Education Exchange: Schools reopening - support for children with SEND

Watch a recording of this British Council webinar from 16 December looking at supporting children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

About the webinar

Schools around the world are reopening with new adaptations in place. How is this affecting children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)? We will hear from teachers on:

  • How they are still offering support in a changed learning environment
  • The challenges and learnings of the last few months.

You can read a collection of 15 case studies on creating an inclusive school environment here or download the 'Core skills for all' publication on inclusion here.

16 December 2020

Watch a recording of the webinar 

About the panel

This was a panel event, with speakers from around the world, followed by questions from the audience.

Siân Williams is an Independent Education Consultant from the UK who is currently based in Greece. She has spent her career exploring ways of including more children and young people in education, for more of the time. She has spent the last five years working internationally, most recently with a focus on including children with SEND in regular classrooms. Siân will summarise key learning from different countries, showing the need for a strong and persistent focus on inclusive practice as we move through and beyond the pandemic. 

Richard Geary is the founder and Director of Family Educational Services Foundation (FESF) a nonprofit educational foundation operating in Pakistan since 1984. Pakistan has a paucity of educational opportunities available for deaf children, with less than 5% of over 1 million deaf children attending school countrywide. Under his leadership, FESF has developed the Deaf Reach Program, unique in its holistic approach in providing KG-College academic education and marketable skills training for Deaf children. Richard's team has led the way in developing innovative and ground-breaking digital learning resources in Pakistan Sign Language (PSL) which are being used countrywide to improve the quality of deaf education, resulting in FESF being chosen as winner of the global 2018 WISE Award for Education. He has worked in the field of Social Development for the past 45 years, and served as a consultant to the Pakistan Government in matters pertaining to assistive services for special needs children.

Jeremy Barnes is the headteacher of All Saints Catholic Primary School in Anfield, Liverpool. His school is a mainstream school with a provision for pupils with severe learning difficulties. He is a committed believer in inclusion, both for pupils with special educational needs but also so that all children have access to a broad range of learning experiences, from music through to sport.  His school also champions international partnerships and action within its community, both near and far, working with organisations like the British Council to connect pupils across the globe. Recently, this work attracted the attention of Prince William in the ITV documentary, ‘A Planet for Us All.’ Jeremy is also a school inspector and has a wide range of experience of leading inspections in the UK and across the world. 

Adewunmi Payne-Akinhanmi is an award winning Special Needs Coordinator currently serving as the SENCO Whole School at the Grange School in Lagos, Nigeria. Her credentials include a Master’s degree (in view) from the Institute of Education, University College London, a PGCE in Special Needs and Inclusion, University of Wolverhampton, a Post graduate diploma (PGDE) in Education from the University of Lagos, Nigeria, a Bachelor’s of Science degree from the Premier University, University of Ibadan, various continuous professional development (CPD) programmes and 14 years of instructional experience. Adewunmi works with pupils with (Specific Learning Difficulties) SpLD, ADHD, Autism, and SEBD (Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties) between the ages of 4 to 16. She recently helped her KS2/3 students achieve 100% of set targets in the summer term of 2019/2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic when school was on total lockdown.

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