Training Opportunities

Making Inclusion Happen!

Available Training

A range of training opportunities can be brought direct to you or can be designed to meet your specific needs. Phone or email us and tell us what you really want!

Click this button for full Training Menu:

Most Popular Training events

• Keys to Inclusion

• Inclusive teaching and learning styles

• Fresh Approaches to Managing Challenging Behaviour

• Including Children with Autism

• Building Creative Staff Teams

• Person Centred Planning

Intentional Invitation to Community

29th September 2008

Themes:

Advocacy- Invitation- Community Circles- Circles of Support- Radical Aproaches to Relationship

Venue: Nottingham

Email us for details

Scottish Inclusion Training Events

Circle of Friends
A one-day workshop
Led by

Derek Wilson and Colin Newton

Inclusive Solutions, Nottingham

Monday 6th October 2008 9.30am – 3.30 pm
Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living
117-127 Brook Street
Glasgow
G40 3AP

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 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.

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.

OUTCOMES
•  To be able to understand the values and wider context of inclusion
•  To be able to set up and run a 'circle of friends' to reduce likelihood of a pupil being excluded or segregated
•  To understand and be able to maximise the power of the peer group in supporting relationships, achievement and behaviour change

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Derek Wilson and Colin Newton are co-founders of Inclusive Solutions. They have combined experience of over 40 years working as educational psychologists across the UK, most recently as Senior and Principal educational psychologists in Nottingham City LEA. Find out more about their work at: www.inclusive-solutions.com

 

Professionals …..………….... £100+VAT
Voluntary Organisations..….. £80+VAT
Parents …………………...£20 inc. of VAT
Inclusive of refreshments and lunch

TO BOOK YOUR PLACE

Email: dnewton123@ntlworld.com

 

RESTORATIVE INTERVENTIONS IN SCHOOLS
A one-day workshop
Led by

Derek Wilson and Colin Newton

Inclusive Solutions, Nottingham

Tuesday 7th October 2008 9.30am – 3.30 pm
Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living
117-127 Brook Street
Glasgow, G40 3AP  

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 harmful 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. Restorative Interventions in schools are currently being piloted in 3 Scottish Councils as an alternative approach to conflict resolution and discipline.
A two-year evaluation study reported: “Restorative approaches can be seen to work at all levels of the school, with all students, including those in trouble or conflict… Our evaluation provides evidence of real transformation of thinking and practice in some schools and significant change across all the schools” (Gwynedd Lloyd, Head of Educational Studies, University of Edinburgh 2005)

 THEMES FOR THE DAY WILL INCLUDE
•  An introduction to the guiding ideas that underpin restorative work
•  Restorative interventions in practice across a range of school settings 
•  How to use everyday restorative conversations/short conferences in schools

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Derek Wilson and Colin Newton are co-founders of Inclusive Solutions. They have combined experience of over 40 years working as educational psychologists across the UK, most recently as Senior and Principal educational psychologists in Nottingham City LEA. Find out more about their work at: www.inclusive-solutions.com

TO BOOK YOUR PLACE

Email: dnewton123@ntlworld.com

Professionals …..………….... £100+VAT
Voluntary Organisations..…... £80+VAT
Parents ………………..£20 inclusive of VAT

 

INCLUDING CHILDREN WITH AUTISM
IN MAINSTREAM SETTINGS

Greenwood Teachers' Centre, Dreghorn, Irvine,
KA11 4HJ  
Wednesday 22 October 2008
(9.30am – 3.30pm)

Led by

Derek Wilson and Colin Newton

Inclusive Solutions, Nottingham

HEADLINE THEMES WILL INCLUDE:

Learning Styles and Curriculum Modifications

Supports and Accommodations for Sensory Sensitivities

Understanding ‘movement differences’

Recognising and dealing with Anxiety build up

Developing Friendships and Peer Support

Developing Schoolwide Supports for Teachers and Students

This one-day workshop will provide participants with state-of the-art information and strategies for including children and young people with Autism in mainstream settings – early years, primary and secondary. The day will involve a mix of presentations and active problem-solving in small groups and will enable participants to develop strategies for supporting students with Autism in their schools and families. Our guiding principle throughout the day will be to understand people with autism first and foremost as individuals with unique strengths and challenges. Our emphasis will be on the accommodations needed in school and other settings to build participation and belonging for individuals with autism.
A Preview of the day is downloadable from http://www.inclusive-solutions.com/Handouts.asp

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Derek Wilson and Colin Newton are co-founders of Inclusive Solutions. They have combined experience of over 35 years working as educational psychologists across the UK, most recently as Senior and Principal educational psychologists in Nottingham City LEA. Find out more about their work at: www.inclusive-solutions.com

COST - £100–Local Authority staff
£80 – Voluntary Organisations
£20 – Parents
(

INCLUDES Tea/Coffee/lunch)

TO BOOK YOUR PLACE

Email – inspiringinc@btinternet.com
Tel no - 07837265159

Fresh Approaches to Relationships and Behaviour
A one-day workshop
Led by

Derek Wilson and Colin Newton

Inclusive Solutions, Nottingham

Thursday 23rd October 2008 - 9.30am-3.30pm
Greenwood Teachers' Centre, Dreghorn, Irvine,
KA11 4HJ

This is our lead workshop/training day on behaviour and relationship work in schools and Early Years settings. It is both a values primer and a practical guide to successful and innovative strategies for improving behaviour and strengthening relationships for challenging children and young people. This is the training day that goes beyond trying to address behaviour by using rewards and sanctions. 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.

THEMES FOR THE DAY WILL INCLUDE

• The importance of ‘Welcome’ – creating a sense of safety and belonging as the first step to building relationships and reducing difficult behaviour
• The ‘Circle of Courage’ – introduction to a model of emotional needs that provides a fresh starting point for thinking about relationships and behaviour
• Problem Solving Processes for teams – an introduction to Solution Circles and the Circle of Adults process
• Separation and Loss – understanding and accommodating to the main drivers of challenging behaviour
• The emotional needs of boys

 

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Derek Wilson and Colin Newton are co-founders of Inclusive Solutions. They have combined experience of over 40 years working as educational psychologists across the UK, most recently as Senior and Principal educational psychologists in Nottingham City LEA. Find out more about their work at: www.inclusive-solutions.com

TO BOOK YOUR PLACE

Email: dnewton123@ntlworld.com

Professionals …..………….... £100+VAT
Voluntary Organisations..….. £80+VAT
Parents …………………...£20 inc. of VAT

 

Inclusive Solutions Provide 'On Site' Input

Let us come and work in your setting for 2 or more days.

Ask Jayne, headteacher in a Barnet, London Primary school what she thought of the 2 day experience - head.childshill.barnet@lgfl.net

or Mandy SENCO at Bushill Jones School in Walsall what she thought of her 2 days: Mandy Baggott - mbaggott@busill-jones.walsall.sch.uk

Let us Come to You

Live Visioning and Problem Solving

There is an old Japanese proverb, “Vision without action is a daydream.  Action without vision is a nightmare.”

 “There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about”
Margaret Wheatley – ‘Turning to One Another’ (2002)

Description
Give your team the opportunity to pause and reflect on what matters most to them about the work they do. The act of listening to each other creates relationship and strengthens trust and inclusion within the team - in creating a shared vision, groups of people build a sense of commitment together. They develop images of ‘the future we want to create together’, along with the values that will be important in getting there and the goals they want to see achieved along the way. Unfortunately, many people still think ’vision’ is the top leader’s job. In schools, the ‘vision task’ usually falls to the Headteacher and/or the governors or it comes in a glossy document from the local authority or the DfES. But visions based on authority are not sustainable.
Drawing on the planning tools MAPS and PATH (Pearpoint, Forest and O’Brien 1997) and other facilitation sources we use both process and graphic facilitation to enable the group to build their picture of what they would love to see happening within their organisation/community in the future and we encourage this to be a positive naming, not just a list of the things they want to avoid.

Testimonials

Thank you so much for the work you did with us yesterday – I have since been in 2 schools today and have spoken to an number of other colleagues who were present – all were totally overwhelmed by the session – they loved it. Comments included “ I was totally blown away, when I realised how passionate people were about SEAL”…………. “So nice to reflect and realise what a long way we have come”…………..” That was so powerful and motivational”. 

Aims and Objectives of the Session

• To create a far reaching and shared vision of the future for the team/group you are working with and ensure that each person present contributes to this
• To create a visual representation (a graphic) of the vision and use this to plan future actions
• To facilitate the group in thinking through what some of the barriers to achieving their vision are and to begin work on how these can be removed
• To build a sense of commitment, common purpose and trust within the team/group

Who Is It For?

• Public and voluntary sector leaders who want to hold meaningful consultations with the groups they serve
• Headteachers and school managers who want to bring staff/parents/governors and young people together around a shared vision of their future work
• Local Authority teams who have come together to deliver national initiatives in their local context
•  Any group of people who want to articulate their common purposes, name the roadblocks to achieving these and start to chart actions which move past the perceived barriers

Course Content
The facilitation of a shared vision can be delivered as a full or a half day but, unlike the other days described in this ‘Available Training’ section of our website, the detail of the day depends on your and your team’s needs and the time you have available. We will always begin the session with a range of activities and reflections designed to set the tone for the work to be done. And we will typically follow this up with a session lasting at least an hour where we ask all present to reflect on what matters most to them about their work, what they would love to see happening if there were no constraints on time, people, resources etc. We then ask individuals in twos and threes to share their thinking first with each other then with the whole group. We encourage participants to use their imaginations to the fullest and to stretch their thinking as far as they can as they describe what they would love to see happening in the future - even if they have no idea of how they could get there.  This part of the process is not about being realistic – it is about establishing the direction of travel. We facilitate the group to become more grounded as the session progresses. As people give voice to their thinking the essence of what they say is captured on a large and colourful graphic mounted at the front of the room – similar to the image at the start of this section.
Creating the vision is the heart of the session and depending on your needs we can add some or all of the following activities to strengthen the vision and clarify what actions the team will take in moving towards it.

• The Story So Far – a valuable activity for new or re-organised teams where trust levels may not be high – this activity can last for up to an hour and asks team members to describe their professional journeys so far, the high and low points, the key changes. The end graphic poster typically captures the complexity of the past and the ever-changing territory the team works within. For some teams this process is key to allowing them to take the step into the future that building a shared vision requires.
• Headline Themes – a 15 – 20 minute activity which asks the group to capture the essence of their vision in 3 or 4 memorable ‘headline’ summary phrases
• Naming the Nightmare – no more than 5 to 10 minutes is needed for this activity. Here we ask people to name their ‘nightmares’ - the things they would hate to see happening in their organisation or community. We don’t dwell on this nor do we encourage the same level of detailed description that we expect in the vision. However we have learned that some teams/individuals need the extra energy that is released by naming and working to avoid the nightmare.
• A Year from Now – a 30 – 45 minute activity which asks the team to imagine they have traveled in time and are now a year ahead from today and are looking back at what they have achieved. The rule is that the events they remember must be ‘positive and possible’ This is a more ‘playful’ activity and often releases energy and creativity in the team 
• Naming Roadblocks and Barriers – a 45-minute activity which asks the team to name what they see as the important barriers that stand in the way of achieving their vision. We encourage the group to be as specific as they can about these roadblocks as they write them onto cards, which are then posted over the vision graphic. The team then problem solves together in twos and threes devising ways of going round, removing or reducing the roadblocks until a point is reached where most of the vision is uncovered again. This is an energising activity for teams that feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of issues  confronting them
• Who will we need to take with us on the Journey towards the Vision – a 20 minute activity that asks the team to name key people who will need to be fully on board before work on the vision can begin in earnest. This activity begins with the people in the room who are invited to sign up to the vision there and then.  It also asks the team to create a (small) list of people that the vision needs to be shared with and seek their support. With the creation of this list the team begin to chart some their first actions from the day
• Who are we? – Gifts, Strengths and Talents – a 30 minute activity which encourages the team to take explicit stock of their capacities and what they already have going for them as they begin working towards the vision. We do this in various ways – by asking individuals to talk about a time in their professional lives (or beyond) when they felt they were at their best, by asking the group as a whole to notice and name each others gifts and talents. This is a strong reminder for teams of the wealth of knowledge and experience that is already and always in the room
• Charting Specific Actions – a 30 to 40 minute activity done initially in pairs and then in groups of four. The team members are asking to start naming a sample of actions they can do in the next few days/week/month and how these actions relate to the vision. We actively coach the group to name actions that they themselves are going to do - not simply a good idea for someone else to do and which are more than just ‘good intentions’

 Seneca said, “Our plans miscarry if they have no aim.  When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.”