“Another excellent conference – such brilliant speakers and the workshop was illuminating – thank you.”
Around 350 members of staff gathered for our annual conference on Monday April 11th. The aims of the conference are to give all teaching and support staff insight into current knowledge and research around SEND, opportunities to share good practice and have the chance to network with colleagues over breaks and a good lunch. Our guest speakers this year were the CEO of Ups and Downs Southwest, Wendy O’Carroll and Dr Maggie Woodhouse, OBE of Cardiff University. Wendy delivered an entertaining and helpful session into how pupils with Downs Syndrome can best be supported in the classroom and Maggie spoke in some depth about her department’s ground breaking research into the hidden visual difficulties of pupils with SEND. Both delivered important messages about our need to look beyond behaviours and appearances to check that sensory difficulties are recognised and supported.
To find out more, here are links to their presentations. Both include signposting to useful additional information.
Wendy OCarroll – TADSS April 2016
Dr Maggie Woodhouse – TADSS April 2016
“Another wonderful conference – I learn so much and always go away feeling buoyed up for the term ahead.”
“Another great opportunity to chat to colleagues from other schools. Interesting speakers and subject matter. A valuable day.”
“Really raised awareness on how to think about range of visual difficulties experienced by our children and made me think about how to improve practice for these children.”
“I really enjoyed listening to Wendy O’Carroll. A lot of info about learning in the classroom relates to ASD too and that is relevant to my class.”