Trust Leaders gather to discuss effective inclusive practices

Leaders of Anglian Learning and guest speakers met at The Netherhall School for this academic year’s second Trust Leadership Group Conference. The focus of the conference was on exploring effective inclusive practices.

Starting the day was Lucy Millard, Specialist Teacher who provides support to SENCOs. Lucy spoke about the training on offer to help children with speech, language and communications needs (SLCN). She highlighted the statistics that support the need to have this training available:

• 1 in 5 children in the UK have speech and language challenges
• 9 million children in UK schools are struggling to talk and understand
• 20.3% of pupils with SLCN needs gained grade 4/C and above in English and Maths at GCSE.

Following on from Lucy was the invited guest Sally Franklin, Senior Teaching Fellow of the University College of London Institute of Education. Sally delivered a thought-provoking presentation on maximising the impact of teaching assistants. One opportunity Sally highlighted was why schools should accommodate teachers and teaching assistants learning and preparing the lesson together, benefiting both teacher and pupil.

Two literacy leads from the Trust then shared and celebrated their best practice when it comes to inclusion within our schools.

First was Annie Vincent, of Sawston Village College, who spoke about the Direct Instruction Reading Programme, a structured instructional approach aiming to combat the 25% of children from the UK who do not meet the expected progress level for reading when moving from primary to secondary school. Then Faith Huggins, of Bottisham Village College, showcased the school’s chosen phonetic programme Lexonik, which improves pupil phonological awareness, fluency and automaticity.

Later in the afternoon the senior leaders of the Trust provided key updates in areas of HR, Finance and the next phase of leadership development. The conference objectives of sharing best practice and showcasing how the inclusion blueprint is reflected across the Trust were successfully met with inspiration and collaboration between the group throughout the day.

Thank you to all who attended and contributed with the discussions, The Netherhall School for expertly hosting, and for our guests for their insightful approaches that leaders can consider for their school’s approach to inclusion.