Natalie Stevens – Headteacher
Natalie joined Mountfield Heath School in 2019 shortly after its opening and is proud of the growth and development of Mountfield Heath during her roles of Teacher, Assistant Head and Head of School. Natalie has 20 years of teaching experience and 14 years’ experience of SEND teaching. Natalie has a specialism in behaviour management. As Head of School, Natalie is committed to ensuring pupils feel happy and safe, their safeguarding and therapeutic needs are met to overcome barriers to learning thus allowing pupils to foster a love of learning and increased feelings of self-worth and esteem.
Sam Dugan – Deputy Head
Sam joined Mountfield in April 2020 during the height of the pandemic, following over a decade of working in the world of SEN – both in schools and directly with young people and their families in the community. An experienced mainstream and SEN teacher, and Forest School leader, Sam is passionate about the holistic development of young people and is particularly interested in exploring ways of promoting their voice and increasing engagement in decision making. Sam leads on quality of education and curriculum development at Mountfield, where he is hugely proud to have been part of the evolution of the school’s integrated therapeutic curriculum.
Jacqui Rochester – Assistant Head
Jacqui has over 25 years working with autistic children in mainstream and specialist schools. After gaining her degree in autism she worked as an independent autism practitioner with pre-school and school aged children who had been diagnosed with autism or going through the assessment process. Jacqui is the ‘Ask, Accept, Develop’ Autism Champion for Mountfield Heath School.
Jacqui joined Mountfield Heath School shortly after it opened, and her role has developed along with the school. As Assistant Head -Therapy and Wellbeing, she leads a thoroughly committed team consisting of a specialist speech and language therapist (SaLT) and a specialist occupational therapist (OT) and four therapy and wellbeing assistants who specialise in their own discipline of SaLT or OT.
Having input into developing the Integrated Therapeutic Curriculum Jacqui ensures that the children’s therapeutic needs are not a barrier and are addressed as part of their everyday learning and school experience. Jacqui feels proud in the knowledge that the children at Mountfield Heath thrive on understanding how to be successful communicators and learn strategies to aid their own regulation, which they carry with them when they leave school.