One book, so many language activities…

Lauren Bucknall

Speech and Language Therapist

Current Role

Lauren joined Springboard in 2020 and is working in the schools’ team within Portsmouth. She works with several schools in Portsmouth. Lauren enjoys working together with school staff and families to support children to communicate and learn to the best of their ability.

Background Information

Lauren completed a degree in Psychology before becoming a teaching assistant in a local school. This experience was invaluable to her as she completed her post graduate diploma in Speech and Language Therapy. Lauren graduated in 2012 and returned to the school to work as their in-house therapist for several years. She later worked for the NHS in a number of roles. Lauren has particular clinical interests in Language Disorder and supporting children and young people who stammer.

Testimonial

“During the time I worked with Lauren I was impressed with her professionalism. I found her to be a hard-working conscientious person. She worked well in a team, happily sharing her knowledge with both staff and parents.  Children enjoyed working with her and she was able to get the best out of them. She was a well-liked member of the school team.”

Tracey

Independent Speech and Language Therapy Assistant

Current Role

Tracey has years of experience carrying out speech and language therapy interventions in schools and within early years.  She is extremely committed to developing children’s communication and we are delighted to have her working part-time with us in our school-commissioned service. 

Clara Liu

Independent Speech and Language Therapist

Current Role

Clara trained and worked as a Speech and Language Therapist in Canada before moving to the UK. She now works part time for the NHS and also within our schools team.  She is multilingual (as are many of the children we work with) and her understanding of multilingual development is a great asset to our team.

Background Information

Clara has worked in many areas of speech and language therapy including: early language development, speech sound disorders, accent modification, developmental language disorders, and social communication.

Sally-Anne Smith

Independent Speech and Language Therapist 

Current Role

Sally offers individual therapy for children with speech and language difficulties around the Petersfield / Liss area.  She has extensive experience of working in schools and held a specialist post in the NHS for many years. 

Background Information

Sally previously worked for 25 years in the NHS. Throughout her career Sally has worked with children with a wide range of communication difficulties and since 1995 she has held specialist posts providing individual and group therapy to children and young people with speech and language disorders in community settings, language units/special support centres and in mainstream schools.

Having worked closely with teaching and support staff in schools for many years, Sally has a good understanding of the curriculum and the skills and support that children with speech and language disorders require to access it and progress with their learning. She is experienced in providing training for school professionals and parents and working collaboratively with them to achieve the best outcomes for children and young people. 

Testimonial

“Sally is both extremely professional and friendly.  She prepares carefully for each session with clear thought into exactly how to engage my son with different materials and activities.  She also really takes on board what I say which I really value….my son is making lots of progress which is really encouraging.”

Sally Eveleigh

Independent Speech and Language Therapist 

Current Role

Sally provides our school-commissioned service to a group of schools in Southsea.  She has worked closely with schools for the whole of her career and uses her specialist knowledge in Language Disorder to provide assessments of children’s speech and language levels as well as practical and relevant advice on how to support them in school. 

Background Information

Sally completed her speech and language therapy degree in 1999.  She worked for the NHS in primary and secondary schools, pre-school settings, language units and health centres and progressed to become a Specialist Speech and Language Therapist in Language Disorder (previously referred to as ‘Specific Language Impairment’).  This role included supporting other therapists and providing training to parents, staff and other professionals.  

Sally also co-authored a published Therapy Resource Pack for developing social communication skills [Social Communication Difficulties Resource Pack – Speechmark 2011].  

Testimonial

“Our school has been buying into Springboard as part of a cluster of infant schools for the past four years and even though our budget is tight, this is something that we are determined to keep. 
 
Sally Eveleigh, the therapist that works with us, is amazing.  The support and advice she has given to the school and parents has been invaluable, enabling those children with Speech and Language difficulties to make good progress and more importantly build their self-confidence and social skills as they begin to overcome their issues. 
 
Sally is very approachable, the children love working with her and staff always feel able to ask for advice or clarification, nothing is too much trouble.  Reports and programmes are clearly written and easy to follow.  She has also run whole school training sessions for staff.  Feedback is always very positive and staff feel more confident to deliver Speech and Language programmes and support those children that they work with than they did prior to working with Sally and Springboard.”

Julie Treanor

Independent Speech and Language Therapist 

Current Role

Julie started working with Springboard in 2016 as part of our expanding school-commissioned service.  She currently works with schools in the Portsmouth area providing narrative groups, and assessments and interventions for children with a variety of communication needs.  

Background Information

Julie currently runs her own independent speech and language therapy practice as well as working with Springboard.  She previously worked in the NHS for 14 years, supporting children and young people with a variety of communication difficulties including speech sound difficulties and language delay.  Her last two posts in the NHS were as a specialist therapist for children with (what is now termed) developmental language disorders.  

Working with children, school staff and parents/carers, Julie enjoys helping children attain their communication potential in a fun and enjoyable way. 

Testimonial

“Julie’s input this year has had a massive impact on our children.  The children are always excited to work with her – she makes the Narrative group fun and engaging.  She’s so kind.  She’s been really helpful and very supportive in training us up and is always ready to answer questions, explain and offer sound advice and talk through concerns.  Our children would not be achieving at the same level without her invaluable input. A big thank you Julie!”

Rachel Mathrick

Speech and Language Therapist 

Current Role

Rachel joined Springboard in 2018 and works in our school-commissioned service focussing on Junior and Secondary Schools.  She brings to this role considerable experience of supporting children and young people with significant language disorders and social communication needs, and of working closely alongside teaching staff to implement effective and curriculum-based interventions.  

Background Information

After completing her degree in 2005 Rachel worked initially in the NHS and then for over a decade at a specialist multidisciplinary school for children and adolescents with language disorders, ASD and a range of communication needs.
    
Whilst in that post Rachel actively contributed to multi-agency research and co-published a journal article on an interview skills therapy programme which she conceived, developed, and delivered.  She also co-authored the Post-16 Elklan course, co-wrote a chapter in the book “Supporting Adolescents with Language Disorders”, and has presented at several conferences. 

Testimonial

“Rachel is a really nice and patient lady to work with.  She has helped me to improve my maths skills this year.  She has lots of different methods to help you understand and picks the best one for you.  Working with Rachel has helped me to build my confidence over time in a subject that I originally found tricky.”

Fiona White

Office Manager

Current Role

Fiona joined Springboard in 2011 as an administrator and has kept the ‘Springboard Ship’ in order ever since.

Background Information

Fiona’s background is in HR but after having her children she wanted a change of career and joined Springboard.  She is responsible for the vast majority of attractive and well-made resources that are used in our sessions, keeps our finances under control, and is the initial point of contact for all enquires and queries.

Testimonial

“Fiona is patient, calm, conscientious and friendly.  We genuinely don’t think we can manage without her.”

Chris Platt

Speech and Language Therapist

Current Role

Chris leads Springboard’s school-commissioned service and also provides individual therapy sessions, specialising in therapy for speech sound difficulties, including those related to Hearing Impairment and Down Syndrome. 

As a registered ELKLAN tutor Chris regularly delivers the ‘Speech & Language Support for 5-11s’ course, as well as our own training sessions for INSET days, and staff meetings.  

Background Information

Chris qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist through a Master’s Degree from the University of Sheffield where he was awarded the 2004 MMedSci prize for best overall degree performance.  He is a self-proclaimed speech and language therapy “geek” and is in good company within the Springboard team! 

Chris has worked for different NHS Trusts and has held specialist roles.  He also taught some of the clinical lectures for the Speech, Language and Communication Science course that ran previously at the University of Portsmouth. 

Chris’ particular ‘passions’ are around; minimising the impact of social deprivation on Educational outcomes for children, intervention for children with complex speech disorders, and supporting schools to help children with SLCN succeed and thrive. 

Testimonial

“Chris is a thoughtful, thorough and ingenious therapist, who comes up with imaginative ideas to encourage hard work from a child who really enjoys her therapy sessions.  I wholeheartedly recommend his work.”

Hilary Platt

Speech and Language Therapist

Current Role

Hilary leads our private therapy service and provides regular, ongoing therapy to the children on her caseload with predominantly complex speech sound disorders (a number of whom have Down Syndrome).  Hilary integrates clinical theory and therapy approaches in her intervention to ensure it is tailored specifically to that child’s needs and situation.  She is creative and enjoys making therapy enjoyable for all concerned! 
 
Hilary also works in Mainstream schools with the school-commissioned service and runs Communication Groups for school-aged children with Down Syndrome on behalf of Portsmouth Down Syndrome Association (PDSA). 

Background Information

Hilary completed her degree in 1999 and worked in two NHS Trusts over a 14 year period in various roles and settings including; supporting pre-school children with complex needs in a Child Development Centre and a Resourced Provision within a Nursery, providing assessment and intervention for children with a range of speech and language needs within community clinic settings, and working with school staff to support children with moderate learning difficulties in a Special School.  Hilary also has experience of working closely with bilingual co-workers and interpreters.  

Testimonial

“Hilary has been working with my son Noah since he was 4 years old, and he has made incredible progress. Not only did Hilary help to uncover what his issues were, she broke down the work we had to do to make improvements into easily achievable steps and always makes it great fun for Noah so he always enjoys her sessions and loves working with her. Hilary has been a massive support to me as a parent, both in terms of supporting me help Noah but also working alongside school, other professionals, both private and NHS, to get the best outcome for him, and the results speak for themselves. Getting Hilary to work with Noah is one of the best decisions I ever made for him.”