A quick post to let you know about two brilliant events we’re involved with this week: The Schools Week Festival of Education and nasen live!
Schools Week Festival of Education July 6th
On Thursday 6th July, Special Needs Jungle is delighted to be organising the SEND strand at the Schools Week Festival of Education, at Wellington College, Crowthorne, Berkshire. The festival is over two days, but we are only there on day one, the Thursday.
If you’re planning to attend please stop by and collect some of our free resources, meet Tania and Renata and guests and learn something new!
Please especially join us first thing:
It would be brilliant if you could please show your support and join us, ESPECIALLY for our first session where three disabled young people, Giovanna, 23, who is autistic, has ADD and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Lilia,18, who has ADHD, and Dominic, 16, who has complex medical needs and is a wheelchair user, will be speaking about their experiences of education — in independent specialist, mainstream on SEN Support, and in a state special school respectively. They’ll be discussing what worked for them, what would have worked, and what definitely did not work.
There’s a lot of competition with many presentations but please do come and support them, and learn from the same kind of young people you want, as a practitioner, to support—and who you might see in your school every day.
The Disabled Young Person’s Panel at 13th Festival of Education is the first session of our strand. The others are:
| Thursday 6th July | 09:30-10:15 | Disabled Young Person’s Panel | Dominic Blower, Giovanna Tirraoro, Lilia Blower |
| Thursday 6th July | 10:30-11:15 | How can we make mainstream schools more inclusive? | Sophie Hall, Rob Webster |
| Thursday 6th July | 11:45-12:30 | The 7Cs of working with parents | Renata Blower, Tania Tirraoro |
| Thursday 6th July | 12:45-13:30 | Exploring the Intersectionality between Race and SEND: A call to action. | Frances Akinde |
| Thursday 6th July | 14:45-15:30 | Panel: Attendance and children with SEND | Cath Kitchen, Renata Blower, Frances Akinde |
Renata and I will also be presenting our 7 Cs of Working with Parents, including a series of scenarios you might find in a school with a child with SEND and their parents and we want to hear your ideas for ways of dealing with them, as well as offering our tips.
SEND expert, Frances Akinde, is speaking about Intersectionality and SEND, Frankie is also on the SNJ Intersectionality Panel. She is also participating in a session with Renata and Cath Kitchen on attendance for children with SEND and the issues this often presents. And SEND academics, Rob Webster and Sophie Hall will be talking about easy ways to make mainsteam schools more inclusive.
We will also have an array of printed resources to give away including our SEND system and annual review flow charts. So please try to make time in the day to come and see us, learn, and say hello!
We’re very sad Matt, who has been an integral part of our prep and was to co-present with us, is still too unwell to participate. We send him our very best wishes and know you will too.
Get your Festival of Education tickets here
nasen live! in Birmingham July 7th
On Friday 7th, my daughter, Giovanna is again joining me, speaking at nasen live! in Birmingham We’ll be speaking to Anne Marie Hassell, nasen’s CEO about supporting gender-questioning pupils with SEND. This comes from a place of lived experience for Giovanna, the person about whom this website was begun back in 2008.
Giovanna attended a mainstream primary and then a specialist school, before heading back, along with her older brother, to mainstream sixth form. Since then, as well as before, things haven’t been easy and I’m very proud that she has decided to participate in this event. I sincerely hope that, whatever your views, you will be kind and supportive if you are there. Giovanna is a talented video editor, a cosplayer and gamer and hopes one day to work as a presenter. If you know of any opportunities, please do get in touch.
Book your nasen live! tickets here
At both events, we will be happy to meet you, to chat, and listen to your experiences. We’d love to hear how you support young people with SEND and your own ideas about what works.
Also read:
- Paula McGowan: We need mandatory autism and learning disability training in education settings to change culture, hearts, and minds
- SNJ in Conversation with Carrie Grant: Supporting children at the intersection of SEND, Race and Gender Identity
- My trans-daughter, an unexpected gift
- More than one in three disabled pupils experience bullying in mainstream school, plus other concerning SEND stats
- The Government’s SEND Improvement Plan: an initial overview
- Navigating adult mental health services as an autistic young person
- New SENCO research questions the SEND Review’s “irresponsible” plans to downgrade the NASENCO award
- 63% of teachers say their school’s insufficient support for children with SEND is a barrier to pupil learning
- SEND 2023: Numbers increase, and is SEN (No idea what type) the new Moderate Learning Difficulties?
- EHCPs in England in 2023. More plans but only half on time—and more efforts to take them away. Plus our annual LA Hall of Shame
- Research: Meeting the SEND needs of disabled children early delivers £380k return per learner and dividends for society
- How well is the Government respecting children with SEND’s right to education?
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Tania is an experienced broadcast and print journalist & author. She also runs a PR, web & social media consultancy, SocialOro Media.
Tania is a rare disease & chronic pain patient advocate with Ehlers Danlos syndrome.
- SEND Minister denies the Government is aiming to cut EHCPs by 20% with an emphatic, but unconvincing, explanation - September 22, 2023
- A new SEND minister NOW? Disabled children deserve better than to be a government testing ground for ambitious MPs - August 31, 2023
- Exclusion must be a last resort says EHRC as they support a family to justice over their disabled child’s treatment - August 2, 2023
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