Inclusive Leadership for Headteachers

Margaret Mulholland and Katherine Walsh are national specialists in inclusive pedagogy and special educational needs, who have led national change programmes focused on improving outcomes for pupils requiring additional support.

This programme is an opportunity to join them and other school leaders to explore the school improvement imperatives that enable headteachers to deliver on their commitment to building truly inclusive schools.

The course will support opportunities for self-evaluation and peer review. It will explore and include the research evidence in relation to high-quality leadership, teaching, and provision for pupils with SEND.

Delegates will look at practical examples of research, as well as looking at how leaders might develop their staff to embed these approaches in their practice.

Main aim:
To build the knowledge, confidence and whole school approaches needed to ensure that SEND is everyone’s business
 

Cohort 2

  • Face to face day 1: - Thursday 14 January 2027, ASCL HQ, Leicester
  • Webinar 1: Thursday 18 March 2027, 3.45pm - 5pm on Zoom
  • Face to face day 2: Thursday 15 April 2027, ASCL HQ, Leicester
  • Webinar 2: Wednesday 12 May 2027, 3.45pm - 5pm on Zoom 
  • Face to face day 3:  Tuesday 15 June 2027, ASCL HQ, Leicester

 

£699 + VAT for members
£799 + VAT for non members

Suitable for

  • Executive Head, CEO 
  • Headteacher/Principal 
Teaching phases:
Secondary 
Special/PRU 
All through 
MATs 
SATs 

 

Participants will undertake a school self-evaluation, and a peer review visit, early in the programme. The findings of this review will be refined and scaffolded to form a manageable action plan to be developed with the school leadership team.

School leaders will be supported to work closely with their SENCO and with other relevant colleagues to build the shared knowledge of the leadership team, its responsibilities, and opportunities to explicitly drive inclusive school improvement. School leaders will have coaching sessions with the programme leaders so they can consider their action planning in relation to their unique context.
 

The programme will share examples of inspiring practice from across the country. It will take a whole school approach to change and improvement that is sustainable and appropriate to a school’s particular context.

Margaret-Mulholland-300px-v2.png

 

 

Margaret Mulholland
ASCL SEND and Inclusion Specialist

Margaret Mulholland is the SEND & Inclusion Policy lead at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), working with schools, trusts and government as an advocate for inclusive practice. 

She is an SEN board advisor to Challenge Partners, Whole Education, Liberty Academy Trust, the University College London Centre for Teaching & Teaching Research and an Honorary Norham Fellow at University of Oxford Department of Education. She currently sits on several advisory groups for the Department of Education. 

Previously, she held teacher, leader and trustee roles in secondary, special settings and teacher education at UCL Institute of Education. She was a director at Camden Learning, a non-exec director at think tank CfEY, joint Project Director for nasen Whole School SEND leading an Education Endowment Foundation trial of the SEND Review Framework and earlier this year appointed to the Institute of Public Policy Inclusion Task Force.  

Margaret is a contributing author to several educational texts including Reflective teaching in secondary schools (Bloomsbury), Practical Theorising in Teacher Education (Routledge), writes regularly for TES Magazine and is a national and broadcast media commentator on education matters.

 

 

 

 

Katherine-Walsh-300x300.png

 

 

Katherine Walsh
Director of Inclusion, River Learning Trust

Katherine is the Director of Inclusion at River Learning Trust.  Katherine's experience includes leading SEND provision in mainstream schools in England and America, in both primary and secondary settings. Over the past ten years, Katherine has developed particular expertise in working with leadership teams to develop school-wide systems, establishing shared and inclusive visions for the education of children and young people with SEND. Katherine is the Regional SEND leader for the South East Whole School SEND and was a project director for the Educational Endowment Foundation’s SEND Review Trial. She was a lead author for the Teacher Handbook: SEND and contributed to the drafting of the NPQ SENCO Content Framework.
       
       

Book now