Here’s an overview of just a few of the topics that will be addressed in the Early Years and SEN Theatre at the show.
On Friday 17th March at 3.10pm, Adewunmi Payne-Akinhanmi will be hosting a session called ‘Intervention strategies to bridge learning gaps for students with SEN’. Adewunmi is an award-winning special needs teacher with a decade of experience working with children with varying needs, such as ADHD; autism; dyslexia; and social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. In her session, she will explore different types of specific learning needs and provide insight into the timely and focused strategies needed to tailor intervention specifically to the need of each child, without stress and in an inclusive classroom.
On Saturday 18th March at 11.20am, Joy Beaney and Kay Al Ghani will be delivering a session entitled ‘Creating Autism Champions through developing peer awareness – changing attitudes to autism’. In this session, Joy and Kay will draw upon their combined experiences as consultants on how to teach and support children with autism to encourage teachers to develop a system of advocacy for these children. Drawing upon their own work with Autism Train, Joy and Kay will explain how encouraging children to understand autism and the way it affects people can help to change attitudes towards it, and enable children to offer appropriate support and to build positive relationships with their autistic peers. It is their view that, in order to make the school environment more manageable and comfortable for children with autism, we need to increase their peers’ and teachers’ awareness of the different ways in which children with autism perceive the world around them. Joy and Kay will be offering advice on how this can be achieved in your school.
Also on Saturday 18th March, at 10am, Victoria Honeybourne will be discussing the neurodiversity paradigm and why it should be embraced by all schools to create a culture that celebrates difference. Victoria is a writer, trainer and senior advisory teacher. Having been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome herself, and as an advisory teacher for children with SEN, she is an advocate of the neurodiversity paradigm. Within this model, types of learning and behaviour that are considered different to the norm, are in no way penalised or made out to be inferior; rather, they are seen as a normal and expected part of human variation. Victoria believes that this approach should be adopted within the education system, and will use her session at The Education Show in the Early Years and SEN Theatre to explain the concept and why it is so important to create an inclusive learning experience for our children.
Those headed to the Education Show on the Thursday or Friday should be sure to visit Bett Academies, where Innovate My School will be filming their YouTube series Innovation Bursts at Stand D8.
Visit www.education-show.com to discover the full programme SEN-focused seminars.