Student Support Team and Consultants
Mr. Alan Andrew
Director of Student Support
Mr. Alan Andrew is from the United States where he has earned degrees in Psychology (B.A.) Special Education (M.Ed.) and School Psychology (Ed.S.). His professional experience includes primary and secondary SEN teaching, working as an educational psychologist and head of school, and he is very happy to be in his new role of Director of Student Support at ICS. Alan has lived and worked in the USA, UK, Belgium, and Spain.
Melanie Nichole Lemona - Assistant Director of the Student Support Department
Melanie is an accredited Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society, and is a Child Developmental Psychologist. Melanie has received graduate training in psychoanalytic mother-infant and toddler-group observations supervised by an accredited psychotherapist as well as post graduate training at The Whittington Hospital, Post Natal Unit, in London, U.K. as a Sibling Support-Play Therapist. She received additional training in Behavioural Interventions and ABA Certification through work experience with children and adolescents with the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), learning disabilities, and behavioural challenges. Her extensive training has allowed her to obtain expertise in the area of child assessment, behaviour analysis and therapeutic care through play, for ASD, learning difficulties, emotional struggles, and behaviour challenges.
Sonja Adam - Student Support Co-ordinator, Primary
Sonja is the Student Support Coordinator at ICS Primary. She is passionate about inclusive education and is committed to equal opportunities in differentiated learning environments in which students can reach their personal potentials. She has a professional background in mainstream and special education in Germany, Brazil, Mozambique and the United Kingdom.
Sonja graduated as a preschool teacher in Germany in 1993, and two years later as a Kindergarten teacher for Steiner Waldorf Schools. She worked in this field as a class teacher until 2001 when she discovered as a ‘Volunteer Reading Aid’ her passion for working with individual children to succeed in learning.
Sonja completed a Bachelor of Education (B Ed Honours) degree and her MA degree in Special and Inclusive Education (Psychological Perspectives) at the Institute of Education (University of London). The main focus of her MA was concerned with reading development and literacy remediation. Sonja has also a CELTA and is a teacher for those with English as a Foreign Language (EFL).
Besides Sonja’s commitment to the children, families and staff at ICS, Sonja enjoys working for Skola International Trust for Special Education (SITSE) which promotes special and inclusive education at a local as well as international level.
Tereza Nogueira – Art Therapist
Tereza Nogueira is our UKCP registered psychotherapist working with children who may need psychological support to help their development. Having gained a formal qualification to work with children and adolescents in South America, Tereza has also gained a qualification as an Integrative Child Psychotherapist, in the UK. Additionally, she is trained as clinical supervisor. Tereza has several years of experience working with children with Autism, ADHD, attachment, eating and communication disorders, behaviour difficulties, anxiety and obsession, trauma and abuse etc. She speaks Portuguese as well as English and can communicate reasonably well in Spanish too.
Philippa Smeaton-Ewins – Speech and Language Therapist (Primary)
Philippa Smeaton-Ewins is the Speech and Language Therapist at the ICS Primary. She comes from Scotland and graduated with a BSc(Hons) degree in Speech Pathology and Therapy from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh in July 2003. She has been working as a Paediatric Therapist for 5 years now, initially working within Child Family Centres and Mainstream schools before going on to work in more specialist provisions for pre-school complex needs and school-age children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders and challenging behaviours. She came to work for ICS in the summer of 2006 because it offered her the rare opportunity of working within an educational environment that fully embraces children of all learning abilities and styles.
Deli Ford - Speech and Language Therapist (Secondary)
Deli is a member of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and the Health Professionals Council.
Deli has BSc (Hons) Human Communication degree from De Montfort University Leicester and a Masters Degree in Education with specialism in Inclusion and Special Educational Needs of Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders from the University of Birmingham. Deli has worked in Mexico and Austria assessing and providing intervention for children with developmental difficulties and also in international schools. Having relocated to the UK two years ago she works part-time at ICS and also with the NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service as part of two multidisciplinary teams assessing communication and socialisation disorders and learning difficulties.
Learning Support Assistants - Primary
- Mira Randjelovic
- Antonita Antoniou
- Tunde Bodor
- Astrid Zecena-Naranjo
- Silvia Atton
- Mariana Lima Abreu
- Luis Alvelais
Learning support Assistants - Secondary