John, the company director and owner of Lexeo, graduated in January 2023 with a Distinction in a Master’s degree (MSc) from the University of Sheffield (a world top 100 university and a member of the prestigious Russell Group) following three years of study in Language and Communication Impairment in Children (LACIC). He was also awarded the Tall Ship prize for achieving the highest marks over the duration of the course.

He is passionate about raising awareness of the prevalence of language and communication impairment in children and young people and its implications for teaching, learning, behaviour and social skills through Professional Learning for colleagues in education.

As a teacher of 30 years, an ALNCo in a specialist provision (qualified with the English National Award for SEN Co-ordination which is mandatory in England) and a member of the Senior Leadership Team, John has experienced the impact of language and communication difficulties first hand; indeed his dissertation researched the prevalence of these difficulties in a PRU setting and found that 94% of pupils had some degree of previously unidentified difficulty with language and communication.

As a practicing specialist teacher he is able to directly relate these impairments to the classroom and wider school community; he understands the difficulties colleagues and parents/carers face on a daily basis and can identify with the limitations or opportunities within the education system. Professional Learning is offered from the perspective of teaching experience as well as theory.

John has extensive experience of delivering whole school and group Professional Learning to colleagues and has presented to a specialist teachers’ summit for NAPLIC (National Association of Professionals concerned with Language Impaired Children). He has also led a specialist provision to achieve Elklan Communication Friendly Settings status with notable and measurable outcomes for pupils.