Our Team

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New Struan School has a dynamic staff team committed to enabling autistic people to realise their potential and become included, confident learners within the community.

Leadership Team

Zara Anderson

Senior Autism Practitioner

Zara Anderson

Senior Autism Practitioner

Sport and Exercise Science (BSc), HNC Social Social Care and working towards SVQ Children and Young People. Zara is also a qualified gymnastics coach. Zara joined the Scottish Autism team as a Support Worker in 2014, progressed onto Autism Practitioner a few months later before becoming Senior Autism Practitioner in April 2017.

Lee-Anne McAulay

Head Teacher

LeeAnne McAulay

Head Teacher

BA English with Professional Education, PGD Inclusive Education. Lee-Anne joined New Struan in November 2020 and has previously been the Head Teacher of a Grant Aided Special School and most recently of a mainstream Primary School.

Deborah Henderson

Depute Head Teacher

Post graduate degree in Autism and BEd(Hons) in Primary Education. Deborah has over 16 years experience supporting and teaching young autistic people and has a background in leading practitioners to develop best autism practice including curriculum development.

Parents

Nicola Munro

Parent Ambassador

Nicola Munro

Parent Ambassador

The role of our Parent Ambassadors is to promote community cohesion by supporting families in all aspects of school life. This includes encouraging parental involvement, addressing specific needs of families, raising awareness of extended services, organising events, and being a link between the school and parents.

Graeme Fotheringham

Chair of the Parent Council

Graeme Fotheringham

Chair of the Parent Council

The Chair of the Parent Council is responsible for managing our school’s Parent Council. The aim of the council is to ensure that, on behalf of their children, parents can have a better understanding on many aspects of school policy and have a voice to shape this in partnership with school staff, including on matters relating to the education and welfare of pupils.

Multi-Professional Team

Janet McLachlan

Music Therapist

Janet McLachlan

Music Therapist

We work in partnership with the charity Nordoff-Robbins to provide music therapy at New Struan School. In music therapy sessions, the pupil is invited to experiment with sounds and to make their own music. Music therapy aims to address shared educational targets for each pupil, to complement the curriculum and support each child’s learning and growth.

Callum MacKinnon

bOunceT - Trampoline Therapy

Callum MacKinnon

Rebound Therapy Instructor

Callum from bOunceT Innovative Occupational Therapy® delivers trampoline-based therapeutic play & meaningful movement sessions twice a week at our school. This activity is a form of exercise that focuses on using a trampoline to motivate pupils to participate in 1:1 or group activities that benefit their health and well-being.

The benefits of these sessions for pupils include improved fitness levels, social interaction, communication and promoting relaxation for sensory self-regulation.

Clare Hume

Drama Teacher

Clare Hume

Drama Teacher

Clare Hume from Raincoats and Slippers Theatre works with our pupils once a week, providing the opportunity for them to express themselves through drama. Clare's unique ability in incorporating performance, movement, sounds, smells, tastes, textures, and so much more means that everyone has the chance to engage.

Studio 3

Psychological Support from Studio 3

Studio 3

Our clinical psychology service within New Struan offers support to our pupils and their families. It looks not only at the child in isolation but rather in the context of relationships and patterns that exist within the service. As well as working closely with pupils and their families, Studio 3 also offers support to staff working within the school.

Class Teachers

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Teachers take the lead in ensuring the children and young people access the Broad General Curriculum. They provide motivating and meaningful learning experiences to engage pupils and have responsibility of ensuring they raise attainment and pupils are making progress in their learning.

Occupational Therapists

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Our Occupational Therapists work alongside practitioners to develop knowledge and understanding of sensory processing and motor skills and how to support children and young people. The Occupational Therapist works with groups and individuals to support sensory needs.

Music Therapist

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In music therapy sessions, the pupil is invited to experiment with sounds and to make their own music. The Music Therapist uses improvised music to form a musical dialogue, enabling the pupil to express themselves creatively and communicate in new ways. Engagement in music therapy can create positive changes in emotional wellbeing and can increase confidence, self-awareness, communication skills and the ability to form and sustain relationships. It can provide strategies for helping the pupil to cope with their difficulties, and for nurturing existing or latent abilities and strengths.

Speech & Language Therapists

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Our Speech and Language Therapists offer training and support to staff, and support individual classes with approaches that are tailored to the pupils. They are also able to provide an episode of support for an individual child or young person if a speech, language or communication need is identified that cannot be addressed through advice to the class or school alone.

Autism Practitioners

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Autism Practitioners are the key workers for the young people in the residential settings. They provide motivating and meaningful learning experiences linking with Class Teachers to ensure continuity in working towards objectives set across all areas of the curriculum.

Support Workers

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Support Workers support children and young people to work towards their objectives across our 24 hour school. They work closely with Autism Practitioners and Teachers engaging with whole school evaluation on core areas for improvement.

Quality & Risk Management

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In his current dual role as Quality & Risk Manager for Scottish Autism David Harkins is responsible for implementing and embedding the Public Service Improvement Framework (PSIF) to drive forward quality improvements throughout the organisation. David also implements the Autism Practice Improvement Framework (APIF) which is a bespoke mode of PSIF designed by Scottish Autism to help improve staff practice. Whilst corporate risk management ensures the organisation has a robust system to manage its risks. Both have a direct impact upon the organisation as a whole including New Struan School. Pupils within the school are supported by staff through the robust risk assessment process which in turn helps individuals to thrive, be safe and reach their potential. Quality Improvements are crucial to enable pupils to benefit from having even better equipped and knowledgeable staff and an overall infrastructure of continuous improvement to keep things current and moving forward.

Skills Development Scotland Link

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Our advisor from Skills Development Scotland meets with pupils as early on as possible to ensure they become familiar with them and their role. Pupils receive 1:1 sessions with the advisor to determine their likes and dislikes and what they would like to do after leaving school. The advisor also works with teachers to support the pupil’s application to colleges or other establishments as well as providing additional support as necessary such as accompanying pupils to visit the college campus.

Autism Support Team

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The Autism Support Team is based at New Struan and has a number of roles across the organisation including running Scottish Autism’s Advice Line. The team offer partnership working to staff in the school, for example supporting pupils through sleep counselling; developing Stress Reduction Plans for pupils; running autism profiling sessions or simply meeting for a chat to share knowledge and skills.