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Wayne Bushell joined Break Through School in Autumn 2023, bringing with him a unique journey and an inspiring story of perseverance and growth. With no prior experience in education beyond his own school days, Wayne originally pursued a career as a lifeguard. However, motivated by the success of his cousin, who works as a Teaching Assistant at Break Through, he decided to apply for a similar role when an opportunity arose in Spring 2023.

At Break Through School, all staff benefit from a robust programme of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and training, and Wayne has embraced these opportunities with enthusiasm. His commitment to learning and development has allowed him to excel in his role, earning praise for his exceptional communication skills, personable nature, and firm-but-fair approach. These qualities have made him a favourite among learners and a valued member of the team.

Wayne’s talents have also shone through in his work with interventions such as Toe-by-Toe, a multi-sensory phonics programme. His effective delivery of this programme has led to remarkable progress for one of his learners, earning commendations from the school’s Speech and Language Therapist, social care professionals, and parents alike.

Wayne’s dedication and adaptability have seen him take on additional responsibilities as Break Through’s Health & Safety Lead. This sub-role showcases his ability to manage multiple tasks effectively and his readiness to grow within the school.

Wayne’s ability to lead on multiple tasks and his personable skills make him a strong candidate for leadership opportunities which is something the school is keen to support him with.

Harj joined us last Autumn term, 2022, having dropped in as she walked by and realised we are an independent school due to our new signage. 

Harj was looking for a new, part-time opportunity to offer literacy outreach as a consultant. Her passion for improving literacy for young people was evident in our discussions and we were aware this was an area for the school to develop. 

Harj was initially employed to be an English teacher and settled in quickly. Her reflective and intuitive approach to teaching meant differentiation and responsive delivery were amongst her strengths.  

It was soon evident to the Senior Leadership Team that Harj has great potential in leading on the curriculum.

Upon discussion, she demonstrated a strong aptitude for researching programmes, schemes, comparative provisions and devised systems that would work best for our bespoke setting. 

Through our new ownership, we were able to reform the Senior Leadership Team structure and appoint two new SLT members as Curriculum and Pastoral leads. Despite only being with us for a very short time, it was clear that Harj had a strong vision that complemented ours for the trajectory of Break Through School and needed to play a critical role in the progress of our curriculum.

In the following Spring and Summer months, Harj has proceeded to implement and devise new and improved offers that will provide learners with the best opportunity for lifelong success, which is our purpose.  

Harj embodies our values, modelling respect and equity to our learners and staff alike.

She is thriving in her new role, which has been expedited by the opportunities afforded to us by us joining the Melrose Education group of schools.

GL joined Break Through school in Sept 2021 as a Teaching Assistant. Throughout his first academic year, he was enrolled onto a Foundation Degree in Education Studies, working a 4 day week with us. He completed his studies in May 2022 and after a period of reflection, felt he wished to apply his newly found understanding of education to a developed role.

GL spoke openly about his desire to move out of his partner’s parents house and to do so would need an increase in wages. He was keen to demonstrate his skill set in the hope we would acknowledge this and it would reflect in his pay. GL began working a 5 day week and has shown an intuitive understanding of our Young People’s needs, particularly where they are sensory driven. As a result, he began using pads for Young People to expend additional energy. As he sought to understand our Young People’s needs, he came to a realisation that he himself has traits in line with ADHD and has since sought for an adult diagnoses (ongoing).

In Dec 2022, a position became viable as our Operations Manager handed in his notice. We took this opportunity to restructure staffing and GL was offered the opportunity to lead on Outreach and H&S (prior to a Health & Safety champion role being established).

GL has embraced the role, developing relations with parents/carers of our persistent and significant absentees; liaising with authorities, teachers and staff to meet the needs of our remote learners and attempting to re-engage them with education.

GL now works directly under the Assitant Principal: Pastoral & Behaviour role. He has exemplified his keenness to succeed and achieve his objectives. His line manager expresses his enthusiasm and he has been vocal in hoping to increase his status and role in the near future.