Senko TAs HLTAs that's my understanding of the infrastructure of a send department at the school is it a one-man band in an ideal world you are a full-time Senko you don't have a teaching timetable in an ideal world because I don't think it's physically I mean I was in a small high school not you know a huge one with thousands of kids and it it felt too much and like I said even with all that extra stuff I was still dropping everything even with all that extra hours all that extra work it was just still wasn't possible I did have a team of TAs and a HLTA but we had 30 odd kids with the HCPs and four TAs it just doesn't go and then we also had like an internal provision for students who were finding it difficult bit similar to to what I did in the last um school and we set that up while I was enrolled and then I was managing that as well but then that was taking the TAs out of class supporting the kids into doing the interventions and that kind of thing within the base yeah a Senko is a coordinator the idea is you lead and support for all the kids and the whole staff I think it's Senko to practice we are all teachers of Send it's not the Senko that they are in charge of delivering every single support and guidance and and resource for all the children have special needs it's the idea is you're supposed to coordinate the whole school and it's everybody's job but it didn't feel like that and things kind of came to our head I suppose when we had Ofsted and it was clear that we weren't able we weren't providing what we should be providing for the kids but you know long and the short of that I left that position after that because it just wasn't manageable and it wasn't possible for me to do everything that was expected of me I think is that the challenge is the Senko as well is so I think I probably worked in a similar school to you not massive but high proportion of of kids with EHCPs and the the kind of the next level down from that so essentially kids who should have had EHCPs but didn't and then when you looked at even at a top level allocating support based on the number of TAs that you had to meet the hours of requirements that were on each of the EHCPs there weren't enough staff so so fundamentally straight away you couldn't meet the the basic requirements on EHCPs never mind starting to then slot in those interventions and and compounded by the fact that if you've got a high level of EAL as well that that there's there's perceptions of staff that the EAL kids are SEN kids they're not they need a different strategy it becomes an insurmountable task because you haven't got the resources and and I get where you're coming from balls drop not because you want to drop them or because you're not paying attention because there is not the resource to be able to keep that ball up in the air that's fundamentally it I think it's interesting Sharon listening because you've never had a perspective of what a SEN code does I think Ruth's hit the nail on the head the SEND code practice when it came in in in 2014 was really clear every teacher is a teacher of SEND and but that culture has not absorbed into a lot of schools that that teachers still see the SEND code as the person who goes right you use that strategy with that kid on that day at that time and that's what you do oh and we'll take them out for intervention and and everything else you just get on with the other kids and I am generalizing and please forgive me but in cultures where I've worked that's that that has been the perspective and I think that's where it's falling down now I think I think you're right so Ruth you have this Ofsted are you criticized is your department criticized are you criticized personally are you supported I mean we didn't do very well in general but our SEND provision was highlighted as not great let's say and how did that impact you personally was that the decision then could you like right I'm done I cannot do any more than I've been doing yeah I mean it was clear that it wasn't possible to continue in that role after that so that's yeah that's when I sort of left after that and and how did that impact you because you've obviously been working 60 70 hours your partner by his own admission doesn't know what version of Ruth is going to get your weekends are being cut across and then all of a sudden without that Ofsted inspection would you have made that decision so you almost find this decision potentially thrust upon you it's not a case of an I put in a boundary for myself I went in no you've done all of this then to get slapped across the face with the wet kipper that was the Ofsted inspection and then you say right I can't continue with this how were you feeling when you left what state were you in emotionally after all of that shock I think because it's even though we'd obviously not done very well I didn't imagine that that might mean I would have to go I hadn't really thought it through I suppose but on the day that I left I did go and sit in a lay-by and cry in the car for a bit and then I did call my partner but he was off doing something else so I kind of just went home and sat there for quite a few hours I didn't really know what to do in myself at all and then I drove two and a half hours round trip to go and tell my mum and dad because I didn't want to tell them over the phone so I jumped in the car went all the way over there told them had a cup of tea and something to eat and then came back home again did your dad remind you it was a vocation did he say I told you so no I mean my mum and dad were massively supportive they knew what the job was doing to me and when I said afterwards that I set up my own business and I was doing this that and they were both really really relieved and my mum always sort of said you know it's it's a shame you didn't do that yourself earlier maybe and I suppose looking back it would have been I couldn't see that I wasn't managing I suppose you can't sort of see it when you're in the middle of it if I'd have had any sense I would have realised that a little bit earlier and made it my own choice and made it more of a proactive thing to do but when you're in the middle of it you perhaps don't see that you are failing you're just running around like a headless chicken all the time but I think I think you're bumping into people in the corridor so the head of English would have been presenting in the same way that you would have been presenting hairless run ragged meetings are rushed and panicked if you're in a pressure cooker of an environment everybody tends to be behaving in that way irrespective of what role you have your SLT would have been talking about being overworked not having weekends it's a culture it becomes a culture it's not that Ruth O'Neill is running around corridors looking like the wild woman of Borneo where everybody else is floating like a swan everybody you you are talking to is echoing how your experience is and actually it then becomes normal it's only when people externally go no that's that's not okay to be having to get up at six o'clock on a Sunday morning in order to facilitate a Sunday lunch with family but it sounds to me as though you made a plan on leaving and I think this is what's important now in our group life after teaching so many posts come on Ruth that say they outline your position as Senko I'm not coping I don't know what I'm doing but what else can I do because if there's any role on that group that sticks out like a sore thumb more than anything where they say just and only I'm just and only a Senko I don't know what else I can do with my skills because they might say I'm an art teacher so I can't do tutoring or what can I go into the civil service that role in and of itself there's almost a sticking block for people leaving the classroom with that particular job title so what did you do did you harness and leverage your skills within Send or did you park them and go down the route of tutor how did you do it what did you decide to do when you were out kind of both I mean initially you're only sort of in that mindset initially after a couple of weeks of sort of sitting outside reading a book in the orchard and feeling a bit fed up with myself I started applying for Senko jobs again because I thought well that's that's what that's what I do isn't it that's what I am so I started applying for Senko roles again and I thought what on earth am I doing it's not going to be any better anywhere else it's not going to be any easier but I'd kind of gone in that mindset well that's that's what you do isn't it so I stopped doing that and then I thought about a supply and then I thought you know what at that point in time the thought of setting foot in the school again I mean I got offered some supply and I made up that I was ill because I didn't want to go I just didn't I didn't feel like I actually wanted to set foot in a school again ever really at that point and then I just took a bit of time I signed up to an agency that work with kids who were out of school for one reason or another and it was just sort of visiting kids in their homes doing a bit of English maybe sometimes doing a bit of life skills a bit of self-regulation I did some bits going into schools as well just working one-to-one and that sort of built up a little bit and then alongside that I started advertising myself as an English tutor and I started filling up more doing English tutoring and then sort of slowed down on the other and because of the Senko background because I'd been an ASD, ASC lead teacher I found I was getting children who were special needs or you know families who had children who had special needs so I'd get asked about well can you just or what would you do about this or school says they can't have this but we think they probably can or school won't do an EHCP but we'd like one and then I suppose the SEND consultancy just sort of organically grew from that I mean saying SEND consultant sounds a bit fancy doesn't it really but I suppose that's exactly what it is really but ironically what I'm doing now is all the stuff that I was doing before it's just I'm doing it here so I'm helping families apply for EHCPs I'm talking to families about reasonable adjustments and how to liaise with staff at school I'm helping families think about access arrangements and how they can make sure they apply I work with a lot of home ed families as well so you know helping them do that so I'm doing all the things that my job should have been but successfully and I feel like I am actually delivering and I am able to actually do all of those things I always wanted to teach English I was never going to not teach English again I think when I left you know being in a mainstream school like it was that was what I was going to do somehow I was going to carry on teaching English in some way so yeah ironically I'm actually doing what I was hoping I should have been doing a couple of years ago but it's here now Hello loyal listeners I'm going to go full on Charles Dickens in this buy us a coffee slot and as Oliver twist we're going to ask for a little bit more any pennies you can donate to keep our podcast funded would be greatly appreciated see the buy us a coffee link in the episode notes thank you so just to clarify because I'm sure you will have piqued the interest of so many people who are working in SEND I don't think it's a fancy title I think it's what you do you're a SEND consultant okay who are your main clients parents parents are now paying for you to help them guide them and advise them so would you say put your business hat on your head because you've done our conferences Ruth put your hand up if you're a business owner you know where we are where that's concerned talk us through that world of your business then is there a demand in the UK today huge talk us through that that'd be so powerful for so many people um I mean I think sort of what Sarah was saying before as well you know at school they're so stretched in terms of budget staff training um I mean I did the Nisenko course didn't really help me to understand how to be a SENKO I mean I did some nice assignments and did some data and analysis and stuff but it didn't really help me to become a SENKO and I didn't know an awful lot of stuff and when parents were asking me I didn't really know how to advise them so I've kind of taught myself since I've been out I'm in a sort of listening to other people's advice I've done a SEND law qualification I've done two of those so I know I'm a lot more confident now I feel like I've got the right to be able to advise parents because I know the law and what they are and are entitled to how they can go about getting certain support and help so like I said an awful lot of the families I work with have come to me because of that background so I yeah you know help and advise them how to get what they need from schools basically because I kind of know now and I didn't know before what they're entitled to and what they can do and yeah that's sort of like I said my main bread and butter probably is the English tuition but I have an awful lot going on on the side then that's that SEND support with an occasion I get sort of one-off um assignments and projects to do but mostly it's the children that I'm working with I'm already tutoring I've got you so so in many respects you would start your business by the typical way we do things you would start with your presence on Facebook LinkedIn the different social media platforms you went in through the route of tutoring and then you've expanded through your your role as tutor do you have your own website by any chance or yeah I got I mean I kind of I went all in when I you know watched your original pit pony video right back along and I made myself a list yeah I mean I've got I've got a website done you don't have to but I've got a website done it looks nice it's got a picture of my farm on it quite like that and you know some information it's got my qualifications my experience on it so I can sign post parents to that I've got my Facebook page I just post and upload things on that got my business bank account got insurance made sure I had my DBS did a load of courses first aid you don't have to but I made sure and I wanted to be legitimate and trusted and to have that wealth of experience and those qualifications so that you know parents know exactly what they're going to get basically no I think I think that's it you've you've built a business around your skill set and that's what I think is the message that comes out to Senkos or people who are working within Send that's what you can do and what Ruth didn't do which was interesting was go all in in that one swim lane within business she went right well I'm going to do some tutoring on the side she could have chosen to do a couple of days worth of supply while the other built up and it is about going out there and saying I'll have multiple income streams but I suspect that it is your consultancy role that brings you I'd say a lot of joy in your life with what you're doing I mean you're talking to an English tutor I'm still English tutoring now because I love it because I love the text I love the literature I love the language but then you can diversify and have other areas that bring joy into your life and an income stream so what does your life look like now on a day-to-day basis do you have lists written up your arms are you having to get up at six o'clock on a Sunday morning in order to accommodate a meal out at Sunday lunch what does Ruth's life look like now quite different actually um I mean I work four and a half days a week I finish at lunchtime on a Friday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday I have lessons in the morning then I have a nice break in the afternoon and then I start again a bit later on in the afternoon and work into the evening I go to the I have a personal trainer I go to and have a personal training session once a week I do weight lifting wow show off that's amazing I know it's onkers so yeah I've got um chronic back pain and I have really bad sciatica so I was like right I'll do weight training then so I go and do that once a week and it's out the house go meet someone do that come back I go out and do the gardening I go and have conversations with my chickens um I've got time to do things like that I make jam I make chutney we've got oh and we've got an orchard we've got fruit trees and stuff I do that when I finish at 10 past 12 on a Friday that's it I mean if I've got some admin I might sort of save it for that if I've had to carry any lessons over perhaps you know if I've had to move anything around I can do it then and then on a Sunday I mean my normal Sunday isn't normally this but I mean I might spend an hour or two um I mean just thinking that that's my planner I just have a page for each day and I just do a quick note of what I'm doing for each of the children I've got I've got I'll sort of queue up my google documents ready for tomorrow I'll do my Facebook posting I always do my business advertising on a Sunday so I sort of sit and do that and then I'll go downstairs in a bit and sit and read in front of the fire and I'll get up tomorrow morning and start at 10 oh wow so it's completely different thing and it's you know we sort of talk a lot in teaching about you know getting appointments and being able to go for things and not being able to do this not being able to do that I mean a couple of weeks ago I said to my Friday parents oh do you mind if I move the lessons I need to go to Sheffield and get my hair done and they were like yeah that's fine you know it's it's fine isn't it to do that I've a lesson I went to watch Macbeth at the cinema a couple of weeks ago the David Tennant one very good and I asked one of the students do you mind if I just move your lesson to a different day so I can go to the cinema and it's fine and there's no guilt attached to that there's no shame attached so with the idyllic picture that you've just painted Ruth I'm going to ask you a question that I'm dying to know the answer to since leaving teaching after what was 21 years and experiencing life outside of the classroom can you pick for us a moment that you've experienced since leaving that would be Ruth O'Neill's sliding door story yeah I think I talked a little bit about it last time and this is going right back to when I first started so before my tuition had built up I found myself doing a bit of the same consultancy just you know a parent had got in touch with me and I did an awful lot of stuff with her you know applying for funding for things helping out with her son for access arrangements and I did hours worth of stuff for it because her son had been home educated very high achieving but had a number of different needs and when he'd gone to do his exams the exam center hadn't granted any of the access arrangements and it was all a bit of a mess up so she sort of commissioned me to complain let's say so I helped to do sort of an appeal a complaint letter sorted all that out we did an awful lot of work together and it got overturned he got given the predicted grade that he'd had all along rather than the one he got given and I did actually get back in touch with her the other week and he's at university doing the course that he wanted to do and you probably do all of that kind of stuff when you're in teaching but nobody's ever got the time to let you know and you've never got the time to catch up with anybody else either whereas doing this now I mean I've got probably 25 different kids I work with each week and I know them all and I know the families and I know what the cats are called and I know what they like to eat for dinner and I know where they've been on holiday and I went to stay with one of my students and his mum last weekend in North Wales I went to go and stay with them for the weekend so in a sense it's what you had during that first period of lockdown when you were initially in that new world I'm touching base with my families I'm prepared I've got the time and the impacts come back again because there's got to be a bit of up thinking here Sarah Dunwood hasn't there which says if you give somebody enough time to do what they need to do you will see the impact what are your thoughts on Ruth before she leaves us well I mean it's it's my wheelhouse it's been great to talk to somebody who understands the the soapbox that I like to stand on and and I completely recognise I completely recognise your experience and the frustrations that sit with that that then start to eat away with at you because you feel like you can't do right for doing wrong when actually it's what sits around you that that causes that and I think it's really interesting that for you that that that moment that sliding doors moment wasn't about being able to go somewhere up somewhere or or do something it was about that being able to follow up with a child that you did something for and find out where it's and where they've got to and if that isn't at the heart of why all of us want to teach then then we're in the wrong place so magic thank you it's been really fun thank you Ruth you've been absolutely amazing and on behalf of myself and Sarah and all of our listeners I just want to thank you so much for your time today thanks Ruth thanks both of you it's been really enjoyable talking to you thank you well what a great episode and superb story in many ways I think it's um very very common for Senkos to get burnt out Sarah I'm going to hand this over to you because as you said before to Ruth this really is your wheelhouse what were your thoughts on Ruth? Ruth's journey into being a Senko is very familiar from contacts that I I know and have and and mine was mine was I line managed SEN for a long period of time and and was involved in it as a head of year and and you you kind of I think Senkos are created not born in the system and and people find their way into it and are usually the right people for the for the for the job because they're they're coming from the right place but fundamentally I don't think for the last decade and a bit that the system is set up to allow Senkos to do what they need to be able to do effectively to impact children and I think that that I said it at the end of the episode I was so delighted that Ruth picked a moment that was about finding out about the impact of on a on a child that she'd worked with which I hope the listeners they don't see that as something insignificant because I saw it is the complete opposite of that's so significant to get feedback from children that you have helped somewhere along the way who say I'm at that university now because you helped me complain about the fact that I didn't get my entitlement for my exams that's so powerful um and yeah I just I'm not going to rant and rave about the sen system because that's an episode all by itself but I think um it was just lovely to speak to somebody who I recognized myself in in terms of a good proportion of my career I I absolutely agree with you there and I think it's important that she was still able to utilize those skills and they've not been parked in a box and she's just an English tutor she's just a supply teacher when I say just I mean doing one thing but I think people do say just I'm just an English tutor no you're not I'm just a this I don't like the word just the thing for me about send consultant and and I know that's where Ruth was coming from oh it sounds a bit highfalutin and all the rest of it but fundamentally for those senkos who are sat in our group or who are listening to our podcast and somebody actually commented a few weeks into the podcast it'd be great if we could get a former senko on and I think what's really important is that because the system is on its knees at the moment there is a need for that that wealth of advice and talent and skill and an understanding that has leeched out of the education system to still be utilized because there aren't enough support services around there aren't enough people who you can signpost a parent to and unless you're lucky and you know somebody and and we've had it I've got family who've been who've been consulting with me at different times there was even a wedding we went to last year where I ended up in a conversation with a with somebody for an hour about their kid and and and what was happening at their school and how to do this and signposting those things I think it's really important for senkos not to underestimate what they do what their skill set is what their understanding is and the value of that to parents and and and not just because that's a whole different conversation how do you put a price on that value for your services but the value of it the impact it makes for families who are struggling and if you can find a way to provide that those services and support to then there's no reason why you shouldn't completely agree I think more than anything about putting the value and putting a price on it it's about exposing the information that sits behind a wall of inaccessibility within schools parents don't know this information they don't know what their children are entitled to they don't know the legislation they don't know the laws when you're a parent of a secondary school child it can take weeks to try and track down a teacher or a head of year just to find out some information so in many ways even if you're positioning yourself as the person who's giving value for free in the first instance with a good website and start to expose what parents rights are I think there's a real chasm of that in in society at the moment because we know it through connects us with the tutoring we lean ourselves across in many ways too and did you know this about the access arrangements there is there's a dearth of knowledge out there and parents will seek you out pay for it as they should in a society where we glue plastic on the end of our fingers and have acrylic nails done and pay top dollar for that that's where you actually go well what is the value on the information that this person has if you go to a solicitor they charge you by the hour we are sitting ourselves in the world of a service provider and we shouldn't suddenly have an uncomfortable feeling about it because it's information about special educational needs yeah I agree I agree but but that will be where where people sit yeah that's the discomfort yeah that is the discomfort and that's where it needs a mindset shift but I thought it was a great episode it was lovely to listen to her just anecdotally talk about her life now and she said talking to chickens because if you think about it the first time we know Ruth's business we know Ruth lives on a farm but the first time she she brought it to my awareness was when she said my husband would listen for my car to arrive on the yard okay so first you get your first farming and he didn't know what version of me he was going to get whether I was angry or upset and then the next time post teaching she's talking to chickens he's reading a book in front of the fire and you think her world hasn't changed she's still on what farm yeah it's how she is in that world correct that farm and that lifestyle there's so much she said as she left then I said what you do because we film on it we record on a Sunday afternoon now she told us previously she'd have to get up at six o'clock in the morning to accommodate a Sunday lunch she just went I think I'll just go and find some biscuits and sit in front of the fire and she's still doing all the things that she was doing she's still impacting children she's still teaching the subject that she loves and to me she is that she's just encapsulated everything that you can do if you do not throw your skill set out with the bath water when you are stepping outside of a world of teaching dear friend of Conexus dear friend of the world of tutoring she's great Ruth her links will be dropped below she's the kind of person you reach out to her ask for any advice it's just in her DNA isn't it really she's she's an absolute belter and for listeners we would just need to acknowledge the fact that Ruth has the most fabulous bright blue and green hair it's a moment I've met Ruth with pink hair I've met Ruth with her hair on top of her head all yeah Ruth Ruth's unique she is a pony into the unicorn she really is and it was delightful to spend time with her today so we'd like to thank Ruth thank you again for staying with us and listening and look forward to see you on the next episode of the Pit Pony podcast and who knows what we'll have for you there thanks Sarah and I'll see you on the other side thank you so much for staying with us throughout another great episode and on behalf of myself Sarah Dunwood and all at the production team we appreciate your continued support if you wish to contact me directly for a support session or a clarity call for your next steps please find my link in the comments below see you soon