Niamh Brennan
Edinburgh,United Kingdom
Summary
I am an enthusiastic, compassionate and hard working person with a strong foundation in child development and special educational needs. Bringing valuable skills from previous roles in education and support services including strong patience, empathy, and communication skills all whilst working very effectively as part of a team to build strong relationships. I am experienced in developing individual education plans with expertise in fostering inclusive environments and managing challenging behaviours to promote student well-being. I am committed to creating positive impact on the wellbeing of the children I work with by supporting pupils' academic and personal growth.
Overview
5
5
years of professional experience
4
4
years of post-secondary education
Work history
Pupil Support Assistant
The Royal Blind School
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
2025.01 - 2026.01
- I am currently working as a pupil support assistant in the Royal Blind School. I have been working in this role since January 2025. My main duty is to provide comprehensive support to pupils in order to enhance their education and wellbeing throughout the school day.
Delivered physical, emotional, and behavioural assistance during lessons to facilitate learning. This role also involves supporting personal care tasks including toileting, feeding via syringe or pumps, and promoting independence skills. I also assist in and enable pupils to communicate by using body signing, PECS, and assisted communication technologies. As part of this role I implement adapted support strategies to cater for pupils in class with visual impairments and complex medical needs. My role also involves assisting with implementing physiotherapy programmes throughout the day including physio therapy, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, hydro therapy and rebound therapy.
Special Education Teacher
St Michael's House Special School
Dublin
2023.08 - 2024.06
- Between August 2023 to June 2024 I worked as a Special education teacher with children aged between 9 to 10 years of age. This job comes with a lot of responsibility. I was responsible for planning, preparing and facilitating lessons that are engaging and cater to the variety of educational needs in the class to make learning accessible to all students. I created learning experiences that incorporate a variety of teaching methods and strategies to appeal to the variety of learning styles. I was also responsible for managing behaviour within the classroom by supporting children using a variety of behavioural strategies. Ensuring the wellbeing of all students was also a main concern of mine, I did this by creating a safe and secure learning environment in which each child's emotional needs were also met. I had to create a learning environment that catered for the sensory needs of each child whilst promoting emotional regulation. Teaching life skills, independence and communication skills were an important part of my job. I used a variety of different AAC resources such as communication boards, lamh (signs), visuals, amplifiers and sound buttons to cater for the wide variety of needs within my classroom.
Activity Leader
Barretstown SeriousFun Camp
Ballymore Eustace, Kildare
2022.09 - 2023.08
- I worked in Barretstown SeriousFun camp as an activity leader from September 2022 to August 2023 as an activity leader. My role involved planning, preparing and running activities for large groups of children, adults and families. One of my main duties was to tailor my activity plans to meet the range of ages, needs and abilities of all of our campers and their families. I have gained a lot of experience in differentiating activities to meet the needs of individuals and I enhanced my flexibility and adaptability skills. I also ran activities for corporate groups to promote teamwork and wellbeing.
Horse Barn Program Staff Member
The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp
Ashford, Connecticut
2022.06 - 2022.08
- I spent summer 2022 working as a horse barn program staff member in the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. My main duties involved planning, preparing and facilitating programs in the horse barn for children of different ages with different medical and mobility needs and also with varying levels of comfort around horses. I needed to be flexible and adaptable as I changed my programming depending on the needs of each group of children in order to meet the campers where they are at. I had a lot of practice creating program plans that are intentional and incorporate therapeutic recreation.
Preschool Teacher
Childvision Preschool
Drumcondra, Dublin
2020.09 - 2021.12
- During my time as a preschool teacher in childvision between September 2020 and December 2021 I educated children with visual impairments between the ages of 6 months and 3 years of age. My main duties included planning, preparing and carrying out activities in the classroom that catered for a wide range of needs and abilities, assisting the children and adapting activities to suit their individual need. Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children in the classroom was also a very important duty, I had to adapt the environment to ensure it was safe for all of the children. I also had the responsibility of assisting the children with personal care routines such as feeding and changing them or assisting them with toileting too. I also worked alongside a team of occupational therapists, physio's, speech and language therapists and nurses in order to implement different strategies in the classroom to enhance the child's development further. Using AAC technology was another major part of this role as the children had impaired vision we used adapted books with braille, tactile communication boards, objects of reference and eye gaze technology a lot in the classroom to help assist their communication. An important part of my role was to build a strong communicative relationship with the parents to share information in a way that would best help their child to progress.
Education
Bachelor's degree - Montessori teaching
St Nicholas Montessori College
Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin 2021.01 - 2022.01
Bachelor's degree - Early Years and Childhood Studies
University College Cork
Cork 2017.01 - 2020.01
Skills
- Patience and empathy
- Strong communicator
- Effective teamwork skills
- Strong relationship building
- Child development understanding
- Knowledge and training for special educational needs
- Understanding of different learning styles
- Individual education plan development
- Behavioural Management
- Use of assistive technology
- Non-Verbal learning disability awareness
- Sensory processing disorder training
- Mobility and personal needs assistance
REFERENCES
Available upon request
Timeline
Pupil Support Assistant
The Royal Blind School
2025.01 - 2026.01
Special Education Teacher
St Michael's House Special School
2023.08 - 2024.06
Activity Leader
Barretstown SeriousFun Camp
2022.09 - 2023.08
Horse Barn Program Staff Member
The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp
2022.06 - 2022.08
Bachelor's degree - Montessori teaching
St Nicholas Montessori College
2021.01 - 2022.01
Preschool Teacher
Childvision Preschool
2020.09 - 2021.12
Bachelor's degree - Early Years and Childhood Studies
University College Cork
2017.01 - 2020.01