NASEN AWARD FOR COLLABORATIVE WORKING

Thursday 19th October saw NASEN host a special awards ceremony in celebration of the charity’s 25th anniversary.  The evening, hosted by comedian Lucy Porter, saw nearly 200 guests come together in order to recognise and celebrate the work of those who were considered to be making a real difference to children and young people with SEND.

Our partnership school, Kilgarth, was recognised in the  Effective Collaborative Working category for The Aspire Project. Mr Baker is pictured below with Alison Winter from Action on Hearing Loss who sponsored our Award.

The Aspire Project was named after the book that was published by Kilgarth following the submission of quotes from some eminent people across the globe. This project was developed by Mr Baker to raise the aspirations of pupils and we are grateful to all who contributed with their fabulous words of encouragement, which we invite you all to read by accessing the link below. We are confident you will be impressed by some of the famous names in there!

However, this doesn’t tell the whole story about our collaborative approach, which has gone beyond that of our newly formed Federation with Kilgarth School.    Over the past six years, Mr Baker, our Principal, together with the Heads of Gilbrook and Kilgarth, have developed valued partnerships both within and outside education.

Details of some of our collaborative work are listed below and we are proud to be associated with all our partners:

• research with Goldsmiths, linking neuroscience and behaviour to develop a school without sanctions;
• research with Edge Hill University into the impact of coaching on staff emotional resilience and confidence;
• free training on non-confrontational behaviour modification (to date we have trained several thousand people including teachers, teaching assistants and police officers);
• work with Ambition School Leadership to develop school leaders nationwide;
• development of a free online course on non-confrontational behaviour modification; the first runin June had 6000 participants from over 150 countries worldwide;
• support for prisons nationwide as they develop a culture of rehabilitation to reduce re-offending rates.
• an online non-confrontational behaviour modification course developed by Mr Baker and Mr Simpson which attracted around 6000 people from over 150 countries
• the sharing of mental health training as part of our INSET in September free of charge with other schools and HMP Berwyn staff (HMP Berwyn reciprocating by offering Kilgarth staff places on their accredited mental health first aid course running in November).

The Aspire project has been reported in SEC Ed: http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/best-practice/case-study-the-school-that-abolished-punishment/