#DiverseEd: This is Me

A few weeks ago we held Diverse Educators II. The follow up to our inaugural event in January 2018. This year’s theme was This is Me as this was the song I left last year’s attendees with so it seemed fitting to open with our school choir, Voices of Aureus, performing it with Makaton.

The purpose of the initial event was to explore the inter-sectionality of  our identities and to bring together the grassroots organisations #WomenEd and #BAMEed, to support #LGBTed pre their launch and nurture #DisabilityEd who were preparing to launch.

It seems crazy that if you are a woman of colour and identify as LGBT or are disabled that you would need to attend 4 different events and ultimately sacrifice 4 weekends as the grassroots activities generally exist out of hours.

Our follow up event was designed to build on the connections and collaborations from year 1, to nurture the new voices, welcome new people and support the new kid on the block #MenEd.

Thank you to everyone who attended, contributed and supported from afar.

I will share the blogs that our facilitators and key note speakers publish to capture their sessions.

Instead I would like to draw together some suggestions on how events can be more diverse and inclusive.

Here are 12 accessibility  and inclusion tips for event organisers:

1. Is the line up reflecting the diversity of the delegates?
2. If the line up is diverse, who is speaking on the main stage versus who is faciliating workshops?
3. Are there signposted disable parking bays?
4. Is there a creche for parents?
5. Is there a room for nursing mums?
6. Is there a lift or have you considered moving sessions downstairs?
7. Have you provided lift passes/ keys/ a site staff member to support?
8. Have you held seats at the front for delegates who are less mobile or who need to lip read?
9. Is there someone who can sign the keynotes?
10. Is there a prayer room?
11. Is your lunch halal/ vegetarian/ vegan/ gluten free?
12. Are you live broadcasting/ periscoping sessions for those who cannot physically attend?

What have I missed? Please do comment below and I can add them to the list as a checklist for event organiser who are conscious they want to get this right.

Did you know that #BAMEed have a directory of expert speakers from diverse backgrounds? Check it out here.

You can book to join us in January 2020 (1) at Diverse Educators III here.

Hannah, The Hopeful Headteacher

Currently feeling hopeful about:

• Together we are stronger and can affect real change in the system, in our schools and ultimately in society

Currently reading and thinking about:

• I am hoping that our key notes Angie Browne and Iesha Small may blog their key notes…
• I am also looking forward to the publication of Iesha’s book: The Unexpected Leader

Currently feeling grateful for:

• Having a team who are as passionate about diversity, equality, inclusion and social equity as I am

 

Diverse Educators: #BAMEed #DisabilityEd #LGBTEd #WomenEd

Yesterday, was a defining moment in my career.

I am still buzzing from the inspiring and empowering group of diverse educators who came to Aureus for the day for our inaugural Diverse Educators event.

#BAMEed met #DisabilityEd met #LGBTed met #WomenEd. 4 grassroot movements and communities came together to connect, to collaborate. The power of the collective voice.

The impact we can have working together was how I framed the event.  I opened Diverse Educators asking everyone to share their Why. We then did a popcorn sharing of our motivation for getting out of bed early and travelling on a cold Saturday morning in January.

My why:

We know our identities are more complex than just our gender. We all wear multiple hats, we all have multiple labels as we define and own our complex identities. What do we have in common? We are all humans. Yesterday, we brought together a group of humans who care deeply about diversity, equality and inclusion.

My proposition was that each community, each movement could challenge their systemic, structural and societal barriers for their label, or we could join forces and be a stronger voice, a stronger community to smash through these glass ceilings and these concrete ceilings together. Moreover with the support of all of the organisations who supported the event as exhibitors and contributors.

A collective mission.  A collective voice. A collective impact.

 

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Each of the grassroots movements shared an update on the progress of their community  and the impact they have made to date:

#BAMEed are a year old and held their first event last May in Birmingham, their 2nd event is soon and they are planning their 3rd for June 2nd. Co-founded by Abdul, Allana, Amjad and Penny they are growing their network and profile. Find out by following them here. An offshoot of @BAMEednetwork is @TFBAMEcommunity co-founded by Jess and Mahlon. They also have a series of events on the horizon.

#DisabilityEd is new on the block and unfortunately Lynne Wareham who is pulling volunteers together was too unwell to join us yesterday to share plans. The sessions that took place started the conversation. More to follow on this one as the community of educators with a disability come forward and join forces.

#LGBTed did a soft launch yesterday and will have a hard launch, an event in the spring.  Co-founded by Daniel and Hannah they have combined forces with David Weston and @OutTeacher. They have  Claire Birkenshaw (first know UK Headteacher to transition whilst in post) as an advisor to make schools more trans aware. Find out more here.

#WomenEd is now nearly 3 years old! Co-founded by 7 educators, we have 5 of us as national leaders (Me, Jules, Keziah, Sameena and Vivienne) and 60+ as regional leaders in the UK and a further 10 driving the agenda internationally. We are planning our 4th national unconference for Autumn 2018, we have just reached 16,000 followers, we were nominated for a national diversity award, we were named in the TES top 10 influencers and we have a book deal with SAGE education. It has been an epic year for the #womened community! We have also just launched @WomenEd_Tech and @WomenEdBookClub Find out more here.

The schedule of the day involved 8 workshops in 4 time slots, 32 facilitated workshops and learning conversations about how we can have impact in our schools for our learners, both staff and students.

At lunchtime there was a buzz in the air as we all made human connections. Collaborations were initiated and I am excited to see how these will develop.

We closed with a panel. A diverse panel. A panel like we should see at more edu-events. It really isn’t that hard to ensure that you represent the voices of the audience and the profession at our events, whether they are grassroots or mainstream. Alison, Claire, Anna, Jonathan and Shirley represented and explored ‘How can we create a cohesive and coherent strategy to ensure a more diverse workforce?’ They reflected and shared how we can move from our why, to our how and to our what.

 

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I asked everyone in the room to then pledge their ‘what’. What is it we can all do differently from Monday? What is we can contribute to drive the diversity agenda?

The reason why Diverse Educators primarily came about was due to yet another poster advertising yet another event with an all white, male line up. We must continue to challenge the ‘manels’ and the ‘wanels’! We must collectively challenge the lack of representation at a lot of events, as well as on SLTs, Governing and Trust boards.  We will not change the ‘pale, male, stale’ face of pockets of our profession unless we challenge and ask for change.

I lost track of how many of these events I saw last year. Equally I was invited to speak at 10 plus events last year about diversity. I challenged each event that when I realised I was the representative. There were not diverse faces on the line up, just my straight, white face and voice championing diversity! They didn’t seem to see the irony? Moreover, on the few events where there was a smidgen of diversity, the diverse voices were marginalised to the small stage and pigeonholed by their topic.

So, it only seemed right for Bennie, one of my fabulous DHTs to close the event for us.  Bennie wears all of the hats.

She explored each of the labels she wears. Her speech was passionate, personal and reflective as she shared her dismay at realising that she had a disability – as if it wasn’t hard enough to be a woman, an Asian women and an Asian bisexual woman. Did she really now have to deal with being a disabled Asian bisexual woman. How many labels can one person cope with? How many glass ceilings can one educational leader smash through? Her upbeat voice and pragmatic approach gave hope to the audience that it is possible, if you find the right school, if you stay true to your values. Moreover if you lean in and embrace your authentic self and bring your whole self to school.

 

Before everyone left I played them a song. They wondered where I was taking them when Hugh Jackman appeared on the screen. But a song from his new film: This is Me, made all of the hairs stand up on my arms, my foot tap in and my heart beat. I will be using it in an assembly this half-term as the lyrics are so emotive and powerful.  The Power Pose is a source of strength for #womened, this song could be a source of strength, an anthem for our diverse educational community. Most importantly, our grassroots events are amazingly positive and uplifting, but the trolling has already started. I hope that everyone who joined us yesterday, physically and virtually, ignore the haters, take the lonely negative voices with a pinch of salt and tap into the support and positivity of the Diverse Educators community:

“Reach for the sun… Burst through the barriers… Don’t let them break you down to dust… This is me… I make no apologies… Look out here I come!”

Hannah, The Hopeful Headteacher

Currently feeling hopeful about:

• The impact this event will have on combining the communities and excited to already be thinking about Diverse Educators II in Jan 2019 – we are thinking 12/1/19 and moving it back a week so more can come
• The impact that Diverse Leaders will have on our 2nd cohort of delegates – you can register here for our free #BAMEed leadership development programme: https://goo.gl/forms/pQN8cn7Iw3zOPf5I2
• Supporting the launch of #LGBTed
• Advocating the developments of #BAMEed and @TFBAMEcommunity
• What #WomenEd will achieve in our 4th year

Currently reading and thinking about:

• Mary Beard: Women and Power 

Currently feeling grateful for:

• Everyone who came to Aureus yesterday – all of the speakers who volunteered their time for free, all of the exhibitors who provided resources, refreshments (Veema), gave out books (Leadership Matters) and discounted CPD (TES Institute) to our audience
• Pen who captured the opening discussions and reflections brilliantly.
• Claire Birkenshaw for educating me and making me more trans aware over pizza and wine!

#SENDed: “Making the invisible visible”

Just under a year ago Anita Kerwyn-Nye rang me to ask if the Harris Federation would be interested in participating in a MAT pilot on peer-to-peer SEND reviewing. It was a DfE funded project and we would work in collaboration with AET. I had just started my secondment as the Professional Learning Leader across the MAT and the TSA; my remit from the CEO and the Director of Education was to make our system leadership and CPD offer more outward-facing, so it seemed like a great opportunity to start as I meant to go on.

So I found myself as a named representative of educational stakeholders on the Whole SEND steering group. To be clear, I am not a SEND specialist, I am a T&L/Professional Learning leader and I have an inclusive value set. It is not very often I feel like an imposter, but I can remember entering the room for the first meeting last spring – it was like the SEND super group. Everyone who was anyone (in the twitter bubble at least) for SEND was there – Anita, David Bartram and the London Leadership Strategy had assembled all of the SEND powerhouses including Vijita Patel, Nancy Gedge, Simon Knight, Jarlath O’Brien, Dr Adam Boddison, Rob Webster and representatives from organisations like LKMCO, NASEN, NET and the Driver Youth Trust. I was suitably impressed and knew that this group meant business. I also knew that I would be challenged and would learn a lot!

A year later, a series of Whole SEND steering group meetings, audits and reviews have culminated today in a fantastic #SENDed inaugural summit.

Keynotes:

Anita Kerwyn-Nye – set the context of the SEND landscape and shared personal stories about being the Mum of children being diagnosed with additional educational needs, potentially be failed by the system. Anita shared the community of practice behind #SENDed and made it clear that not everything that makes a difference costs. It’s about attitude too.

“What we have to do is support the teachers, charities and individuals trying to make children’s lives better”.

“We need to be an inclusive society. We need diversity of thought. We need some different thinking in our schools. “We need diversity of thought to solve the world’s problems”.

“The measure of a civilisation is how we treat our weakest members. We need to raise our children to be kind”.

David Bartram – reminded us that all parents and educators, everywhere in the world have the same  hopes and dreams for their children. He shared his visits to various countries to consult on SEND provision as the UK are seen as the experts in this field. He outlined the framework and how the SEND audit can be used as tool for system-led improvements in SEND provision through peer review. He posed the following question to the room: We spend 1 Million minutes in school. How are you using those minutes for children in your schools?

“SEND needs to sit at the heart of educational policy, it is not separate”.

“We need to breath some confidence back into the system. Great school-based practice exists. We need to share it”.

“We need to demystify what great SEND practice looks like”.

 

Vijita Patel – I have not yet visited Swiss Cottage but  I have heard Vijita speak a lot about the holistic learning experience that they have created for their learning community. Vijita shared the fundamental aim of the Whole SEND review to bring practitioners together. She also championed that a SEND label does not need to define a child’s potential or experience.

“We need to help the wider community to understand the potential of SEND learners. We need to advocate next steps”.

“Sitting at the heart of the SEND Review Guide is the potential of each and every child”.

“We need inclusive values at the core of our schools’ cultures. We need nurture led school provision”.

Edward Timpson – our Minister for Vulnerable Children and Families, spoke passionately as a father, not sounding at all like a politician about the vision he has for the system and SEND reform. He highlighted creativity in schools & the potential of best practice feeding through the system. He was very open that many schools are not doing enough for children with SEND.

“We have an opportunity but also a responsibility to make the system work for all CYP with SEND”.

Round tables and networking:

A series of SEND professionals chaired round table discussions on a series of themes and issues to represent the #collectivevoice of the profession.

I spent the time catching up with: NASEN, The Driver Youth Trust and the Special Needs Jungle – each giving me insight on my responsibility as a Headteacher and school leader to lead inclusively whilst challenging the system.

“You got to see it to be it” Panel:

Simon Knight – set the scene by exploring the contradiction of SEND being highly visible and invisible at the same time, he paralleled the hyper visibility and hyper accountability of PP provision funding and provision to what we need for SEND.

“We need to focus on the needs of the learners and not the needs of the system!”

“Very often there is not a learning difficulty, there is a teaching difficulty  -a barrier for one is a barrier for the other!”

George Fielding – I have heard him speak before and he always moves me. As a Whizz Kid ambassador, an under graduate and the first wheel chair user to achieve his DoE he is an inspiring and empassioned speaker about his rights as “a proud man, a proud Brit and a proud disabled person”.

“Difference and diversity makes Britain the country that it is”. 

“We have to help young people with #SENDed become proud of who they are”.

“There are four Ls for me – people with SEND can learn, love, and lead but must not be limited”.

Allana Gay – as a founding regional leader for #womened, Allana has recently co-founded #bameed. She shared the data for representation of BAME educators and addressed the issue of inter-sectionality. As a woman, a black woman, a black woman who is an immigrant she shared her frustration at the multiple layers of   her complex identity and the unconscious biases she needs to navigate. She called out the leadership ladder in most schools as “getting paler” the higher you looked. I would add to this that it gets “maler” too.

“London is a melting pot, but too often our teachers do not represent that diversity”.

“With Education management gets paler as you go up the hierarchy. Educator voices do not reflect our communities”.

“In a real meritocracy we all start on a level playing field”.

Myself – I shared our journey as #womened, and the work I have been doing in the Diversity and Equality space through the NCTL funding for Teaching Schools. I questioned who was collating the data and who was reviewing the allocation and the impact of the grants. I invited the audience to consider the language we use as Diversity and Equality are singular terms and are misleading. ‘Diversities’ encompasses multiplicities, complexities and pluralities better.

“There’s a lot being done about diversity – what we need to talk about is diversities”.

“Data shows .5% of teacher have SEND, but the total number of adults with SEND is 20%”. (via Chris Rossiter, Driver Youth Trust)

Jon Severs – as commissioning editor of the TES, shared the work they are doing on representation of voices and experiences in the educational press.  He reminded us that we should not assume SEND knowledge but that we need to support the acquisition of knowledge and debate it, destigmatising it and using layman language to communicate it to a wider audience, more simply.

“The biggest challenge with SEND in the media is its complexities!”

“Need to find language to tell stories about SEND without creating victims”.

  

#WomenEd have spent 2 years campaigning for diversity and equality, inclusive panels and to “diminish the differences” in under-represented groups in the education system. Today felt like a big step forward. We have lots more steps to take, there are no quick fixes.

We all need to challenge, we all need to model, we all need to champion, we all need to celebrate the diversities in our classrooms, schools and in our society.

Actions I would like to see as a result of today:

• A network of SEND leaders and partners to work collaboratively in finding collective solutions to common issues
• An opportunity for a series of events including one targeting Headteachers and Governors
• A reform re the requirements of SEND provision for ITT and the skills gap closure for Quality First Teaching across the system
• A statutory requirement for all schools to have a qualified SENDco and a named SEND lead on every SLT who needs to refresh their training every year like the DSL does for safeguarding practice
• Hyper accountability for SEND provision in all schools like we have for PP

Seeing this Guardian Jobs advert advocating a diverse workforce on the train on the way home filled me with hope though:

Hannah, The Hopeful Headteacher

Currently feeling hopeful about:

• Challenging our school communities to champion the multiplicity of ‘diversities’ and not just ‘diversity’
• Affecting change across the system for all learners to enable all to thrive or in George’s words ‘love, learn and lead’ but be ‘limited’ by their learning needs
• Embedding the value of inclusion into our curriculum at Aureus where we will strive to holistically educate the WHOLE CHILD so that all will be nurtured

Currently reading and thinking about:

• The #SENDed tweets – catching up the day’s activities
• Reading Vic Goddard’s blog on inclusion and  ‘botheredness’

Currently feeling grateful for:

• The brilliant keynotes this morning from Anita, David, Vijita and Edwards Timpson the Minister for Vulnerable Learners
• The fantastic educators I met today in the audience, the sessions, on the panel and the exhibiting organisations