Nikki Ambrose

I move to Camberley in July 2003. I have been married for 26 years and have two children a girl, 22 and a boy, 19.  During this time I have lived abroad, 1987-91 & 1995-98, this has helped me in understanding the diversity of family life. During the second period overseas I became a parent helper at the British School in Riyadh before taking up a place as a teaching assistant in the schools nursery unit. My duties included teaching basic literacy, numeracy, assisting with the planning of curriculum based activities under the guidance of the units teaching staff. My role also included being responsible for the liaison between the school and the parents of 15 of the nursery’s 60 children.

Upon my return to the UK, I worked for a pre-school group called Puffins Playschool in Ely Cambridgeshire. Firstly as a pre-school assistant and then as a pre-school leader having completed a Pre-school Learning Alliance diploma in Pre-school Practice. During this time I was involved in preparing the playschool to be assessed to become an OFSTED registered pre-school, ensuring all the necessary paperwork and records were in order, the playschool was meeting the Foundation Stage Learning Objectives and the setting up of a Mother and Toddler Group. This enabled me to develop good relationships with other professionals, parents/ carers and their children supporting them to make the transition to the next stage in their education, supporting them with their worries or concerns regarding behaviour or general parenting issues.

Moving to Camberley I successfully applied for the job of ELSA at Cordwalles School in 2003. This role has required me to work closely with both the pupils and their parents to support the emotional needs of the children. I have also helped to support other schools in developing the role of the ELSA within their school.

In September 2006, I took on another role, that of Family Support Worker for the STEP partnership which comprises of the four school on the Old Dean Estate in Camberley. This involved working both with the schools and the families by running after school clubs, visiting and supporting families with children on fix term exclusions, monitoring selected pupils attendance- following up as necessary, organising and supporting a parent support group, running craft mornings for hard to engage parents. This year has seen a move from working for the STEP Partnership to working for the Surrey Heath Confederation of Schools in the role of Family Support Worker where I have been involved in developing family learning events and line managing the two other family support workers.