Our inspiring programme of six 30-minute recorded sessions brings highly experienced SEND consultants directly to your school’s staff meetings, providing valuable insights and practical strategies in a convenient, time-efficient format designed to support professional development.
For 2026–27, based on your feedback and the publication of the ‘Schools white paper: Every Child Achieving and Thriving’, the theme of these sessions will be ‘Supporting a Neuro-inclusive Classroom‘.
Easy to integrate into staff meetings, these flexible recordings provide high-quality, evidence-based guidance through engaging, expert-led sessions that examine common classroom challenges through a neuro-inclusive lens. Rooted in a strengths-based approach, each session recognises every pupils’ unique profile and celebrates diversity within a thriving school community.
The 26-27 Expert Sessions are sponsored by Widgit.
Please see below for more information.
Our 2026-27 Speakers Include:
Victoria Bagnall is Director of Training and Development at Connections in Mind and a specialist in executive function and neuroinclusive education. She pioneered executive function coaching in the UK and co-founded Connections in Mind and International Executive Function Coaching Certification (IEFCC).
A former teacher, Victoria works with schools, trusts and organisations to translate research on executive function into practical approaches that support learning, behaviour and wellbeing. Her work aligns closely with the growing recognition of executive function as a core area of development in education, helping teachers understand and respond to the needs of all learners.
Victoria has trained organisations including EY, the NHS and the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of The Neuroinclusive Educator, which explores how adaptive teaching and Universal Design can create classrooms where every learner can thrive.
This session explores executive function and why it matters so much in teaching and learning. Victoria will introduce what executive function is and why skills like focus, organisation, emotional regulation and getting started can be difficult for some learners, even when they are trying their best. Executive function differences are often seen across neurodivergent profiles, which is why understanding executive functioning and its complexities is essential for neuroinclusive teaching and learning.
The session will look at the complexity of executive function in real classrooms. These skills do not develop in isolation. They are shaped by stress, relationships, classroom expectations, and a learner’s ability to self-regulate in the moment. Victoria will invite educators to reflect on how everyday teaching approaches and school systems can either support or unintentionally make executive function demands harder.
This session aims to build understanding and encourage a shift in perspective. It will help educators think more deeply about behaviour, learning and support through a developmental and neuroinclusive lens.
Dr Pooky Knightsmith is an internationally respected face of child and adolescent mental health, Pooky works tirelessly to ‘be the change she wants to see’. A prolific keynote speaker, lecturer, trainer and author, she develops and shares practical, evidence informed approaches to promoting mental health – arming health, social care and education staff with the skills, understanding and knowledge they need to support the children in their care.
Pooky has a PhD in child mental health from the Institute of Psychiatry, is the author of many books, is the research and development director at Creative Education and is a former chair of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition. She lives in Sussex and has two daughters and three dogs. She’s a keen climber, an amateur knitter and a tenor in her local choir. She lives with PTSD and autism.
Some children seem to resist everything, and the more we push, the harder it gets. This session explains what’s actually happening and gives school staff five practical strategies they can use straight away:
Practical, strengths-based and immediately applicable, these strategies work across the school day and beyond the classroom, and many will benefit every child you support.
Lynn McCann is an autism specialist teacher and the founder of Reachout ASC, a UK-based consultancy that provides training and support for schools working with autistic, ADHD and PDA pupils. She has extensive experience in specialist education and is known for her practical strategies to help neurodivergent children thrive in educational settings. Lynn has also written several books on autism, including resources for teachers on supporting autistic students in the classroom. Reachout ASC offers training, resources, and direct support to schools and organisations to improve understanding and inclusion for autistic, ADHD and PDA learners. She has her own diagnosis of ADHD just 4 years ago and has a life full of amazing neuro-spicy family and friends.
Are you keen to create a more inclusive classroom that truly supports every learner? This session will be about understanding and meeting the sensory needs of SEND children within mainstream education. Discover why some children require movement or sensory breaks and how these strategies can transform their school experience and learning outcomes.
Lynn will guide you through the eight sensory systems, demonstrating practical changes you can make to the environment and sharing both general and specific sensory activities easily incorporated into any classroom. We’ll explore how sensory needs underpin concentration, emotional wellbeing, and self-regulation, and how these adjustments benefit all pupils, especially in today’s world of sedentary lifestyles and reduced attention spans. Lynn will share strategies that develop an environment where every child can feel safe and able to focus, and signpost you to some great resources.
Lynn McCann is an autism specialist teacher and the founder of Reachout ASC, a UK-based consultancy that provides training and support for schools working with autistic, ADHD and PDA pupils. She has extensive experience in specialist education and is known for her practical strategies to help neurodivergent children thrive in educational settings. Lynn has also written several books on autism, including resources for teachers on supporting autistic students in the classroom. Reachout ASC offers training, resources, and direct support to schools and organisations to improve understanding and inclusion for autistic, ADHD and PDA learners. She has her own diagnosis of ADHD just 4 years ago and has a life full of amazing neuro-spicy family and friends.
Social Stories™ were developed by Carol Gray in the 1980s for autistic children and have evolved alongside our understanding of autism. Designed to explain situations, skills, or experiences in a way that considers the autistic person’s perspective, these narratives help children feel safe and in control by gently broadening their understanding and offering strategies for managing challenges.
However, Social Stories™ are often misused as behaviour correction tools, with many online examples actually serving as scripts to enforce compliance rather than genuinely supporting children. In this session, Lynn will demonstrate the best times to use Social Stories™, how to adapt online templates, and the importance of personalising each story to reflect the child’s unique viewpoint. The goal is to ensure Social Stories™ are supportive, respectful, and truly focused on the child’s needs.
For over 25 years, Kate Browning has been passionately committed to supporting schools to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND.
Kate has worked as a SENCo, a Local Authority School Improvement Officer for SEND and interim Education Development Officer for NASEN for whom she wrote guidance and delivered national training on the SEND Code of Practice.
Kate has a successful track record of working with individual and groups of schools, Trusts and local authorities through consultancy, training, reviews and producing written guidance. Kate is an associate of the University of Northampton where she teaches on undergraduate and post graduate courses in SEND. Kate taught the NASENCO course for many years and now facilitates the NPQ SENCO. Kate has also been a Chair of Governors of a large Junior school.
Kate’s approach is wholly collaborative, positive and focused on empowering those she works with to make a sustainable difference to improving outcomes for children with SEND.
This session will outline key strategies that you can build into your everyday teaching, timetable and classroom environment to help build, manage and nurture social and emotional regulation.
We will look at the classroom culture, the environment, relationships and how to plan and look for small moments throughout the school day where you can draw out social and emotional learning.
Nerys Hughes is an Advanced Paediatric Occupational Therapist, Clinical Director and respected educator specialising in sensory processing, early childhood development and complex needs. Holding advanced practitioner status in SOS Feeding, Sensory Integration Therapy, Therapeutic Listening and sensory processing disorders, she brings together both clinical and lived experience as a parent to a neurodivergent child.
Her career spans NHS community and mental health services, education, social enterprises and the charity sector, giving her a uniquely holistic understanding of the systems surrounding children and families.
Nerys founded Whole Child Therapy (WCT) to meet the needs of children, creating a model that honours each child’s story, body, spirit and aspirations. Internationally recognised for her work in sensory impairment, she contributes to national children’s eye‑care standards and develops specialist assessment tools and training programmes.
As a mentor and trainer, she leads WCT’s accredited framework, supporting schools and therapists to build confident, therapeutically capable teams.
In this session, Nerys will explore practical strategies for self-regulation and empower participants to help children identify their own arousal levels. This training covers the biological, psychological, and social foundations of regulation, dysregulation, and relational support to help foster meaningful connections and personal insight in every child.
Our aim is that these sessions provide clear, supportive and practical guidance for school staff, helping them develop neuro-inclusive classroom practices that enable all pupils to thrive.
With a symbol library of over 100,000 symbols, Widgit supports schools in creating accessible, inclusive learning environments where all learners can understand, participate and thrive.
Widgit Symbols help educators reduce barriers to learning by providing clear visual support for communication, understanding and independence. As schools continue to develop neuro-inclusive and adaptive approaches to teaching, symbol-supported resources can reduce cognitive load, reinforce key vocabulary through dual coding and improve access to information for a wide range of learners.
Used by teachers, SENCOs, teaching assistants and school leaders, Widgit supports everyday classroom practice through visual timetables, vocabulary resources, communication boards, choice-making tools, emotional regulation supports, social stories and personalised learning materials.
Widgit’s Dual Language functionality enables resources to be created in English alongside a learner’s first language, helping pupils develop understanding, confidence and engagement across the curriculum.
With Widgit Online, educators can quickly create, adapt and share symbol-supported resources that promote communication, independence and meaningful inclusion throughout the school day.
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