www.inclusive-solutions.com
Training opportunities 2006- 2007
Full Training Course details: page by page
Download Full details of our training on a small word file here. These events are linked to 'Removing the Barriers to Achievement' the Government's strategy for meeting Special Needs.
Download a small word file here that shows how our training, consultation and visioning work supports the implementation of the 2004 Children Act.
Target groups for all these workshops:
• Directorate of Local Authorities and Children Services
• Head teachers
• School/college managers
• Teachers, Teaching Assistants and SENCOs
• LA Support Services
• Learning Mentors
• Pastoral Staff and Connexions Services
• LEA managers
• Educational psychologists
• Ealy Years workers and Voluntary organisations
• Social services managers
• Social workers
• Residential units/social workers
• Foster carers
• Child and Adolescent Mental Health Teams
• Behaviour Support Services
The following courses can mostly be run as half / full day / 2 day or 5 day courses depending on your needs and budget.
We would advise you to book a follow up half day to any days you agree with us to maximise implementaion and continuity. REMOVING BARRIERS TO ACHIEVEMENT
Creating the inclusive classroom: inclusive teaching and learning
strategies
This is our latest lead workshop/training day and is an extremely
innovative, participative and practical guide to successfully creating
a truly inclusive classroom in mainstream school settings for children
and young people of all ages. Best delivered over the course of
2 days, ‘Inclusive Classroom’ introduces participants
to 6 guiding Ideas that increase effective inclusion in mainstream
settings.
1. Setting the tone for learning
2. Resourcing schools and classrooms effectively
3. The essential 4 questions! What is the essential learning in
this lesson? How do the students learn best? What needs modifying?
How will students demonstrate their learning?
4. Building on strengths and talents
5. Beyond the IEP
6. The curriculum content of inclusive classrooms
Outcomes:
• Increased skills in diversifying/differentiating the curriculum
• Reflection on attitudes to individual learning and the curriculum
• Linking learning style research to real classroom inclusion
of high profile/need pupils
• Improved teaching skills for those with severe and complex
needs and behaviour
• Challenge to attitudes and mindsets
KEYS to INCLUSION
This is our lead workshop/training day and is both a values primer
and a practical guide to successful strategies for developing inclusive
practice in educational settings for children and young people of
all ages. Best delivered over the course of a full day, ‘Keys
to Inclusion’ introduces participants to 6 guiding Ideas that
underpin inclusive practice.
1.The importance of WELCOME
2.Inclusion is about Adults’ learning
3.Taking the Long View
4.Giftedness as a new paradigm for understanding disability and
difference
5.The Intentional Building of Relationships – ‘Circle
of Friends’ work as an example of this
6.Not doing it alone – The Importance of Teams in developing
inclusive practice
Outcomes:
1. increased confidence regarding developing inclusive practice
in mainstream schools
2. access to a wider range of practical strategies to impact on
behaviour problems
3. deeper understanding of core values surrounding inclusion of
disabled children
4. opportunity to reflect on professional attitudes and behaviour
towards parents and pupils
5. learn new skills and processes to make inclusion successful
FRESH APPROACHES TO MANAGING CHALLENGING BEHAVIOUR
If your usual approaches to managing behaviour aren’t working with particular individuals then…
Take a tour through this range of cutting edge strategies for bringing about positive behaviour change, and for meeting challenging emotional needs:
*Circles of adults: a process that ‘listens deeper’ to generate reflective problem solving creating lasting behaviour change and effective behaviour intervention plans. A particularly valuable process for those looking to enhance their leadership and facilitation skills
*Circles of friends: peer support and inclusion. Pupils work to problem solve with and actively support the inclusion and behaviour change of one of their peers
*Peer support, counselling and mediation: reduce bullying and address emotional needs as older pupils offer active listening support and interventions
*Solution circles: a 30 minute group problem solving process to get Teams ‘unstuck’ and to generate positive first action steps
*Giving boys what they need: focus on particular strategies for meeting the emotional needs of boys
*Restorative justice and restitution: principles and practice of this approach to resolving and restoring relationships without reliance on punishment
*Community networks of support: creating ownership of the solutions in local mainstream schools made more therapeutic
Outcomes:
1. Reinforce good practice
2. re-energise, stimulate and challenge thinking about inclusion and behaviour
3. increased understanding about behaviour
4. increased confidence in managing challenging pupils in mainstream schools
5. access to a wider range of practical strategies to impact on behaviour problems
6. deeper understanding of core values surrounding inclusion of challenging pupils
7. opportunity to reflect on professional attitudes and behaviour towards families and pupils
8. learn new skills and processes to make inclusion successful
INCLUDING CHILDREN WITH AUTISM IN MAINSTREAM SETTINGS
In this practical workshop session we will explore ways of including
pupils who have been labelled as being on the autism spectrum. The
session will be values based and practical and will aim to allow
the sharing of experiences and good practice as well promoting innovative
approaches to inclusion through the design of best practice. Parental
perspectives and experiences will also be explored.
Key themes include:
o Learning Styles and Curriculum Modifications
o Strategies for Facilitating Communication
o Supports and Accommodations for Sensory Sensitivities
o Developing Friendships and Peer Support
o School and Family Partnerships
o ‘Learning to Listen’ – Positive Behavioural Supports
o Developing Schoolwide Supports for Teachers and Students
Outcomes:
- increased confidence regarding autistic pupils and their inclusion
in mainstream schools
- access to a wider range of practical strategies to impact on communication
and behaviour issues
- deeper understanding of core values surrounding inclusion
o learn new skills and processes to make inclusion of autistic pupils
successful
BUILDING CREATIVE STAFF TEAMS
Want ideas as to how to make your team work together more effectively?
Need to know how to make your team feel more inclusive to its members?
In this practical and engaging workshop there is input on team
building, problem solving as a team, improving communication and
handling conflict. How to make teams really inclusive is fully explored
and processes for maximising this examined. Effective leadership
and management, which can transform teamwork through collaboration
and consensus-building processes is well covered. The native American
medicine wheel guides us through the directions of leadership, vision,
community and management.
Objectives of the day
1. empowerment of team players
2. deepened insights into team processes
3. practical strategies for team building learned
4. processes for enhancing creativity of team members explored
5. celebration of existing strengths and talents
Key themes of the day:
1. Setting the tone
2. Visioning
3. Exploring strengths and talents of team members: When were you
at your best?
4. Building consensus
5. Problem solving
6. Building the team community
7. Self care and survival
RESTORATIVE INTERVENTIONS
Restorative Interventions in Schools
Target Audience:
Primary and Secondary teachers, heads and deputIes, middle managers
Psychologists
Support Service Staff
Advisers
Aims:
1. To introduce participants to Restorative Interventions
2. To develop understanding of value and role in developing inclusive
practice of Restorative Interventions
3. To develop and practise Restorative Intervention skills processes
A “Restorative Intervention” is a non-adversarial approach
to conflict resolution where the person who has done something wrong
in a given situation becomes accountable to those s/he has harmed.
This person is then given the opportunity to “make up”
for their inappropriate behaviour through agreement and reparation.
An Intervention can involve a formal conference, or it can be a
simple conversation on a corridor or playground. Restorative Interventions
work with all ages of young people, and the techniques can be used
in parental meetings, can prevent exclusions and challenge poor
behaviour. Our feedback tells us that when problems between young
people are addressed in this way, those problems rarely reoccur.
This day’s training will enable participants to facilitate
Short Restorative Conferences, and will suggest ways of working
with young people and others that will help to repair broken relationships,
and challenge some difficult behaviour. Including all those affected
by an incident in its resolution is a powerful way of producing
significant improvements in behaviour. This work has also directed
some professionals down the path of considering “Relationship
Management” in schools as important as “Behaviour Management.”
Pre course Activity
Read about Restorative Justice/Interventions from www.inclusive-solutions.com
web site links
WORKING WITH PARENTS AND CARERS
Building Partnerships
In this practical and engaging workshop there is input on building
an effective team around a child, problem solving as a team, improving
communication and handling conflict. How to make teams really inclusive
is fully explored and processes for maximising this examined. Effective
co-leadership and management, which can transform teamwork through
collaboration and consensus-building processes is covered. We will
explore the following:
1. Setting the tone: Reframing language to describe parents
2.Providing parents with insights about children's behaviour using
stories
3. Circles of Support
4. Visioning
5. Locating gifts in one another
5. Problem solving: Circles of Adults/Solution Circles
6. Building the team
7.Managing relationships
DISABILTY EQUALITY
Disability Equality Training and Awareness training
Aim: the overall goal of the session is to help participants understand
some basic equality issues. To help them differentiate between medical
model and social model thinking, and redefine disability in terms
of barriers. This should ultimately provide clearer thinking about
disability in relation to employment and policymaking.
Objectives:
Aim & Objectives
Aim: the overall goal of the session is to help participants understand
some basic equality issues. To help them differentiate between medical
model and social model thinking, and redefine disability in terms
of barriers. This should ultimately provide clearer thinking about
disability in relation to imagery and media.
Objectives:
Explore the situation facing disabled people today
Provide a brief historical context for present day thinking on disability
Explore the difference between impairment and disability.
Provide and demonstrate an understanding of medical & social
model thinking in relation to media
N.B. At all times the participants will be encouraged to ask questions,
and explore the issues they feel
they need help with.
WRITING INCLUSION POLICIES
This day course is relevant to Early Years, LEA
staff , schools and others involved in the task of developing an
Inclusion Policy. How to create a real policy built around shared
vision with true community committment.Participate in this very
practical workshop to take your first very real steps forward.
- Legal and ethical background
- Local requirements
- Vision and Values
- Aims and Objectives
- Scope
- Evaluation and monitoring
- Complaints procedures
- Community involvement
- Consultation
- Implementation
Practical steps
Tools for Guidance Teachers and Support Staff
An introduction to new ways of planning and problem solving around individuals at key transition times and when your planning needs to be deep and long term.
The tools of :
Circle of Adults
Solution Circles
Solution Focused techniques
MAP
PATH
are explored in the context of more person centred or person friendly approaches to challenging pupils.
1. Reinforce good practice
2. re-energise, stimulate and challenge thinking about inclusion and behaviour
3. increased understanding about behaviour
4. increased confidence in managing challenging pupils in mainstream schools
5. access to a wider range of practical strategies to impact on behaviour problems
6. deeper understanding of core values surrounding inclusion of challenging pupils
7. opportunity to reflect on professional attitudes and behaviour towards families and pupils
8. learn new skills and processes to make inclusion successful
Multi Agency Working Legislation plus National
and local Government initiatives confront us all with the challenge
of working together in the interests of the most vulnerable and
the most challenging more effectively than we do today. In this
training day we explore the challenges and explore successful
ways of setting the conditions for effective multi agency working.
Themes:
What does it take to work with other agencies?
How can we get agencies working together in an effective
way?
How to reduce blame culture?
How to establish consensus in times of conflict?
Types of negotiation processes to enhance collaboration
and decision-making
Outcomes:
1. Knowledge of barriers to negotiation and collaboration
2. Introduction to processes to support the overcoming of barriers
3. Strengthened negotiation skills
4. Further developed collaboration and mediation skills
Removing barriers to learning:
INCLUDING ALL PUPILS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS
This challenging workshop will provide participants with opportunities
to share experiences and learn about the successful inclusion of
pupils with severe and complex disabilities as well as emotional
and behavioural needs in mainstream secondary schools. Cutting edge
work being carried out in the US as well as the UK will be drawn
upon to allow innovative and engaging content.
The session will be of particular value to heads, deputies, Heads
of Learning Support and other involved middle managers plus those
agencies that work with schools (e.g. social services working with
Children in Need and Children and Young People in Public Care; Child
and Adolescent Mental Health services; community paediatricians
etc).
PEER SUPPORT STRATEGIES for Inclusion
Take a tour through this range of cutting edge strategies for bringing
about smooth transitions, meeting challenging emotional needs and
to develop inclusion.
Circles of friends: peer support and inclusion. Pupils work to problem
solve with and actively support the inclusion and behaviour change
of one of their peers
Peer support, counselling and mediation: reduce bullying and address
emotional needs as older pupils offer active listening support and
interventions
Cross Age Mentoring: older pupils offer supportive mentoring to
younger pupils in the same school or in feeder primary schools
Outcomes for participants:
1. reinforce good practice
2. re-energise, stimulate and challenge thinking about inclusion
and behaviour
3. increased understanding about peer support
4. increased confidence in developing peer support strategies
5. access to a wider range of practical strategies to impact on
transition and inclusion issues
6. learn new skills and processes to make transition and inclusion
successful
LEADERSHIP FOR INCLUSION
In this session we will explore the challenges faced by leaderships
of schools when tackling inclusion issues. We develop the concept
of the leader as being central to the web of an organisation, the
web of inclusion. Information flows freely to and from the leaders
and interconnections are a premium. We will also cover a range of
areas including:
• Vision and values
• Trust
• Creating inclusive staff teams and communities of acceptance
• Admissions and welcome
• Creative problem solving
• Organisational models
• Curriculum access and curriculum design for inclusion
• Work with parents
• Consensus building
Areas covered in this session will build on the work described in
‘TEAMS FOR INCLUSION – What should they be doing and What
should they not be doing?’ Published in ‘Special Children’,
October 2002
Disability Equality Training for Early-Years
Aims of this session:
1. To introduce understanding of the SEN and Disability Act 2001.
2. To consider how the SENDA fits into the existing policies and
legislation.
3. Provide an understanding of medical & social model thinking
and its impact on provision.
4. Explore ideas for participation and choice in curriculum, games
and activities.
5. Explore ‘disability’ language.
Objectives of this session:
Become familiar with some of the arguments in the act.
Learn to see the SEN and Disability Act 2001 as an exciting challenge
and welcome tool for change. Understand that inclusion means removing
barriers to participation
To explore the historical background to Disability movement thinking.
To explore real life stories in relation to inclusion.
To have an enjoyable day.
Developing social, emotional
and behavioural skills
CIRCLES OF FRIENDS –
An inclusive approach to meeting emotional and behavioural needs
What do you do with the child who is isolated by their aggression
and anger, through being different, disabled or new to the school
or community?
Circle of Friends is an approach to enhancing the inclusion, in
a mainstream setting, of any young person who is experiencing difficulties
in school because of a disability, personal crisis or because of
their challenging behaviour towards others. The ‘circle of
friends’ approach works by mobilising the young person’s
peers to provide support and engage in problem solving with the
person in difficulty.
‘Circle of friends’ is not the same as ‘circle time’
but many of the skills and techniques used by teachers in ‘circle
time’ can be used to support the ‘circle of friends’
process. Over the past 10 years Colin Newton and Derek Wilson have
been encouraging the use of ‘circle of friends’ in a wide
variety of primary and secondary schools, often with very successful
outcomes, some of which are described in their book ‘Circles
of Friends’, (Folens, 1999).
This is an excellent opportunity to learn from Colin Newton and
Derek Wilson the educational psychologists who brought this DfES
endorsed approach to the UK
Learn how to build teams around challenging pupils by drawing on
a resource which is always there…. other children. Enjoy participating
in a multi media workshop that will challenge, entertain and reach
for your emotions. Circles of support are for us all, for life….and
they work!
Outcomes:
1. to be able to understand the values and wider context of inclusion
2. to be able to set up and run a ‘circle of friends’
to reduce likelihood of a pupil being excluded or segregated
3. to understand and be able to maximise the power of the peer group
in supporting relationships, achievement and behaviour change
CIRCLES OF ADULTS
Teams reflecting and problem solving about emotional and behavioural
needs at a deeper level
Cannot understand why a child is behaving as they do?
Struggling with a child for whom praise is ineffective?
Feeling isolated in your responses to a child’s needs?
Worried about where your instinctive reactions are leading you?
Dealing with strong personal feelings, which are getting in the
way of your reactions to a pupil?
Cannot seem to get any consensus view of a young person's behaviour/needs
amongst all the professionals involved – everyone pulling in
different directions?
Learn a deeper approach to problem solving which will provide you
with a new and richer approach to developing inclusive strategies
for dealing with the most difficult to reach children and young
people. Reflect on your own emotional responses to individuals you
work with, explore relationships and generate richer hypotheses
about what is really going on.
Outcomes:
1. deeper understanding of what is actually happening underneath
the behaviour and to maintain problems
2. increased confidence in managing challenging pupils in mainstream
schools
3. process for locating richer and wider range of practical strategies
to impact on behaviour problems
4. deeper understanding of inclusion of challenging pupils
5. opportunity to reflect on professional practice
6. mutual support established with other ‘front line’
practitioners
PERSON CENTRED PLANNING –using PATH
and MAPs
Making inclusive action plans using full participation and graphic
facilitation
Need to find new ways to bring Pathway Planning alive?
Bored with annual reviews, transition plans and review meetings?
Want to find a way of making meetings and planning feel more real
and engaging?
Need an approach, which engages a young person respectfully together
with his or her family and friends?
Want the ultimate visual record of the process of a meeting, which
will help everyone, keep track?
Want to problem solve and plan for the future of a small or large
group, service or organisation up to the size of an LEA?
Learn how to carry out respectful person centred planning involving
a diverse group of people and a big piece of paper!
Jack Pearpoint, Marsha Forest and John O’Brien developed these
innovative approaches in North America and they are beginning to
be used successfully in parts of the UK. The planning can focus
on an individual, group or organisation and provides a powerful
problem solving opportunity, which is flexible and robust enough
for many occasions. Tell the story, find the dream, touch the nightmare,
and explore who you are, what are the gifts and strengths of the
person or group, what are the needs of those present and what is
the action plan for the future?
There is a useful phrase in 'Implementing Person Centred Planning
- Voices of Experience' John O'Brien and Connie Lyle O'Brien (Eds)
Inclusion Press 2002 that is a good description of what we are trying
to create when we bring groups together over a period of time to
learn Person Centred Planning or Circles of Adults or other inclusive
tools, what we are building is a 'community of practice'. Communities
of practice are: groups of people who share a concern, a set of
problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge
and expertise in this area interacting on an ongoing basis (Wenger
and Snyder 2000, Communities of Practice - Harvard Business Review)
It might also be useful to note that 'Valuing People' (Department
of Health, 2002 pp 13-14), defines the 5 key features of PCP as:
• The person is at the centre
• Family members and friends are full partners
• Planning reflects the person's capacities, what is important
to the person and specifies the support they require to make a full
contribution to their community
• Planning builds a shared commitment to action that will uphold
the person's rights
• Planning leads to continual listening, learning and action
and helps the person get what they want out of life.
The challenge is to develop/learn to use tools that make these outcomes
more likely. The most common planning tools in use in the UK include
Essential Lifestyle Planning, PATH, MAPS and Personal Futures Planning.
Inclusive Solutions offer an introductory day to person centred
planning or a 10 session course which is practical as well as values
based. Participants will receive direct individualised coaching
and training.
Outcomes
1. Participants understand Person centred planning and its values
and applications
2. Participants have skills and confidence to facilitate PATH/MAP
processes
3. Participants learn graphic as well as process facilitation skills.
4. Strengthens practitioners inclusive practice
5. Provides additional tools for those involved in inclusive work
in schools and the community
6. Further developed problem solving and planning skills for use
with individuals, groups and schools.
MEETING THE EMOTIONAL NEEDS OF BOYS
Working together to understand and better meet boy’s emotional
and behavioural needs
This workshop gives an opportunity to focus on the emotional needs
of boys and how to meet these. The workshop will explore:
1.Cultural and historical expectations of boys in our society
2.Shared experiences of teaching and parenting boys
3.Circle of Courage
4.Educational challenges
5.Drinking and drugs, filling the emotional void
6.Depression and suicide
7.Relationships with girls
8.Anger and violence
9.What boys really need
MEETING THE NEEDS OF CHILDREN IN PUBLIC CARE –
An overview of the needs of young people in public care and provides
examples of how these needs can be met. These workshops can explore:
Story so far – educational underachievement and social exclusion
Causes of underachievement and social exclusion
Current initiatives
Case studies
Multi-agency working
Corporate Parenting
Designated Teachers
Personal Education Plans
Resilience – factors promoting success
Peer support/mentoring
Young people’s views
Circles of adults
MAPS and PATH
Circles of friends
These workshops will be of interest to teachers, designated teachers,
social workers, residential social workers, foster carers, education
support services, Local Authority Managers and other organisations
working with young people in public care (e.g. Child and Adolescent
Mental Health Services, Youth Workers etc.)
PEER COUNSELLING AS AN ANTI-BULLYING STRATEGY
Key Themes covered within the training include:
Issues of Confidentiality
Welcoming your client
Using active listening skills
Using Open and Closed Questions to enable your client to tell you
his or her story
How to reflect back feelings and how to check you have understood
what the client has told you
Exploring options for resolving the bullying issue with your client
Resourcing Special educational Needs
This issue causes school, LEAs and parents all kinds of headaches and if not done effectively can become a serious obstacle to inclusion. We are very interested in appraoches to resourcing that do not rely on statements. We worked in Nottinghamshire and Nottingham and were involved in the development of the Mainstream Support Group system of resourcing that has reduced reliance on statements for resourcing in these two LEAs.This approach involved increasing the involvement and ownership of the process by school based staff. Such approaches support inclusion and increase trust.
We offer training and development work based on these experiences.
LIVE VISIONING AND PROBLEM SOLVING
PATH or MAP processes carried out with groups, families and large organisations of up to 200 people. Dynamic visioning work with graphic facilitation and active leadership. Half day or full day sessions available to focus on small or large issues with all the right people present. We have tools to help you get unstuck and to develop consensus around complex areas.
Let us join you to explore your vision and the ‘roadblocks’ to your vision.
Multi Disciplinary Teams
Bringing services together
Exploring effective models of multiagency working. Also Learn about a process that ‘listens deeper’ to generate reflective problem-solving; create lasting behaviour change and effective behaviour intervention plans. A particularly valuable process for those looking to enhance their leadership and facilitation skills
Strategic Local Authority Approaches to Inclusion: It doesn’t just happen
What is really needed to bring about change in LEAs and schools? Creating Inclusion Facilitation Teams. This workshop will explore the changes to support service working practices that are needed to increase inclusion in school systems. As described in ‘Teams for Inclusion’ – Special Children October 2002
Alternative and augmentative communication Processes including Facilitated Communication Training (FCT)
Too many disabled children lack an effective means of communication and are vulnerable to the highly dangerous assumption that because they cannot communicate, they have nothing to say. FCT is a teaching strategy that aims to support the communication of people with severe communication impairment and enable them to find a voice. Although FCT remains a controversial method of supporting communication, it can provide ways forward for communication when no other methods have been accessible
Key Themes:
Introduction to use of FCT
Overview of practice in Australia, US and UK
Moving towards independence in communication
How physical support can enable communication beyond expectations and assumptions
Outcomes:
1. Knowledge of process of FCT
2. Understanding of evidence to support positive findings in context of controversial history
3. Insight into likely benefits
4. Challenged assumptions around presumed competence of people with severe communication impairment
Explore other ways of building real communication with people who do not use spoken language, through signs and symbols as a whole school approach to Facilitated Communication.
OPEN SPACE TECHNOLOGY
Open Space Technology (OST) was created in the mid-1980s by organizational
consultant Harrison Owen.
An Open Space Event can be scheduled to last for a half a day, a
whole day or even 2 to 3 days. All that is needed to bring people
together is a theme or title for the event. Within an LEA, a theme/title
might be ‘Increasing Inclusion’, ‘Raising Achievement
for All’ or whatever large issue is currently confronting the
organisation.
OST events have no keynote speakers, no pre-announced schedules
of workshops, no panel discussions. Instead, sitting in a large
circle, participants learn in the first hour how to create their
own agenda.
To initiate a workshop within OST, participants propose topics relating
to the theme for the event by writing them on large sheets of paper
which they post on a wall marked off with pre-established times
and places for small-group meetings. When participants have posted
their topics, a “village marketplace” begins: participants
mill around the wall, choosing their personal schedules for the
remainder of the event. Group meetings start immediately. There
are no leaders; those who proposed topics act as recorders whose
informal minutes form a basis for the report and recommendations,
which sum up the work of the group.
OST is more highly organized than the best planning committee could
possibly manage. It is also chaotic, productive, and fun. No one
is in control; rather, a handful of simple OST principles guide
group activity.
The most basic principle is that everyone who comes to an OST event
must be interested in the topic that draws the group together and
willing to take responsibility for contributing to the group activity
of creating something out of that interest.
Four key principles are
1. whoever chooses a small group is right for that group
2. whatever happens is the only thing that could happen
3. whenever it starts is the right time
4. whenever it’s over, it’s over
Another OST principle is the Law of Two Feet: “If you find
yourself in a situation where you aren’t learning or contributing,
go somewhere else.” This principle includes the possibility
of assuming responsibility either for moving the group to another
level of awareness and participation or for leaving one group and
moving to another.
Discussion of the most powerful issues can go on for days of intense
conversation. Meals and coffee breaks become “come-when-you-can” affairs, and even these interludes may turn into extended, enthusiastic
discussion. The process creates a unique spirit of community--considering
that each of the participants is doing exactly what he or she chooses
to do.
Why Open Space Technology?
Through an intentional combination of order and chaos, OST resembles
the creative act of a mind moving from confusion and frustration
to assimilation and discovery, but OST achieves this transition
not in one mind, but simultaneously in several. Intense, focused
discussion leads to mutual recognition of areas of agreement and
disagreement, and thus lays the ground for knowledgeable participation
in the action program that concludes with the publication of a full
report on the group’s findings.
During an OST event
. all issues important to the participants will be raised.
. those participants most qualified and capable of getting something
done on each topic will manage to address all of them.
. All of the most important ideas, discussions, data, recommendations,
conclusions, questions for further analysis, and plans for immediate
action will be documented in a comprehensive report: finished, printed,
and in the participants’ hands when they leave.
. This report can be made available to an entire organization or
community within days, thus immediately informing non-participating
stakeholders of the groups’ findings and inviting them to join
in the work of implementation.
If you feel the process described above could be the way forward
for your organisation/team/school, then contact us to discuss how
we can facilitate an Open Space event for you.
Read more about Open Space Technology:
Owen, Harrison 1997 Open Space Technology – A User’s Guide
2nd Edition
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco
Training the Trainers.
KEYS to INCLUSION: Training and Support Package
• Building Capacity for Inclusion
• Planning for Inclusion
• Staff Development and Training
• Quality and Attainment
.
This training would be aimed at developing the skills and knowledge
of a core group of trainers who would in turn be able to offer a
further level of accessibility training across the region in line
with recent legislative changes. The ‘presumption toward mainstream’
would be explored at both the level of values and practical implications.
This work would allow trainers to offer workshop/training days,
both values primers and a practical guide to successful strategies
for developing inclusive practice in educational settings for children
and young people of all ages.
‘Keys to Inclusion’ introduces participants to 7 guiding
Ideas that underpin inclusive practice within the context of recent
legislation.
1.The importance of WELCOME and Listening
2.Inclusion is about Adults’ learning
3.Taking the Long View
4. Capacity Building/Giftedness as a new paradigm for understanding
disability and difference and new paperwork systems for person centred
recording and planning
5. The inclusive classroom: learning preferences, inclusive teaching
and accommodations
6. The Intentional Building of Relationships – Restorative
Interventions and ‘Circle of Friends’ work as an example
of this
7. Not doing it alone – The Importance of Teams in developing
inclusive practice
Outcomes:
. Training providers create package to support accessibility Strategy
across region
. increased confidence regarding developing inclusive practice in
mainstream schools
. access to a wider range of practical strategies to impact on behaviour
problems
. deeper understanding of core values surrounding inclusion of disabled
children
. opportunity to reflect on professional attitudes and behaviour
towards parents and pupils
. learn new skills and processes to make inclusion successful
Process:
1. Recruit Trainers(Inclusive Solutions involvement is optional)
2. 3 day intensive training and package production with target team
of Training providers
3. Trainers will require time to prepare and trial materials emerging
from this work(Approx 2 days)
4. Day with Inclusive Solutions to fine tune emerging work materials/package
5. Implementation of training across region
6. Day of problem solving, evaluation and reflection with Inclusive
Solutions
6 DAYS Training
Other training days include:
Building inclusive LEA teams
How to involve young people? Reviews and evaluations of Support
Services from a pupil's perspective
Behind the Scenes at Inclusive Solutions Training Days
Building Communities which foster friendships and inclusion
Positive approaches to working with parents
Graphic Facilitation
Multiple Intelligences
Colin Newton and Derek Wilson
Co-Founders
Inclusive Solutions
http://www.inclusive-solutions.com
Email us at inclusive.solutions@ntlworld.com
Tel. 0115 9556045
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