EDI Conference – Creating a culture of equity and care

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• Date: November 01, 2023
• Time: 09:15 – 16:45
• Cost: Full Member – £215, Additional Full Member – £110, Affiliate Member – £325, Additional Affiliate Member – £140, Non-member – £430
• Audience: Suitable for any member of staff / particularly useful for staff in leadership roles
• Platform: Zoom (online) – Conference

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This one-day online conference will focus on creating a culture of equity and care in order to help us explore the complexities of EDI Issues. This event seeks to challenge our thinking and help to drive effective strategy forward in our schools. We will hear from engaging speakers who work in a wide range of areas linked to EDI. In each session, the common theme will be how we can create safe, accepting and caring cultures in our schools where all pupils are treated equitably.

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Programme:

09:15 – 09:30

Welcome and introduction

Irfan is principal of DLD College in central London and BSA INDEX chair. As a committed supporter of equity, diversity and inclusion in schools, we look forward to his introduction.

• Speaker:
  • Irfan Latif, Principal, DLD College

09:30 – 10:30

Creating a culture of equity and care in boarding

In this session, Mutisunge will cover her first year in post as a full-time EDI lead. Her strategy around psychological safety with the whole school community ensures children feel safe and valued. Ongoing conversations about EDI with staff, parents and pupils are key foci. Muti will share how she built trust to promote a culture of collaboration as well as successes and barriers along the way.

• Chair:
  • Caroline Nixon, BSA International & Membership Director
• Speaker:
  • Mutisunge Edwards, Christ’s Hospital

10:30 – 10:45

Break

10:45 – 11:45

School case study

This session will feature two school case studies where significant changes were made. Our speakers will reflect upon the challenges they came across as well as the steps taken to address them and an evaluation of the impact on school culture.

• Chair
  • Gaelle Sullivan, Director Research and Inclusion, Director TIOB
• Speaker:
  • Darrell Chart-Boyles, Jade Anderson, Holly Byrne, & Ross Neale from Colchester Royal Grammar School
  • Oliver Nicholson, EDI Lead at Bryanston School

12.00 – 13.00

Lunch

13:00 – 14:00

Working towards racial equity

Hemisphere Education are part of Rare Recruitment, an organisation dedicated to securing equal opportunities for higher education students. Hemisphere work with schools to address issues such as racial bias.

• Chair
  • Gaelle Sullivan, Director Research and Inclusion, Director TIOB

• Speaker:
  • Yasmina Kone, Hemisphere Education

14:00 – 14:15

Break

14:15-  15:15

How to protect and support trans mental health

This one hour session is an essential introduction to trans and nonbinary awareness and aims to help participants to develop more trans-inclusive practices. Recent research has revealed the impact of transphobia on the mental health of trans, non-binary and genderqueer people (Stonewall, Jan 2018). This session will help increase knowledge around a range of trans topics, with aims to creating a culture of equity and care in boarding.

• Chair
  • Rebekah Hayward, Research and Inclusion Officer
• Speaker:
  • Tommy Maher, Mind Out charity

15:15 – 15:30

Break

15:30 – 16:30

An equitable approach to intersectionality and neurodiversity

Amanda will address the complex layers of identity and intersectionality as well as invisible disabilities, in the context of neurodiversity. This session will frame how an equitable approach can best support student outcomes.

• Chair
  • Rebekah Hayward, Research and Inclusion Officer

• Speaker:
  • Amanda Hind, Autism and SEND speaker, trainer and consultant

16:30 – 16:45

Conference close

Click here to order recording

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Speakers:

Irfan Latif, Principal, DLD College

Irfan is Principal of DLD College London, part of the Alpha Plus Group. He was educated at Emanuel School and graduated in Chemistry from King’s College, London. Before his first headship at Sexey’s School Bruton, he was Deputy Head at Bedford School, Director of Science at St Benedict’s School, Senior Housemaster at Whitgift School, and Assistant Housemaster and teacher at The Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Boys. He has been the Chair of the BSA State Boarding Schools’ Forum, and is currently BSA’s London Boarding Forum Chair. He is the co-founder of the Independent School Council’s Inclusion and Diversity Group.

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Mutisunge Edwards, Christ’s Hospital

Mutisunge Edwards is the first ever full-time equity, diversity and inclusion lead at Christ’s Hospital School. Mutisunge Edwards is now working closely with staff in all departments, as well as with pupils, to help ensure that all aspects of the school’s work are viewed through the EDI lens. Her background is predominantly in Early Years education. Throughout her career, she has tried to implement change and integrate inclusion from a young age.

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Yasmina Kone, Hemisphere Education

Yasmina is Deputy Lead of Hemisphere Education. She’s an award-winning start-up operator that’s worked with some of the UK’s top corporate and start-up companies. Her social impact work has seen her feature in the BBC, Black Tech Fest and Busy Being Black Podcast, and her clients have included FTSE500 companies where she’s helped to open access to minority groups and use business as force for good. She’s passionate about the impact that the education sector can have on creating a more inclusive society and is leading on Hemisphere Education’s adoption in UK schools.

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Tommy Maher, Mind Out charity

Tommy (he/they) is MindOut’s Training Assistant, he also uses the name Molly here and there. With a 6+ year career in the charity sector, including a Campaigns role with Stonewall and training position with Gendered Intelligence. Tommy’s expertise lies in campaigns, communications and training delivery. He has lots of experience with freelance LGBTQ+ awareness training and arts workshops, with a mental health and self-esteem focus. Tommy has also supported LGBTQ+ women and non-binary people to tell their life stories with the Proud Trust and Pankhurst Centre, torn up the script on gender and class with young people through Manchester’s Reclaim, and created defiant self-portraits with LGBTQ+ communities at the London LGBTQ+ Community Centre. Tommy has been praised for approaching facilitation and community organizing with empathy, creativity and passion.

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Amanda Hind, Autism and SEND speaker, trainer and consultant

Amanda has a unique perspective of autism as she is autistic (diagnosed as an adult), her children (young adults) are autistic, she has specialised in teaching autistic children, and she is an autism researcher. She is a highly experienced teacher; and has taught in mainstream primary and secondary schools, special schools, and alternative provisions. She is also a qualified SENCo, and has recently been a SENCo in a mainstream secondary school. Although no longer school-based, Amanda still enjoys working with children and young people, and specialises in SEN tutoring for children of all ages, and mentoring for neurodivergent adults, young adults, and teenagers. Amanda is an experienced autism speaker, trainer and consultant, having travelled across the country to deliver talks and training sessions on a wide variety of topics to a range of attendees, including parents and professionals from education, health and the care sector. In addition, Amanda enjoys carrying out autism research. Early this year Amanda passed an MSc in Psychology. This included a research project on autism in Black and Black mixedheritage late-diagnosed autistic women, including Amanda herself. She first presented her findings at an international autism conference in Poland last autumn, and subsequently at other events in England. Her previous postgraduate research looked at effective transition from primary school to secondary school for autistic children. Amanda is particularly interested in the experiences of autistic women and girls, especially those who received a late diagnosis. She is also keen to explore the impact of intersectionality on marginalised groups. She will be taking this interest further as she is starting a PhD in September, with her proposed research exploring the impact of a later diagnosis of autism in Black and Black mixed heritage girls, so that more can be done to support them in school.

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Oli Nicholson, English Teacher and Head of EDI, Bryanston School

Oli Nicholson is an English teacher at Bryanston School, where he has also been the Head of EDI since 2022. Working with external providers, he has organised workshops for all year groups on gender discrimination and gender-based violence. This provided the foundation for a subsequent multi school community festival which focused on these issues. In addition, Oli will talk about how the school marked Black History Month and developed a renewed focus on LGBTQ+ issues. Bryanston is delighted to have won the 2023 Talk Education Award for EDI.

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Staff at Colchester Royal Grammar School

Pictured from left to right:

Darrell Chart-Boyles is the deputy head at CRGS and has spent his 5 years driving forward EDI. He spent time setting up a working party and ensuring that student voice was the main drive of all things EDI.

Jade Anderson has been working as the Matron within the boarding community for 2 years and has made a huge impact on all the boarder’s lives. Jade’s pastoral support of the boarders is outstanding.

Holly Byrne is in her 10^th year of boarding and 5^th as Head of Boarding at CRGS. As an active member of the EDI group she works hard within the boarding community to ensure that all boarders and their needs are supported and encouraged.

Ross Neale is a Chemistry teacher and pastoral member of staff, who spent many years of his career working within the boarding community at CRGS. As former student, he has a first had view of the changes that have been made and how far the school has come.

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Rebekah Hayward, Research and Inclusion Officer

Rebekah is Research and Inclusion Officer and joined the BSA in April 2023. She is a qualified Primary School Teacher and holds a Masters in Education: International Development and Social Justice. She is the Co-Founder of ‘Increasing Black Representation’ a mentoring scheme for students and sits on the Diversity Board for the Health Tech company Medito. In her previous roles Rebekah has worked in Ed Tech analysing research and creating diverse curriculum content for schools. She has also worked with IESE reviewing literature and resources to ensure they promote equity, diversity and inclusion.

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Gaelle Sullivan, Director Research and Inclusion, Director TIOB

Gaelle is Head of Research Services and Inclusion and joined the BSA in January 2023. She is an experienced senior leader and has worked in a range of state and independent schools. She is a qualified SENCO and holds a Masters Degree in Inclusive Education. Prior to joining the BSA, Gaelle was Deputy Head Pastoral, DSL and Head of Boarding at an all-girls independent school in the South-East.

 

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Caroline Nixon, BSA International & Membership Director

Caroline has worked in international education for over 30 years.  She is International & Membership Director at Boarding Schools’ Association, and Director of Caroline Nixon Education Ltd., as well as a member of the advisory group to the British Government’s All Party Parliamentary Group for international students.

Caroline set up and runs the BSA educational agent certification scheme and is involved with the BSA’s accreditation of international schools.  Her background is in international education marketing and she also set up and ran a leading international school in the UK.  She has helped several UK schools to establish new overseas branches, advised an international school opening in the UK, set up a guardianship agency for an educational group, and advises schools on international marketing and academic and pastoral provision for their international students.