Workshop Session 1 (11.25) and 2 (12.00)
Sessions are repeated
Race Equity in Special Needs Education: Insights for school leaders
Frances Akinde, Education Consultant and SEND Adviser
This session will focus on supporting leaders striving to achieve race equity within the context of special needs education. Frances will explore how race intersects with special needs, emphasising the importance of understanding and addressing these intersections to ensure that all our students are supported to reach their full potential.
Frances will share her insights and experience gained over twenty years in education, to guide leaders in fostering a truly inclusive and equitable environment for all students with SEND, particularly those from UK minority groups.
Leaders will leave with a better understanding of how to address the double challenges UKME SEND students face due to systemic discrimination and bias in education.
Frances is a local authority inspector and advisor, former headteacher, SENCO and specialist teacher (speech, language and communication). She has held leadership positions in mainstream primary/secondary, alternative provision and special education.
Leading and Flourishing with Excellence and Equity
Sonia Thompson, Headteacher, St Matthew’s Primary Research School
In this session, Sonia will unpick some of Ron Berger's strategies and metaphors as exemplified in her book, Berger's An Ethic of Excellence in Action, to focus in on how an equitable culture was created at St Matthew's School. She will examine how evidence-informed practice can underpin and support the implementation of diverse and inclusive actions, within any school setting and across any phase.
Success for girls in STEM subjects
Speaker tbc
STEM subjects, including physics, computer science and maths suffer from a gender imbalance. When girls are presented with options, too few choose to study these qualifications, despite girls tending to gain higher grades when they do.
Funded by the Department for Education, two national projects aim to address this problem. By developing inclusive curricula, improving teaching practices, reducing bias and creating a sense of belonging in the subject, both aim to improve gender balance and support attainment by girls.
Find out how your school can maximise the impact of role models, including near-peers, boost family engagement with STEM subjects and future careers, and present positive GCSE and A level options to girls that prevent them dropping subjects in which they can, and should, succeed.
Outcomes include:
- Awareness of the reasons why girls lose interest in some STEM subjects, and how the situation can be tackled, to inform strategic planning.
- School-wide approaches to equity and inclusion, and concrete measures that subject leads can implement .
- Information relating to funded programmes that help you address this important issue.