We Are The Bridge Flexi School
Meet The Team
HARNESSING A COMBINED 70 YEARS WORTH OF EXPERIENCE
Louise Cheetham
BCBA-sup, BCBA, MBPsS, Ma, Ma, PG Cert, BSc hons
Principal, Consultant Behaviour Analyst, Education Consultant and Child & Family advocate
Louise is the founder of and Consultant Supervisor for The Bridge Flexi School. She has 19 years of experience in providing effective, validated and successful interventions and education services to children, teenagers and adults. A large part of her career has been spent training therapists and schools in effective interventions and developing robust programmes for government organisations.
Beginning with receiving a BSc (Honours) degree in Psychology, Louise went on to Post Graduate studies in Applied Behaviour Analysis, a Masters in Child Studies (Education and Policy) and is a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) of 'excellent standing' with Supervisor status. Louise also has Post Graduate Certification in Specific learning difficulties (SpLD) specialising in Dyslexia. Louise is constantly updating her training and knowledge, most recently specifically specialising in Dyslexia and Co-morbid conditions such as ADD and ADHD.
She has worked internationally, notably for several years in Australia where she designed and delivered intensive and informal workshops to professionals working in the field of autism. She was also part of the team who developed and rolled out the country's first intensive behavioural early intervention programme. In addition to this, Louise has continually taken part in clinical research, leading and piloting her own research over recent years. Her clinical research has been in gender differences in those with ADHD and ADD and the impact of early detection and effective interventions. Her other research has been in gender differences in those with Autism, developing a very early detection and intervention tool for parents and early years teachers. This has enabled Louise to work with extremely young babies and children with suspected ASD, those at risk of developing it and babies and toddlers with neonatal stroke and traumatic brain injury.
Louise is now based in Wales, UK although she travels across the country to deliver interventions to families and professionals being recognised as an expert in the field of Autism spectrum conditions, Brain Injury and Specific learning difficulties.
Belen Reales
BCBA, MA, MA, PG Cert, BA hons
Lead Behaviour Analyst
Belen is the Assistant Head Teacher to Louise at The Bridge Flexi School and Lead Consultant at both the school and our sister company, NETwork Interventions. She and Louise have worked together for many years now, bridging the gap in education for children and teens. Belen is a huge part of the vision behind The Bridge School, believing that all children deserve the chance to receive validated, effective, peer reviewed interventions. She has a real heart for teaching children the foundation and pre requisite skills they need across all areas of learning, from behaviour right through to language, social and other learning skills. She is passionate about teaching children to 'learn to learn' and has a lead role on the development of assessments and monitoring tools to ensure continual development of all of our students as well as our staff.
Belen graduated with her first degree in Early Years Teaching, before going on to complete a further degree in Education due to a passion for working with children. Throughout her degree and in subsequent years she gained experience working as a key worker and teacher with both typically developing children and those with additional needs in nurseries, both in England and in Spain. Her excellent teaching methods and compassion stood out to Louise when she was Consulting in a nursery in which Belen worked. They went on to work together, Louise training Belen in the Verbal Behaviour application of ABA. Belen went on to complete a Masters degree in Psychological Interventions for children and teens and then her Post Grad Certification in ABA and supervision for her BCBA exams.
Belen is our Senior Consultant and supervisor is in charge of creating programmes for our families. She leads the training and supervision of therapists, teachers and parents and is particularly skilled in this area. Belen's ability to think outside of the box is second to none. She has a strong desire to overcome all challenges for children. Working with the most severe and complex of behaviours does not phase our Brilliant Belen!
Emma Allen
1 to 1 Therapist
Emma is a key team member, working in a one to one capacity with some of our families. Her background is in travel and hospitality where she worked in the specialist assistance team for over 13 years, supporting clients with a range of both physical and intellectual disabilities with their travel requirements.
Emma also has many years of experience supporting children who have been diagnosed with ASC, ADHD and PDA on both a personal and professional level.
She has been a keen horse rider since the age of 5 and for the past 10 years has been sharing her love and passion of horses as a volunteer at Epsom Riding for the disabled. Emma has no plans to ever leave this role, although if we could we would snap up all of her hours here!
As a result of Emma's many years working as a travel specialist, her volunteer work and with her own personal family experiences, Emma brings valuable insight to our team. She has a real gift not just for getting the very best out of the children we work with, but understanding what our families go through and walking with them. Emma also has a wealth of experience when it comes to funding applications and EHCPs.
Emma has a fun, but structured approach to working with young people and is enjoying developing these skills as part of the Network Interventions/Bridge Flexi School family."
Shanna Willenbrock
Tutor
Shanna moved from South Africa to England at the age of 16 to complete her A Levels. Since then she has lived all over the UK and also lived in Portugal for a year.
She began studying law but then chose a career in education, specifically teaching, and hasn't looked back since. She has worked with children with additional needs for the 6 years and in particular children who have suffered trauma.
She loves animals and currently has cats, dogs, chickens, ducks and goats. The newest addition to our household is their puppy.
She loves being outdoors and she is also a trained forest school leader. Shanna swims in the sea all year round and looks forward to winter so that she can swim in the cold sea!
Ben Payne
BSc, PGCE, QTS & NPQH
Tutor
Ben has over 15 years experience working within the educational field. He is a graduate of the NPQH programme, with a Sport Science degree and science and mathematics teacher training focus. He has been lucky enough to lead departments, faculties and multi-academy trust subjects. As an elite athlete in the past, he thrives under challenge and pressure.
He is an extremely patient and positive person and takes this into his sessions with his students. He aims to take the complex and make it simple and digestible to all students. He has a passion for enabling students to succeed and all his sessions aim to make students fully understand and to gain the tools to be successful in the given tasks. He tries to add an outward facing twist to as many formal learning experiences as possible.
Shelley Brown
MA, BA, BCBA
Consultant and ACT Therapist
Shelley has worked with Louise for 16 years and currently works with us remotely from Canada, where she has been working in the field of Behaviour Analysis for 20 years. In that time, she has completed a diploma in Behaviour Science Technology, a Bachelor degree in Psychology, a Masters degree in Professional Education with a focus on Applied Behaviour Analysis and obtained her BCBA. Most importantly, she has had the wonderful opportunity to work with a variety of families and service providers along the way.
Starting her career working directly in family homes, Shelley learned the importance of individualising treatment plans to help each unique family thrive. Taking experience from working in schools, one to one teaching centres and group homes, Shelley continues to embed family values into her work.
Embracing the “learn to learn” concept, Shelley believes each family has the capacity to learn and implement Behaviour Analysis in their homes and strives to provide families with the tools they require to be as independent as possible in that pursuit.
Shelley is our consultant and she will work with you through the assessment completion, programme development and provide parent coaching for programme implementation. For those seeking support to live mindfully through the process, Shelley offers Acceptance and Commitment Therapy sessions to our families.
Aditi Mehta
MA, BSc, BA, Rbt
Lead Teacher
Aditi is our lead therapist and teacher at our lovely school as well as our team Supervisor at our sister company, NETwork Interventions. She has been working with children with autism and other learning disabilities for over five years now, this being the next step for her from mainstream Education. Aditi has specialised in working in a one on one basis providing individualised interventions and also in small group interventions across schools, clinics and home settings across India and UK. Aditi has a particular passion for teaching children to transition across and between environments, such as schools and activities. She has has the privilege of developing our outdoor excursions to help make the environment safe and conducive for children to feel safe, learn and have fun!!
Aditi has two bachelor degrees in Psychology and Education, with a further Masters in Psychology and an additional certification as a Registered Behaviour Technician.
Her background in Psychology, combined with her diverse and broad experience in Education as well as her huge heart for and gentle approach to our children and families makes her the perfect fit to lead our teachers.
Andy Lobb
Co-Founder, Safeguarding Lead and Head of Operations
Andy co-founded The Bridge Flexi School in 2019 following the remarkable progress of his two children being taught at home combining the tools of verbal behaviour and the most effective SpLD interventions.
Andy comes to our team from a parent-first perspective which gives our lovely school a huge advantage. He and Louise founded the school because they saw only four square peg options for children's education: mainstream school with large classes and generic interventions; SpLD units; generic SEN schools and home education. Andy and Louise are huge proponents of home education and Louise works in many schools which she enjoys, but they see that many children are forced in to home education and many (if not all) schools are simply not best placed to optimally educate many of the children. Their children did not fit neatly in to the mainstream sector and lost their place at a specialist dyslexia school as it did not deal with behavior or emotion challenges.
The Bridge Flexi School is a unique answer to these needs. Andy saw the success that his children had from a bespoke education at home. More and more people wanted to join this journey and there was no more room in his house!
Andy and Louise knew that 80 per cent of children with dyslexia and communication conditions had other Challenges, they knew they had solutions. This saw the creation of The Bridge Flexi School in October 2019.
Throughout Andy’s five years in the field he has developed a particular passion for children who have a profile of PDA. He has been studying formally in this area as well as collaborating in intervention research with his team. 2021 saw Andy and Lu set up support groups, training and a specific team for children who have a particular barrier with anxiety and school refusal.
Sam Jackson
Teen Lead and Senior Therapist/Tutor
Sam is an amazingly energetic and empathetic member of our team who has a real heart for the individual and family. He brings over 16 years experience working with families and children in positive play settings and a play work NVQ level 3 qualification. Sam has worked with babies up to young adults in groups and individually to bring out the best of their abilities. We are ever so lucky to have him as a part of our team. Our children and families alike absolutely adore him.
Sam has specialised in risk and safety in play and engagement through play within his working practice, so is a great fit for many of our children! He has a passion for and much experience with supporting families experiencing real trauma and challenge.
He also brings a wealth of experience to our young people within multi agency groups and helps other professionals to understand that we all have so much more to give with the right support.
Sam is a family centred man who believes in supporting all areas of the family when needed to better the learning and engagement of the young people.
He works across nurseries, schools, out and about, play and home settings 1-1 with our young people and their families.
Sam loves to cook, to camp and run …. and he is a dab hand behind the scenes at the theatre, so he has a huge amount to bring to the table.
Charlene Lopes
BSc, PGCE
Tutor/Therapist
Charlene has been teaching for 20 years. Her experience extends to children and adults taught in South Africa and the UK. She specialises in assisting children who do not fit into mainstream education. Her own children have been home educated for 15 years.
Charlene has the unique ability to connect with young people and to deliver lessons that are both specific and engaging to every student. Charlene is amazing at ensuring that every student gets the best out of their time with her. She is engaging, honest, friendly and puts her heart into ensuring that every student succeeds to their fullest potential.
Charlene excels in helping children with challenging needs as she takes time to build relationships and gets to know her students and how they think. She prides herself on taking on the tough cases where other therapists have given up. She is persistent and hardworking and thrives on building trust and respect with her students.
She graduated from Stellenbosch University with a BSC in Social Work and from University of South Africa with a Post Graduate Certificate in Education in Intermediate and Senior Phase.
Lauren Watkins
MA, PGCE
Tutor
Lauren is a qualified school teacher with more than 12 years experience. Since gaining her teaching qualification and an MA in Education at the University of Bedfordshire, she has taught and held additional senior responsibilities in two schools in Bedfordshire.
She takes great pride in nurturing the youngsters that she teaches, watching them grow in confidence and achieve their goals. Her home tuition approach is structured, personalised and professional. She uses informal assessments to inform the next steps in her teaching and works hard to tailor the tuition to meet the individual needs of each child. She keeps her my engaged by presenting topics in a range of ways and by building their confidence through a range of activities. She takes a supportive and friendly tone in her lessons and each child is treated as an individual. Lauren is able to prepare a programme that will accelerate your child's learning and allow them to achieve the very best that they can.
Georgi Hood
MEd, PG Cert, PGCE, BA Hons
SEN Specialist Teacher
Georgi has worked with children and young people with additional needs for over 20 years, 15 of which as a qualified teacher. Having initially studied a BA in Music at Nottingham University, Georgi enjoyed working with a diverse range of learners at LSO Discovery, the London Symphony Orchestra’s education programme. Inspired by her earlier experiences supporting children with learning disabilities, and their families, in short break settings, she soon took on a family support role at a specialist children’s centre for preschool children with additional needs. Working within the centre’s multidisciplinary team subsequently guided Georgi towards a career in education.
Georgi completed her initial teacher training, and soon after, Masters in Education at the University of Cambridge. This began a teaching career which has covered ages from early years to Key Stage 4, both in mainstream and specialist settings. Working as a specialist teacher, qualified SENDCo and leader of an ASD resource has given Georgi a wide breadth of experience of learner needs, styles of learning and effective interventions. She has a particular area of expertise supporting children with ASD and social communication difficulties.
Above all, Georgi is passionate about supporting all learners to achieve their very best whilst ensuring they are valued and respected as the unique and wonderful people they are. She considers it a huge privilege to have the opportunity to do so and is proud of her ability to build trusting, respectful relationships with children and young people of all ages and abilities.
Alongside this vocation, Georgi is a proud mother to two children and enjoys playing music, crocheting and doing pilates.