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Hannah is a pdnet Champion, active member of pdnet Midlands’s regional group, and, Advisory Teacher for Physical Disability, 0-25 years. She has over 30 years of experience of mainstream and special education sectors as a SENCO, Teacher, Conductive Educator and Advisory Teacher. Passionate about successful inclusion, she has contributed to work streams at a local, county, regional and national level to develop policy, practice and training which contributes to better outcomes for CYP with physical disability. Hannah is also experienced in working closely with others (e.g. learners, parents, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists) to upskill school staff and build their confidence so that children and young people with PD who use assistive technology are well supported in school.
Emily has worked in education for 23 years, having taught in a mixture of mainstream primary and special secondary schools in various locations and roles, from teacher through to senior leader. She strongly believes that all children deserve the best possible chance to succeed in life and is passionate about supporting teachers and leaders in making this happen.
For the latter half of Emily’s career, she has focused on working with learners with Special Educational Needs. Initially as an Assistant Headteacher within a special secondary school and then for the last 3 years as the Director of a Teaching School specialising in SEND.
Within these roles Emily has held responsibilities across a broad spectrum of activities, from curriculum development to the management and development of NQT’s/ITT’s. Her ability to analyse and interpret data lead to a secondment to develop and roll out a “data dashboard” for use across a multi-academy trust, bringing together all facets of school life into an easily understood summary.
Emily now runs LEARN, a Teaching School in Lincolnshire that specialises in SEND. Actively involved with the Local Authority and the Lincolnshire Teaching Schools Together (LTT), Emily supports the alignment of the SEND training provision and requirement across the areas active projects to raise the profile of SEND throughout the offer.
Amanda has worked in education for over 20 years, with the latter half of her career dedicated to SEND. Having developed practice both as a SENCO and senior leader in mainstream primary settings and at local authority level she is committed to improving outcomes for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and disabilities. She has supported a large number of schools to reflect on and refine their practice and provision for learners with SEND through CPD, SEND Review and by mentoring new SENCOs.
Amanda joined Whole School SEND in 2018 as deputy regional SEND lead for the West Midlands. Since then she has taken on the role of National Coordinator, Deputy Head of Whole School SEND and now Head of Whole School SEND.
Erica is a National Coordinator for Whole School SEND. She has extensive experience leading on SEND in mainstream schools and multi academy trusts. She began her career as an English teacher before becoming a SENCO. As well as her work for Whole School SEND, she supports several multi academy trusts. She is an experienced SEND and MAT reviewer and acts as an associate consultant for nasen.
Square Peg is a grassroots not-for-profit Community Interest Company that advocates for change in the education system.
Established and led by those with lived experience of persistent absence and school attendance difficulties, we exist to raise awareness, inform, educate, provide insight and understanding, influence policy, culture and practice in and around barriers to school attendance and persistent absence. We work with multi-disciplinary, cross-sector partners in academia and research; all stakeholders across education, health, social care and welfare, legislation and government; technology, innovation and design as well as advocacy, empowerment and campaigns.
We are experienced strategic partners and champion co-production and courageous conversations.
We work alongside Not Fine In School (who represent the same families) and provide peer to peer support, information, advice and resources. Now 5 years old, NFIS now has almost 40k members, rising at 1000-1200 membership requests pcm.
Senior Manager - Progression, Transition and Removal of Barriers
Kelly leads on The Careers and Enterprise Companies work to remove barriers for young people and support work on progression and transition and works closely with the network of Careers Hubs across the country who support the education institutions in their area. As a qualified Teacher and experienced in working with young people 11-19 in a variety of settings Kelly is passionate about ensuring all young people have access to the support, they need to make their best next step when approaching key transition points. Kelly is also a Governor at 2 Alternative provisions in the North East.
Education Manager – Resource and Digital Content
Clare is a qualified teacher and former Assistant Principal who leads on The Resource Directory and Inclusion Community of Improvement. She is passionate about ensuring young people have the best possible educational experience, equipping them with the skills and abilities needed to succeed both academically and pastorally. With extensive experience across various educational settings, Clare is dedicated to supporting every young person in achieving their goals and career aspirations.
Anna is an Education Officer at nasen, and leads on their Early Years work. She is an experienced primary school teacher, SENCO and SEND Lead, having worked across different local authorities and within multi-academy trusts. Anna has experience in both specialist and mainstream settings, and has led a communication and interaction hub provision, working between specialist and mainstream settings to support children with a range of additional needs.
As well as being an advocate for inclusion by design in all settings, Anna has a particular interest in animal assisted therapies, outdoor learning and Forest School, and how these are of holistic benefit to all learners, particularly those with SEND.
Ffion began working in education in 2005, where she quickly developed a keen interest in neurodiversity and inclusion.
She has found her teaching, leadership and SENCO roles incredibly fulfilling and has enjoyed working across a broad range of education settings, including primary, secondary, FE and HE institutions. Her most recent role before joining nasen was as secondary SENCO for a large MAT, and prior to that she was a SENCO, Inclusion Manager and Mental Health Lead in a primary school.
During her thirteen years in mainstream secondary education, Sarah has worked as Literacy Lead, Specialist Provision Lead (cognition and learning) and SENDCO. Sarah has Specialist Leader in Education status, an MA in Education and is a Specialist Assessor. Sarah has a particular interest in supporting children and young people with cognition and learning needs access an ambitious curriculum. Sarah also has experience with low incidence needs, leading two resourced provisions for children and young people with sensory impairments. Sarah is passionate about improving inclusion and access in mainstream settings and joined the Whole School SEND team in 2021. She is currently the Assistant Principal, SEND, at The King’s Academy in Middlesbrough.
Liz has more than 30 years’ experience as a Speech and Language Therapist . She joined Speech and Language UK in 2007 and works as a lead advisor in the organisation. Liz has worked on the set up and delivery of several projects and been involved in the development of Speech and Language UK programmes and resources, as well as training and consultancy crossing all phases of education. Liz is experienced in workforce development, creating and delivering training and workshops. She has worked in partnership with local authorities, settings and organisations to develop communication supportive environments and improve practice to support children and young people with speech and language challenges.
Claire Smith is a Lead Advisor for Speech and Language UK, where we want every child to face the future with confidence. For at least 1.7 million children in the UK, learning to talk and understand words feels like an impossible hurdle. So we give children and young people the skills they need so they aren't left behind, waiting to be understood. Claire has over 30 years’ experience as a Speech and Language Therapist, supporting children of all ages and their families, and leading and transforming children’s services. Claire has worked with early years, primary and secondary schools and is passionate about changing young lives.
Dr Jo Van Herwegen is a Professor at Institute of Education, UCL’s faculty for Education and Society, and director of the Child Development and Learning Difficulties lab. Her research focuses on improving educational outcomes for those with learning difficulties and neurodevelopmental disorders, using evidence from developmental psychology and educational neuroscience. Jo has co-edited two books and has written over 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. Her research has been funded by a number of charities and research councils, including EEF, Nuffield Foundation, UKRI and ESRC.
She is currently Head of Research for the department of Psychology and Human Development and member of the executive committee for the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI).
Dr Miriam McBreen is a Lecturer in Psychology at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, and a member of UCL’s Centre for Inclusive Education. Her teaching and research focus on provision to support pupils with reading difficulties. In particular, she is interested in understanding the links between reading motivation and reading development, and identifying practices that foster the motivation, engagement and learning of pupils with reading difficulties.
Dr Brian Irvine works at UCL at CRAE, the Centre of Research in Autism and Education. There he works as an Early Career Researcher on the ESRC funded Superior Perceptual Capacity in Autism, SUPER. For his doctoral thesis at the University of Birmingham he investigated Specialist (Autism) Mentoring in UK Higher Education. Over the last decade he was a mentor himself, where he had had the pleasure of regular meetings with many brilliant students as they journeyed through their university life. He has a background as a teacher in a primary school inclusion provision and – last century – was Head of Philosophy and Religious Education at a secondary modern school.
For fun, he keeps bees, as it guarantees not being interrupted for a few hours. Twitter: @BigBadBee
Dr Leda Kamenopoulou is an Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education (IOE), UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, UK. Her teaching, research and publications focus on Multisensory Impairment (Deafblindness), inclusive education within different contexts, and preparing teaching professionals for meeting the needs of all learners. She has extensive experience of conducting qualitative and mixed methods research within a variety of education settings.
Dr Susana Castro-Kemp is an Associate Professor in Psychology and Special Needs at The Institute of Education, University College London. She has done extensive research on Education Health and Care plans, children’s ‘voices’ in provision for SEND, inclusive education, early childhood intervention and education policy.
Deputy Regional SEND Lead
Rebecca has more than 15 years’ experience working as a senior school Leader, Deputy Head teacher (Head of Start-up School), Assistant head teacher and a SENCO in several inner city schools. Her areas of expertise include SEND, SEND legislation, creating an inclusive classroom/ quality first teaching, inclusion, SEMH (including ADHD) and Emotional related school refusal (attendance). She holds a Master’s Degree in Education focusing on SEND and Autism Spectrum Conditions. At the heart of it all, she is an outstanding English teacher. Rebecca is a qualified SENCO and registered with British Psychologist society (CCET3).
Her current position is Director of Inclusion for Every Child, Every Day Multi Academy Trust. Her role includes supporting and working in collaboration with Head teachers, senior leaders and SENCO’s in developing a person centred approach to inclusion. She also works as a School improvement partner for schools in her Trust and outside the Trust as directed by her CEO. Her philosophy is centred on the understanding that every teacher is a teacher of SEND and every leader is a leader of SEND.
Jean is a national expert on special educational needs and disadvantage. She is the author of numerous articles and best-selling books on inclusion, including Beating Bureaucracy in SEND (4th edition, 2023), Time to Talk (2017) and Reaching the Unseen Children: practical strategies to close stubborn attainment gaps in disadvantaged groups (2021).
Jean has been a teacher, an educational psychologist and head of children’s services in a local authority. She was formerly government Communication Champion for children; before this she headed the Every Child a Reader and Every Child Counts one-to-one tuition programmes, and led on inclusion within the government’s National Strategies. She was awarded a CBE for services to education in 2011.
@JeanGrossCBE
Education Officer
Sam has had varied career in education, holding several SENDCO posts across mainstream schools and a pupil referral unit; going on to work as a local authority SEND advisory teacher, where she supported schools and early years settings with the development and implementation of SEND provision for children and young people. Later Sam went on to lead the Learning Support Team with Nottingham City Council; whilst also lecturing at Grosseteste University on the subject of SEND, and training teachers in specialist assessment. Sam is a dyslexia specialist teacher/ assessor, and has a special interest in Specific Learning Difficulties. More recently, Sam has worked with adults supporting identification and accessibility in the workplace.