Lessons from Anna Freud Centre and St Edmunds (IncludED conference)

28 February 2019

The Difference formally launched their teacher leadership programme in exclusion risk reduction at their first IncludED conference, in January. Big Change attended a number of insightful sessions were held throughout the day, and we’re bringing you learnings from each.

We’ve already done blogs on Factors Increasing Exclusion Risk, Abuse, Loss, Trauma, Attachment and Resilience, and you can also catch up on the overview of the conference.

The next instalment in this blog series focuses on two sessions where we learnt from exciting change happening at:

  • The Anna Freud Centre – bringing parents into the education of their children, and
  • St Edmund’s Alternative Provision – making maths and English relevant to the construction industry

Anna Freud Centre

The Anna Freud Centre specialises in education that parents can get involved. Having the parents in school helps them understand their child’s progress and learning.

Group sessions with the parents introduces them to helpful techniques to manage powerful emotions, create attachment security, and manage impulse control, among other areas.

The Centre also offers parent-to-parent peer support, intended to raise hope, practice new behaviours, and strengthen confidence in a safe space. They also offer coaching for conversations between parents and their children.

St Edmund’s

St Edmund’s Alternative Provision is based in Norfolk, the session with them was a chance to gain an insight in alternative provision providers.

We were surprised to learn that Norfolk is a region that has a particularly high exclusion rate. St Edmunds specialises in construction vocational education, and recognises how important it is for vocational education students to get their English and maths GCSEs. Students in vocational education have historically struggled to achieve these.

St. Edmund’s bolsters interest in English and maths through making it relevant to succeeding and progressing in the construction industry, which is Norfolk’s biggest.

Alternative Provisions currently struggle with the stigma that they are only for ‘unteachable’ young people – this stigma needs to be rectified in order for them to best help young people to succeed in life

Feature image credit: The Difference website