Teaching assistant retires after 31 years (From Salisbury Journal)

Teaching assistant retires after 31 years

12:00pm Monday 4th February 2013 in News By Elizabeth Kemble

A TEACHING assistant who has worked with children in Salisbury with physical impairment for the last 31 years has retired.

Ann Sammons began working at the Kestrel school while it was based at Salisbury District Hospital.

During this time she developed many skills working alongside physiotherapists, occupational and speech therapists and even escorted some children on residential trips both at home and abroad. These skills were to be of great value when the school left the hospital site and was relocated at Exeter House, Wyndham Park and finally Pembroke Park where it is today, as Kestrel Resource Base.

Over the years the unit has undergone many changes and the children are now integrated more fully into mainstream education.

Special needs coordinator and head of the school’s physically impaired unit Janet Ford said: “Ann’s patience and her calm, gentle but firm manner has helped the many children she has supported over the years to achieve both physically and academically, and there are many of these children, now grown up, who remember times they shared with her with great fondness.

“She has been a valued member of the Kestrel team and will be missed by the children, parents, and all who work with her. We all wish her good health and a long and happy retirement.”

The occasion was marked at Pembroke Park School with a special assembly last Wednesday.