9 am Admissions welcome and introductions!

9.10 am Warm-up! 

9.15 am Keynote: Professor Barry Carpenter, CBE, OBE, D.Litt, PhD – Creating Mental Well-Being in Schools: Building a ‘Finding Out Culture’

The prevailing mental health crisis amongst our children and adolescents is one of the most pressing challenges of our times. With the ramifications of the pandemic adding to the complexities, schools now more than ever are positioned at the forefront of addressing and mitigating this crisis. The statistics are not just numbers; they reflect countless learners’ urgent, lived realities globally.

The mental health crisis among children and adolescents, exacerbated by the pandemic, presents an urgent challenge. Key statistics highlight the depth of the crisis:

– 4 out of 10 youths globally face mental health issues post-pandemic, with 70% of those with Autism affected during adolescence.

– Almost ten students per class now cope with a diagnosable mental health condition.

– 90% of school leaders report increased student anxiety, stress, and depression in recent years.

– Hospital visits for psychiatric crises have doubled over the past decade, with children with disabilities at 2 to 3 times higher risk.

Professor Carpenter prompts essential reflections on:

Building Emotional Strength: how can schools serve as protective havens for students’ emotional well-being?

Curriculum Reimagined: how do we develop a curriculum framework prioritising mental health?

Promoting Inquiry: how can schools cultivate a culture of research and evidence-based approaches to build dynamic, engaging pedagogy and practice?

10.15 am Session 1: Richard Hirstwood – Sensory approaches to build emotional resilience 

Richard explores how sensory-focused approaches can foster emotional resilience. He considers three key sensory strategies, emphasising their role in building a learner’s emotional strength.

Creating Responsive Environments: how sensory adaptations in learning environments can respond to learners’ behavioural and communication needs to ensure continued engagement.

Developing Self-Regulation Skills: beyond being reactive, sensory strategies are proactive. Richard highlights how these techniques enable learners to develop self-regulation, helping them recognise and manage sensory inputs.

Relaxation and Self-Calming: how we support learners’ exploration of what ‘relaxation’ and ‘self-calming’ means to them and how they achieve it.

10.45 am – 11.15 am COFFEE

11.15 am Session 2: Carol Allen – Hidden Barriers: Supporting the anxious learner 

An anxious pupil is not ready or able to engage in effective learning. While their anxiety may manifest as disruptive behaviour or withdrawal, these actions often mask deeper sensory or physiological challenges.

Carol will examine the barriers to learning that may inhibit the anxious pupil. Recognising that anxiety for these learners isn’t merely emotional but intertwined with sensory experiences is critical to facilitating effective learning environments.

Carol will also consider how establishing communication with these learners and their families is vital. Without clear insights, even well-meant interventions could inadvertently pose new challenges. 

This session will highlight a range of practical strategies that assure, support, and engage anxious learners.

12 noon Session 3: Dr Sarah Moseley – Inclusion, belonging and wellbeing: the power of stories to support mental health for learners with complex needs. 

This session will develop your knowledge and confidence in using stories and storytelling to boost all learners’ emotional literacy and positively impact their mental health. This is important for all learners, including those with SEND/more complex needs. 

The session will focus on:

Why is storytelling so powerful for learning

Why it’s a perfect vehicle for learning, providing opportunities to experience and resolve many challenging situations. 

The importance of multi-sensory and accessible experience

Why should we use our personal stories to increase the wellbeing of all learners

12.45 pm LUNCH 

1.30 pm Session 4: Bev Cockbill – Tried and tested practical strategies to help prepare and support children and young people with SEMH.

At times, children and young people with SEMH require as much information as possible and a toolbox of their own to support them to feel prepared and a sense of calm in and out of education. In this practical session, Bev shares her tried and tested strategies to support pupils with SEMH.

2.15 pm Session 5: Peter Imray – Playing Your Way to Good Mental Health!

‘Playing Your Way to Good Mental Health’ asks you to consider Play (with a capital P) as a subject to be learned (though not necessarily taught!) for learners with complex learning disabilities (CLD), emphasising its crucial role not just in cognitive development but in cultivating robust mental health.

In a mainstream setting, play is a lower-case word because neuro-typical, conventionally developing children enter the formal stages of education at Year 1 and are already highly adept at play; this is not so for those with CLD. Play (with an intentional capital P) represents an essential, holistic curriculum approach for these learners.

This session will discuss the concepts of Free Play, process-based teaching and learning, engagement, choice, voice and agency, all part of a different (not differentiated) curriculum model that places the learner squarely at its heart.

3 pm Plenary

3.15 pm Thank you and goodbye!

Prof Barry Carpenter

Bev Cockbill

Dr Sarah Moseley

Peter Imray

Carol Allen

Richard Hirstwood

This virtual conference will be appropriate for classroom practitioners from special schools and colleges, mainstream settings with specialist SEN provision and early years settings, and working with pupils with autism, and severe/complex learning needs or both.

All the resources from this event will be in your account at online.hirstwood.com. You will access these using the email address on the booking form and your password (instructions in the joining information for creating your password.)

Here you will find:

a digital recording of the event
resources shared or signposted during the session
a transcript of the Zoom chat
your certificate of attendance

These will be available for 10 days after the event.

£185 plus VAT per place 

You can choose to pay by credit card for this booking.  You can also request an invoice by confirming your booking by entering a Purchase Order Number on the booking form.

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