A member of staff who works in pastoral care and who always makes the extra effort to support young people to enable them to become effective learners and achieve success.
Malone College are delighted to announce another success, as classroom assistant, Ms Quinn won the ‘Pastoral Member of Staff of the Year’ for all the UK schools at the National Awards held in England. Ms Quinn, who lives in Twinbrook, Belfast attended the awards along with our SENCO, Ms Mary Mc Caffrey last Friday who went on to say, “When you think of a classroom assistant, you think of a supportive adult who works with one or two students under the direction of the teacher. However, at Malone Integrated College, classroom assistants are so much more than this generic job description.
One such “assistant” is Ms Ita Quinn. Ita has worked at Malone for 18 years and has supported many students over those years with a various range of needs. Ita has worked with all age groups but has found herself most connected with our young adults as she navigates them through their post 16 studies. She has built up a wealth of knowledge across the A level subject offerings, as well as gotten to grips with the demands of the more coursework/portfolio based BTEC qualifications. Post-16 students know that she is a “Jill of all trades” and will often seek her support during their study periods to help them finalise their assignments.
They know that she will encourage them to review the rubric of their assignment brief, help them seek out further research to elevate their responses, direct them to teacher given resources that they have clearly “forgotten about” and semi-shame them into proofreading their fabulous efforts to ensure they achieve their best. Ita will have already made firm links with these students during the most stressful times of their lives- their GCSE exams. Ita assists the SENCo with assessing all kids with various learning difficulties to ensure that they have adequate supports to achieve their potential in the exams.
These supports such as access to a reader, access to a scribe, use of a word processor or access to extra time, ensure equity for all students. Ita insists that all these students have their entitled arrangement in place and encourages them to make use of it. She can be found on many a GCSE exam morning in a “Buckaroo” like pose with a box of spare pens in each pocket, balancing a tower of laptops and a smaller wobbly tower of examination reading pens in her arms, inching her way to the exam centre, all the while issuing soothing words of supports to the anxious students she will be supervising that morning.
Our students know that Ms Quinn has everything in order and that is reassuring to them during this most anxious time of their school career. Ita’s academic superpower is maths! And our students know this. Ita supports small groups of junior students with their numeracy struggles during the school week, however our busy GCSE students are only available for extra support sessions when school has ended. This is when Ita begins her after school supports, working over and above her contracted hours. She recognises the need for one to one or very small group support in maths as many students are conscious of getting things wrong in front of others. Each year, word gets around of how supportive Ms Quinn is and how things just “click” after she explains it. Her requests for extra classes grow and she will have sessions each day after school to support all who want it.
The gratitude from the students is effusive when they tell her after the exam that something she did with them last week “came up”! Ita has a rule however that there are no break or lunchtime classes- yes, this is because she feels the students need their downtime, but, it is also because Ita isn’t available. During these times, Ita supports our students who have social and communication needs. Many of our ASD students can experience sensory overload in the noisy and crowded canteen and play areas. These students come to Ita in the Individual Needs area where there is a quieter vibe but certainly plenty of craic. Over her mug of strong black coffee, Ita hears about the students’ school day and their exciting weekend plans. She pretends to know about Tik Tok and Roblox but heartily praises their football efforts when they reveal they saved a last-minute goal from the best team in the league. During a recent bout of illness when she was unfortunately hospitalised, Ita rang in to school each day to have a speakerphone catch up with her lunchtime crew.
She knew how valuable that sense of routine is and, it goes without saying that their voices were restorative for her too. It is no doubt that Ita goes above and beyond to support our students academically and pastorally. Thankfully at 62, although she may have been issued a free bus pass, she has no intention of hanging up her Malone College staff lanyard just yet!”