Meet the team

Laura is currently on extended leave enjoying her new family. We are looking forward to her return.

Holding a Level 3 BTEC Diploma in Children’s Play, Learning and Development, Laura previously lead our KS1 and 2 learning mentor team. With 7 years of experience across a range of childcare situations, she has 5 years experience leading a room team. Laura was part of our Safeguarding team and holds a range of qualifications to support the children development and is pursuing play therapy qualifications.

Laura loves how relaxed and rewarding this environment is especially for the children as it allows mentors to developing their sense of enjoyment and individuality in child-led learning. Laura is very good at coaxing reluctant students towards some adult led content and team work with their peers. Laura has a very calm and gentle personality is instrumental in building trusting relationships with students who have failed to thrive in other placements.

Outside of work, Laura feeds her creativity with DIY and playing with her cats and new baby.

Amazing with the young people, Clare’s role also include managing the individualised plans and support for our young people working at key stage 1 and 2 curriculum levels.

Clare holds a Level 3 Diploma working for the Children and Young People’s Workforce and has many years experience supporting children of all ages from pre-school to college age. 

She is also part of our Safeguarding Team and holds a variety of qualifications, to both support and extend children's development. 

Clare loves thinking of exciting and challenging activities, as well as different approaches to engage and spark the imagination of our young people. 

She cares about the outcomes for all the young people and their wellbeing and that of the staff she is currently helping to manage as setting lead. 

Clare has two grown up daughters who are currently studying at university, their journey through the education system has kept her mindful of the challenges faced by both children and their parents. 

Outside of work she enjoys researching family history and visiting National Trust properties. 

Starting as a mainstream Primary School Teacher, Michelle’s 20 years of professional development in education has seen her become a SENCO and a specialist school teacher in arts and humanities.

Passionate about mental health and wellbeing, Michelle is also a clinical hypnotherapist.

Michelle both works with our young people in academic subjects and helps manage the individualised planning and PHSE support for each student.

At home, she has three children, a partner and a dog called Ruby. She loves nature, historic buildings and spending time with loved ones.

With a wealth of experience in the business management of education, Emma is the person to talk to around the organisation and financial operations of Hunt Scholars.

Penny has previously head our KS3 and KS4 learning mentor team, but is currently focussing on supporting some of our high needs students due to her experience in the role.

A level 2 qualified counsellor, she is passionate about mental health and emotional literacy. As deputy safeguarding lead, Penny understands the importance of being safe as well as feeling safe and that comes from creating a space for open conversations where children and young people feel comfortable to talk about anything they need to.

Penny enjoys teaching maths, and is an expert at simultaneous and quadratic equations and baking gluten-free chocolate brownies with our students.

Penny’s background includes A-level English and Maths, a BA hons in Advertising (which is very helpful for teaching English and Business Studies) and substantial experience of working in Early Years Child Care. Having completed her IPSEA level 3 training, Penny also helps with our sister company, working on making sure EHCPs reflect the needs of our students and the provision they need.

Sarah leads the delivery of English Literature GCSE and supports English Language GCSE. Alongside Ellie, she also oversees English delivery to all our students.

A qualified teacher, (BEd Hons) in English and Art, Sarah was initially a primary school teacher, with a key stage 2 focus, leading her own class and then providing PPA and supply cover while raising her young family. She loves working with children and enjoyed how varied every day could be and how zany and fun the children were. Later, she spent almost 7 years working in a not-for-profit supporting young women to gain their first qualification and create something special for their babies. Re-establishing engagement and making education enjoyable and purposeful for the students was key to the job, through creating a nurturing safe environment, so that core curriculum could be delivered to support them into their future lives. This required a flexible and creative approach.

Sarah brings the experience of teaching Functional Skills English to adults in the Community and mentored a newly qualified colleague to deliver Functional Skills Maths. Teaching people who have never found learning easy requires patience and empathy and the ability to explain concepts in multiple ways using a variety of prompts.

Most recently Sarah has been a TA in mainstream, enjoying her time supporting reception age students and developing learners throughout key stage 1. As class TA, the job was varied and exciting and included support for a wide range of learners.

Seeking new challenges, Sarah is looking forward to working in a child led atmosphere, facilitating new experiences for learners where the quality of everyone’s experience is important.

Ellis has a number of key roles within our organisation and handles compliance, health and safety and complaints among the portfolio of roles.

Ellis started in data protection in a corporate environment, listening to calls and making sure processes were followed. Whilst raising her young family, she studied to be a HLTA, later working in a local special school across a range of class ages and needs, from working with young people with PMLD and PD learning at a nursery level, with speech and communication barriers and with movement, medical and self care needs to working with secondary age students with a range of special needs including autism and specific learning difficulties. Skills developed included communication including singalong and working alongside Occupational Therapists to improve physical skills and sensory integration for the students.

To match the needs of her family, Ellis moved into governance and administrative work with local school trusts and is bringing the breadth of her skills as both a hands on team member and administrator in SEN and education to the Hunt Scholars team.

After starting her family, Lindsey recognised her passion for working with young people and supporting their development. Approachable and down to earth, she started studying during Covid, gaining a level three diploma in Early Years Education, and level 2 diplomas with focuses in mental health and challenging behaviour.

Lindsey really struggled in school and didn’t have the support or empathy from those around her to learn how she wanted to and brings those experiences positively into her teaching practice.

Neurodiversity became important to her family from both personal and professional experience and following that lead she wanted to develop her practice working with families affected by neurodiversity and mental health. It is her nature to nurture and support and enable young voices to be heard especially those less able to speak for themselves.

Lindsey has worked with young people from ages 2 to17 to enable them reach their goals. She believes opportunities to develop self-led learning and follow her dreams and aspirations when younger, in the way she is now supporting young people to reach for their goals, would have made a difference to her pathways and she wants to bring these opportunities to her current role.

Joining our team in 2024, Sofia oversees the delivery of our Maths programmes, which are created to support curriculum development on appropriate pathways- whether that is KS1 first number through or higher Level GCSE programmes. Teaching all of our exam pathway students herself, she also supports our learning mentors to deliver maths content to our younger students.

Graduating in 2014, with a BA Hons Degree in Dance with a later Diploma in Dance Pedagogy, Jade has developed her teaching skills across a wide age range, from toddlers to dementia patients. She has completed training in Signalong, Understanding and Planning for Neurodiversity, and Total Communication, allowing her to develop the understanding of communicating without verbality.

Jade is very good at differentiating her teaching techniques and language to meet learners at their developmental point to support their growth through appropriate next steps and is project leader for SALTO through Swindon Dance. Using patience and understanding, Jade inspires and encourages students to work to expand their window of tolerance for new experiences. She utilises video and image editing to help students find creative ways to share their learning. With boundless energy, she incorporates dance and wider performing arts utilising her natural creativity and positivity Jade is trained to lead our Arts Award programme from Discover to Gold , supporting students to explore the arts and also uses her knowledge of semantics of body movement to support delivery of Occupational Therapy to support learning.

As a Literacy Champion, Jade is passionate and encouraging about the importance of literacy, and teaches English from developing decoding and retrieval skills to a wider appreciation and understanding of information texts and narrative including through story play and artistic expression of story, such as ballet.

Ellie graduated with a BA in Economic and Social History from Exeter University before completing her teacher training with a PCGE that didn't mention autism once. After several years working in schools and a gap to start a family, she decided that it was no good to complain about a lack of appropriate provision for autistic people when she could be providing it herself.

Ellie enjoys sharing her love of History and the context and themes needed to understand English Literature. She is PHSE lead and enjoys making sure our neurodivergent students have the tools they need to navigate life both in and beyond the classroom.

As both an autistic person, but also with the added bonus of ADHD, Ellie is happy creating an environment where everyone can study and feel safe, but also see adult role models getting on with being autistic and working effectively while having their needs met with a wide range of suitable adaptions and without embarrassment at needing that support.

Joining us in Autumn 2024, Kiran has quickly become a valuable team member. Kiran is capable of delivering a wide variety of curriculum areas, however we like to keep him busy supporting Maths curriculum delivery and leading in Computer Science to GCSE level.

Vicki has worked with young children for 9 years now and have had 6 years experience of working with SEN children including working with young people with complex needs in specialist settings.

Vicki has BTEC Level 3 qualification in Children’s Play, Learning and Development and Level 2 in Understanding Autism

She loves working with the children to help build their confidence, communication and loves celebrating every milestone no matter how big or small! She brings great variety to the children’s learning, thinking of different activities to try with children and helping make communication aids for children who need them.

Outside of work, she loves to be with her husband and 1 year old daughter and going out in little adventures.

Elle has a strong background in working with children who have Special Educational Needs (SEN) and has been passionate about supporting young people from an early age. She began her journey in childcare at just 16 and has since dedicated her career to helping children grow in confidence, independence, and ability.

Having grown up with three siblings with SEN, Elle has a deep, personal understanding of a wide range of needs, including Autism, ADHD, anxiety, and OCD. From a young age, she played an active role in helping to care for and support them — an experience that shaped her compassionate, patient, and person-centred approach to working with children.

Professionally, Elle has worked across both mainstream settings as a SEN Teaching Assistant and in specialist schools supporting children with more complex needs. Through this, she has developed a broad range of practical skills — including experience with gastrostomy (Gastro) feeding and Team-Teach training to support children who may require help with behaviour regulation and safe physical intervention.

In addition to her school-based work, Elle also supports families through Direct Payments — providing one-to-one care by taking children with SEN on fun and engaging days out in the community, giving both the children meaningful experiences and their parents much-needed respite.

Her approach is centred on building strong, trusting relationships and creating a safe, nurturing environment where every child feels valued and understood. With Elklan training in speech, language, and communication, Elle brings valuable expertise to her work and remains committed to expanding her knowledge to better support the children she works with.

Elle believes in celebrating every achievement — big or small — and is dedicated to helping young people progress at their own pace and reach their individual

Izzy is versatile member of our team, with qualifications in health and social care, helping support our young people from KS1 to KS4 to access education and therapeutic experiences to the build their resilience and reinforce their self image as learners.

Izzy is described by others as caring and supportive.