In September 2023, Sarah Hurtado nominated Amy Upton, who at that time was a senior teacher to join the SSAT (School, Students and Teachers Network) Leadership Legacy Project (23-24) to develop her experience in leading a whole school project.  Amy chose to develop her own pedagogical knowledge in Gestalt Language Processing and its potential impact on the progress of a group of learners. 

The decision to choose this project was because we have a group of learners who have echolalia, and the speech and language therapists recognised these learners as gestalt language processors and recommended techniques and tools to support them. These techniques support those learners who communicate through whole phrases, then work backwards into splitting and mixing those phrases, rather than learning the meaning of one word at a time. 

This led to a research project and the creation of a programme to support those learners who use this specialist strategy to develop their communication skills.  This involved whole school training, working with therapists, initially leading a pilot project with a group of learners and then rolling it out school wide.  Throughout the project, Amy developed her leadership and analytical skills and had the opportunity to lead a whole school improvement project.  

Amy submitted her thinking piece in October 2024, which was reviewed by one of the SSAT moderation team who fed back the following information; ‘With the submission of Amy’s think piece, and her wider engagement in the Leadership Legacy Project core activities, we are pleased to let you know that Amy has successfully completed the Leadership Legacy Project. Her success is a reflection of her dedication and hard work, and we wish to offer ger our warmest congratulations.’

This week, we heard from the SSAT that Amy’s think piece has been published - Strathmore-School-LLP-think-piece-Amy-Upton.pdf.

She is now a SSAT Fellow and her article will appear in the SSAT publication and on our school website.

We are incredibly proud of what Amy has achieved and hope you will find it useful.