BSA Certificate in Professional Practice – Inclusion Lead Training

• Study Day 1, Tuesday, May 24^th, 2022
• Study Day 2, Thursday, June 9^th, 2022

Timings: 1000 – 1615

Why should you attend?

This bespoke, comprehensive two-day certificate course has been put together to support Inclusion Leads or staff with specific responsibility for equity, diversity and inclusion in boarding schools.

Participants will receive high-quality training and support from a range of experts to further develop the skills and confidence needed to establish, embed and sustain equity, diversity and inclusion work in their school. Throughout the two days there will be opportunities to meet, collaborate and discuss with other participants and to learn from case studies and good practice from other schools.

Content:

The course will bring together leaders from a wide range of backgrounds who will share knowledge and experiences to both support you with this important work and to challenge your thinking to enable professional growth.

Over the two days we will explore the ‘why’ of this work including areas such as identity, belonging, use of language, empowerment and intersectionality. Legal and inspection requirements will be unpacked, and auditing and action planning discussed. The importance and power of courageous and compassionate leadership in creating sustained change will be fully explored and through interactive sessions which will include an exploration of coaching as a tool, you will develop practical techniques to help support the important conversations needed for your work in this area.

The Why, What, and How of Leading Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity in your school

Some key foundational considerations under the why, what and how of your role which will help to position you as an effective and impactful Inclusion lead.  This session will cover various themes such as:

• the importance of now
• establishing definitions
• the biggest misconceptions
• connecting the dots of your strategy, from audit to action plan

Inclusivity in your school

Claire Harvey, Co-founder of SIA (Schools Inclusion Alliance)

Claire Harvey is an experienced senior leader, inclusion expert and Paralympian. As well as being one of the Co-founders of Schools Inclusion Alliance, Claire currently works as Global Inclusion Lead for Vodafone. Previously she was Head of inclusive leadership at KPMG and following this, ran her own business supporting large and small organisations all over the world. Claire is recognised as a world leader in diversity, inclusion, and culture, incorporating change management and leadership behaviours into impactful change.

Understanding Equality and the Law

This session will cover the various elements of equality included within English legislation and the obligations they place on organisations. It will also consider whether the protections are adequate and whether they allow Schools to genuinely demonstrate a commitment to diversity and inclusivity.

Gemma Woodhouse, Partner, Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP

Gemma is an employment partner at Penningtons Manches Cooper. She advises organisations on all elements of employment law including discrimination and equal opportunities. She also works with a number of independent schools and is joint Head of the Penningtons Manches Cooper Schools Sector.

Leadership Challenges and Opportunities

How can you lead as effectively as possible, building capacity and confidence so that others move forward and achieve all they can? This session will explore the challenges that leadership presents, alongside the opportunities it can offer, and how you can make the most of them.

Jill Berry, Leadership Development Consultant, J Berry Associates Ltd 

Jill taught for thirty years across six different schools in the UK, and was a head for the last ten.  Since leaving headship she has completed a doctorate, researching the transition to headship; written a book: ‘Making the Leap – Moving from Deputy to Head’ (Crown House, 2016); and carried out a range of leadership consultancy work.  She is an advocate for the opportunities presented by social media for networking and professional development, tweeting @jill berry102 and blogging at jillberry102.blog

Sian Evans, Housemistress, Relationship and Sex Education Lead and Teacher of Art, Wycliffe College

Sian is Housemistress at Wycliffe College, where she’s also Relationship and Sex Education Lead and Teacher of Art.  She holds an MA in Art and is currently undertaking an MA in Education, researching peer-on-peer abuse. She’s passionate about changing the culture of gender binaries and societal norms within the school environment.

Jessica Briggs, Deputy Head (Pastoral), Sherborne Girls’ School

Having worked across the sector in single-sex and co-education, inner-city London day school and country boarding schools, Jessica believes that educating pupils about diversity is intrinsic to mental wellbeing, self-confidence and promoting creativity. As Deputy Head (Pastoral) Jessica works closely with a range of staff and an established pupil body group, ‘Diverse Voices’, to challenge all members of the Sherborne Girls family to address inequality and to actively promote diversity and inclusion.

Case studies, Discussion and Next Steps 

This session will provide an opportunity to hear first-hand from school leaders about EDI work in their schools. The case studies will cover a range of different areas from the importance of pupil voice to recruitment. Participants will then have the chance to meet and discuss EDI work in their schools with other Inclusion Lead colleagues (in small zoom break out groups). To end the day we will briefly consider next steps and things to be researching or thinking about before the second day of this course.

Ammy Davies-Potter, Director of Guardianship and Inclusion, BSA Group

Ammy qualified as a teacher in 1991 and then spent her career in boarding school roles. Prior to that, she was educated at Downend School, Bristol. Gaining a First-Class degree in Human Biology and Geology from Hertfordshire University, she then went on to study for a PGCE at the University of Oxford. She holds an MEd from the University of Bristol and is just completing her MA in Inclusive Education at Bath Spa University. She initially taught at Bromsgrove School and then at St John’s College School Cambridge, before moving in 1995 to become a Housemistress at Westonbirt School. In 2010 she joined St Mary’s Calne, initially as a Housemistress and subsequently joining the SLT as Senior Mistress and DSL and finally as Deputy Head (Pastoral). Prior to moving on to post-graduate study, she spent a year working for the NHS in the field of genetics. She completed her NPQH in 2000 as well as her AMBDA and APC in 2019. When she isn’t working, Ammy can be found spending time with her family, exploring parts of the UK and abroad or walking the Pembrokeshire coastal path with her dog Odin.

Study Day 2

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: Safeguarding and Inspection

This session will look at safeguarding with an equity, diversity and inclusion lens and will consider key inspection requirements.

Dale Wilkins, Director of Safeguarding, Professional Development and Accreditation, BSA Group

Dale joined the BSA during Summer 2017 with responsibility for safeguarding and standards.  In July 2019 he also assumed responsibility for the BSA’s training programme, including both day seminars and accredited training courses.  Dale leads on all safeguarding and inspection matters for the BSA, including managing the Commitment to Care Charter, the annual Safeguarding Conference, the Safeguarding Forum. He has also developed a process of BSA Accreditation for our overseas members. For 31 years Dale was a boarding practitioner. After boarding positions at Norwich School and Tettenhall College, Dale became a Housemaster at Old Swinford Hospital in 1992, and was promoted to Deputy Head in 2007, and subsequently also DSL. He has also been a multi-agency trainer for the Dudley Safeguarding Children’s Board and has been closely involved in inspection in state and independent boarding since 2002. Dale had previously been a BSA course tutor since 1998 and developed the BSA Self-Assessment Toolkit.

Supportive Conversations

This session will explore the need for a Coaching Mindset when having supportive and robust conversations about sensitive and important topics. We will explore what coaching is and is not, as well as learn skills you can immediately use with students and staff.

McKenzie Cerri, co-founder of Graydin

McKenzie has over 15 years of experience in coaching and teacher-training within education. She is one of the co-founders of Graydin, an organisation working to revolutionise the ways we support, empower and connect within the school environment. Together with more than 150 schools and universities worldwide, Graydin has been at the forefront of the coaching movement in education since 2011. Prior to Graydin, she was a youth coach and worked closely with the Maudsley Hospital eating disorder unit to develop content for suffers and carers. Born in California, now based in London, UK, she took her first personal development course at age nine.

Identity, Belonging and Connectedness

This session will explore the notions of identity, belonging and connectedness. Coco will share her own stories of identity and belonging as well as her experiences of working with young people in schools. How do our different and often intersecting identities shape our capacity to belong and connect and how can schools provide an environment where connectedness thrives?

Coco Stevenson, Director of Inclusion at St Paul’s Girls’ School and Educational Consultant

Coco is Director of Inclusion at St Paul’s Girls’ School. She has been a senior leader in a number of schools for many years, including South Hampstead High School and most recently Deputy Head Pastoral at City of London School. Coco now practises as an Educational Consultant and speaks, advises and consults widely on both Safeguarding and on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion within the educational sector. She is a school governor and a passionate advocate for inclusive education.

Janine Solomon-Gardner, Kingswood School Bath

Details to Follow!

To Begin Your Qualification in May 2022 Click Here