Inclusive Classrooms - Digital - Speakers

Sara Alston, SENCO, SEND and Safeguarding Consultant and Trainer

Sara is a practising SENCo and an independent SEND and Safeguarding Consultant and Trainer with over 35 years' teaching experience. She provides support and training to schools for special needs and safeguarding. Sara writes regular articles for Teach Primary and Headteacher Update as well as blogs about SEND and Safeguarding issues. She is the co-author of The Inclusive Classroom: A New Approach to Differentiation (Bloomsbury, 2021) and her new book Working Effectively with Your TA will be published in February 2023.

Meet Sara and hear about her upcoming session at this event.

Nicola Harvey, SEND and Wellbeing Consultant, Author

Nicola Harvey is a former senior teacher and pastoral lead with a specialism in special educational needs and mental health. She is also a published author, expert writer for Optimus Education and a qualified mindfulness practitioner. With over 15 years experience, Nicola has worked with many teachers, parents and students to support their mental, physical and emotional health and wellbeing. Her published books, Mindful Little Yogis and Self-Care Activity Book for Kids, explore the importance of integrating inclusive emotional wellbeing strategies both inside and outside of the classroom.

Liz Murray, SEND Improvement Lead, Star Academies

Liz has worked in education for over 20 years.  She originally trained as a secondary English teacher and worked as a Head of Year and a Head of English prior to qualifying as a SENCo.  Liz was a senior leader for SEND and Inclusion in three schools before starting her own SEND school improvement consultancy and then joining Star Academies as SEND Improvement Lead.  Liz regularly presents at national conferences and has published articles designed to support school leaders, SENCos and teachers.   Liz can be found on Twitter @liz4885

Fin O'Regan, ADHD and Neurodiversity Consultant and Trainer

Fin was the Head teacher of the Centre Academy from 1996 -2002, which was the first specialist school in the UK for students between the ages of 7-19 specialising in issues related to ADHD, ASD and ODD. He is an associate lecturer for Leicester University, the National Association of Special Needs, the Institute of Education and the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity. Fin is a member of the Special Needs Consortium and sits on the Council of CReSTeD. He has written a number of books and published articles on the subject of ADHD and Neurodiversity and conducted over 1200 presentations both nationally and internationally.

Stephen Parsons, Speech and Language Therapist, trainer and author

Co-author of resources ‘Language for Thinking’, ‘Word Aware’ (1,2 and 3) and ‘Language for Behaviour and Emotions’, Stephen has over 30 years’ experience in the field. From 1996 to 2017, he worked in Hackney and the City of London where he was Speech and Language Therapy Service Manager for a number of years. He is Chair of NAPLIC, the UK organisation for professionals working with developmental language disorder, and UK representative of RADLD, the international campaign to raise awareness of developmental language disorder. In 2021, Stephen was the recipient of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists’ Sternberg Award for clinical innovation. 

Daniel Sobel CEO of Inclusion Expert, Consultant and author

Chair of the International Forums of Inclusion Practitioners (IFIP) which has representation in 105 countries, Founder of the Global Inclusive Teaching Initiative (GITI), Daniel is consultant and advisor to over ten thousand schools, governments, UNESCO, UN and the EU. He has authored 3 best-selling books - the latest is The Inclusive Classroom trending on Amazon as the number one education book for a year. Daniel has also authored over 90 articles and a successful Master’s programme at the University of Buckingham in Inclusive Educational Leadership. Daniel is a major influencer in education with a massive following on LinkedIn.

Helena Wallberg, Educational Consultant and Inclusion Expert

Formerly with the Swedish National Board of Education and as a quality developer at school organiser level, nowadays Helena works as an educational consultant to help develop inclusive schools. She is the author of several books on assessment, feedback and lesson design, specifically about explicit and differentiated instruction. Helena is a founding member of the IFIP, International Forums of Inclusion Practitioners. She has 22 years experience of teaching.

Meet Helena and find out more about her session in this short video.