SEND Leadership - Digital - Speakers

Gary Aubin, SEND Consultant and MAT Director of SEND

Gary Aubin is the author of The Lone SENDCO, a handbook of 300 questions and answers for busy SENDCOs. He works as the Content Specialist for SEND for the Education Endowment Foundation; in this role, he has spoken to hundreds of school leaders about the evidence base behind high-quality teaching for SEND. Alongside this, he leads on SEND provision for a Multi Academy Trust. He is a secondary teacher, former primary and secondary SENDCO and former secondary Head of Year. Gary also authors the SEND Matters UK blog.

Ginny Bootman, Special Needs Co-ordinator

Ginny Bootman is a SENCO who has over 25 years’ experience as a class teacher, having also been a headteacher. She is now SENCO of four primary schools. Her passion for the role which empathy plays in the job of the class teacher shines through articles she has written for publications including TES. She shares this passion in her talks to a variety of audiences. Find her at www.ginnybootman.com  and on Twitter @sencogirl.

Hannah Hamid, Senior Inclusion Advisor

Hannah is a Senior Inclusion Advisor at BDSIP, with experience specialising in whole school inclusive practice, SEND strategic leadership and developing high quality first teaching. Hannah has held a range of positions across Secondary and Primary levels and is an experienced SENCO and senior leader. She takes a holistic approach to SEND and Inclusion which incorporates research literature. Hannah is currently completing her PhD with the department of Human Development and Psychology at UCL, Institute of Education and is a member of the Child Development and Learning Difficulties Lab.

Nina Jackson, SEND, Mental Health and Wellbeing Consultant

Nina Jackson is a special educational needs and disabilities consultant with over 30 years' experience as a teacher, senior leader and therapist. She now works as an international advisor and trainer working with children, teachers, leaders and parents. Her most recent award winning book ‘Of Teaching, Learning and Sherbet Lemons’ has a wide range of SEND related chapters to help you find your ‘fizz’ when it comes to supporting everyone and anyone in the field of SEND. You can find her at www.teachlearncreate.com and as an Associate Director with Independent Thinking Ltd as well as on twitter as @musicmind.

Cath Kitchen, BSc, MSc, NPQH, NPQEL, OBE

Cath is an experienced leader in alternative provision. She’s the former CEO of The Skylark Partnership, a specialist trust for pupils with medical and mental health needs. Cath is the Chair of the National Association for Hospital Education, a National Leader of Education and was a pathfinder for the Ethical Leadership Framework. She sits on the DfE AP stakeholder group looking into reform of AP. Cath lead the AP Innovation Fund project looking at how telepresence solutions can support transitions for pupils with medical needs which was awarded the TES Award in 2020 for the Best use of Technology. Cath was awarded an OBE for her services to children, young people and hospital education in January 2022.

Victoria Nunn, SENDCO, SEND Consultant and Researcher

Victoria has worked in a variety of specialist and mainstream primary and secondary schools for the last 22 years. She is currently a SENDCO, Senior Leader, DSL, Mental Health Lead and an educational consultant specialising in SEND in settings with limited resources. With a background in psychology and child development, Victoria is adept at looking at how a student’s environment can affect their ability to engage. Currently, Victoria is researching how to promote mental health and well-being for students with SEND through outdoor learning. She’s also co-producing “needs led” response programs to help safeguard the mental health of more vulnerable cohorts.

Natalie Packer, Education Consultant, SEND

Natalie is an Independent Education Consultant, specialising in SEND and school improvement.  She develops and delivers a wide range of training and support, including SEND reviews, to schools and multi-academy trusts. She supports several MATs with strategic development of SEND and is a trustee of Learn-AT multi-academy trust in the East Midlands. She is also the author of The Perfect SENCO and The Teacher’s Guide to SEN.

Simon Tanner, National Director of SEND – E-ACT

Simon has recently been appointed as National Director of SEND for E-ACT.  With 10 years as an experienced SENDCo and 5 as a MAT leader for SEND, Simon has developed effective SEND practice across multiple schools and lead on SEND and MAT SEND reviews across the country. Simon Co-chairs the MAT SEND Leaders group which he established with Dr Nicola Crossly (NAS).  The group currently have over 80 MAT leaders of SEND and collaborate with Whole Education.  Simon is a mentor on their newly designed MAT SEND leaders programme which is currently delivering support to over 250 academies across England. Simon has presented at National conferences and was part of EDUKEYs Provision map series in 2020-2021 and TEXTHELPs festivals of education in 2021 and 2022.