Hirstwood Training was founded by Richard Hirstwood (1960 – 2025.)
His life’s work was rooted in improving learning experiences for children and adults with SEND through meaningful sensory practice.
Richard believed that good sensory learning was never about expensive equipment or perfect spaces. It was about understanding learners, using resources well, and making informed, thoughtful decisions that genuinely improved engagement and access to learning. His work focused on helping educators and practitioners maximise the impact of sensory learning opportunities, whether in a sensory room, classroom, outdoor space or everyday environment.
His approach was grounded in practice. Richard worked directly with children and adults with autism and a wide range of additional needs throughout his career, across multi-sensory and classroom settings. This ongoing hands-on work gave him a clear understanding of what worked, what didn’t, and why. It also ensured that all training delivered through Hirstwood Training remained practical, realistic and relevant to real settings.
Richard developed innovative ways of delivering key skills and competencies through face-to-face training, coaching and in-class support with teachers and teaching assistants. As technology evolved, he expanded this work into bespoke portfolios of training videos, supporting over a hundred individual schools and services to reflect on and develop their practice in a consistent and accessible way.
His contribution to the field of sensory learning extended beyond training. Alongside Mark Gray, Richard co-authored The Practical Guide to Multi Sensory Rooms (1995), a publication that helped shape early thinking around sensory environments. He also contributed a chapter to Dual Sensory Impairment (1995) with Clive Smith, and later featured in Technology for SEND in Primary Schools: A Guide for Best Practice (2017), reflecting his continued commitment to thoughtful, purposeful use of technology in SEND education.
Richard was a strong advocate for sharing knowledge openly. He believed that good ideas should be accessible, not protected. Through social media and particularly his YouTube channel, he shared practical strategies, demonstrations and reflections freely, reaching a global audience and supporting thousands of practitioners in their everyday work.
In 2019, Richard completed Multi Sensory Learning for London Grid for Learning (LGFL), an online training resource now available to over 700 mainstream and special schools. The programme offers a structured, modular approach supported by video, text, photographs and reflective prompts, enabling professionals to make informed changes to their sensory practice.
In recent years, Richard played an active role in supporting schools through changes to the UK special education curriculum. By hosting conferences and professional events, he brought schools together to share experiences, challenge thinking and engage in meaningful discussion about engagement, curriculum and inclusion.
Hirstwood Training continues to reflect Richard’s values: practical, experience-led, reflective and inclusive. His influence lives on through the confidence of practitioners, the quality of learning environments they create, and the learners whose access to education has been strengthened through his work.