Twilight Talks: Beyond Boundaries: Leading Great SEND Provision across a Trust

Webcasts
13 Feb 2025

Twilight Talks

In this talk, Natalie Packer and David Bartram will share ideas for effective leadership of SEND across a Trust or group of schools. They will discuss the importance of SEND being led from the top of the organisation and will introduce a helpful model of leadership, as outlined in their recently published book ‘ Beyond Boundaries: Leading Great SEND Provision across a Trust’. Drawing on specific examples from their book case studies, they will share ideas of good practice that effective leaders have successfully implemented in their own Trusts. Sample questions will be provided to support leaders to evaluate the quality of SEND provision.

The talk will be relevant to anyone who has responsibility for, or interest in, leading SEND across a Trust or other group of schools.

You can read more about our Twilight Talks sessions on our dedicated page.

Suitable for: A parent/carer, Administration Staff, Assistant Head Teacher, Consultant, Deputy Head Teacher, Early Years Practitioner, Education psychologist, Governor, Head Teacher, Inclusion Manager/Leader, Newly Qualified Teacher, SENCO, Senior Leader, Student, Support staff, Teacher, Tutor, Young person, Other

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Meet your trainer - Natalie Packer

Natalie is an Independent Education Consultant specialising in SEN and school improvement. She develops and delivers a wide range of continuing professional development to schools and local authorities, and provides SEN leadership support to three multi-academy trusts across the Midlands. Natalie is a member of nasen's 0 to 11 Advisory Group and has supported the Whole School SEND school and MAT reviews. She is also a trustee of Learn-AT multi-academy trust in the East Midlands and a Leadership Matters Ambassador.

As a leading SEN expert for Optimus and The Key for School leaders, Natalie regularly write online articles and develops webinars for SEN CPD. She is the author of The Perfect SENCO, and The Teacher’s Guide to SEN, which was nominated in 2019 for a national Educational Resources Award. She is also series editor for Routledge’s All About SEND books for classroom practitioners.

Natalie has previously worked for the National Strategies SEN Team and DfE implementing the Achievement for All (AfA) project to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEN. Prior to this, she worked for several local authorities across the East Midlands as an Adviser for SEN and School Improvement. She has had primary headship experience and has previously been a SENCO. In 2015, Natalie was a member of the DfE Assessment without Levels Commission.

Meet your trainer - David Bartram OBE

A teaching assistant, history teacher and senior leader, David led special educational needs and disability provision (SEND) in London schools for over 15 years. He was a member of the Department for Education’s SEND Review steering group and an expert advisor to the Timpson Review on school exclusions. David has worked directly with over 700 school leadership teams across the UK to improve their SEND provision. David is author of the SEND Review Guide, a national framework funded by the DfE. In 2018 he edited Great Expectations, Leading an Effective SEND Strategy in School, published by John Catt Educational. He was Director of SEND at the London Leadership Strategy and an advisor to the Mayor of London’s education team. As part of his international work David has supported the development of Inclusion policies internationally, in countries including Ethiopia, Seychelles, Thailand and Malaysia. David is a member of the Education Policy Institute Advisory Board and a trustee of the KPMG Foundation, which seeks to bring about systemic change in business and society and unlock the potential of the most disadvantaged children in the UK.