The Optimus blog

The blog that inspires leaders in the UK education sector

The Optimus blog

The blog that inspires leaders in the UK education sector

Conference

Gareth D Morewood

SEND Provision - an interview with Gareth Morewood

Gareth Morewood discusses the health and wellbeing of SEND pupils and his thoughts on the upcoming SEND Provision conference. What are you looking forward to on the day of the SEND Provision conference? Gareth: Firstly, it is an absolute delight to be asked to chair a live event again, there are...
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Gareth D Morewood

The value in listening to new voices

No matter how experienced we think we are, fresh perspectives will help us grow. Gareth D Morewood recaps his experience of attending the inaugural New Voices. Buoyed by the success of my first #BrewEd earlier this month, it wasn’t long before I was preparing for another new experience at an...
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Linda Alpin

Twi-lights of #oeMATs

Our recent MATs summit was alive with great ideas and expert advice. Looking back, here are some of the things that got our delegates tweeting. The Twittersphere at the two-day MATs Summit was electric with the constant buzzing of my phone from every notification; from the brilliant 'Leaders Debate...
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Dai Durbridge

Lawyers learn too: 5 reflections on Child Protection in Education 2016

With the outstanding London conference fresh in my mind, I thought I would offer five things I learned and useful and insightful snippets from last week. Serious Case Reviews (SCR) SCRs are changing but the recommendations within SCRs are something of a constant: better multiagency working more...
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Evie Prysor-Jones

Streamline your SEND paperwork

Paperwork piling up? Our training day with Anita Devi will see SENCOs’ desks decluttered and their minds back on loving their job. When you’re not sure what to do, you make a list. If it’s a bit more complex than that you might make a spreadsheet, or, if not complex at all sometimes a Post-it will...
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Sara Boomsma

Supporting high-quality SEND

Yesterday, it was our inaugural Supporting High-Quality SEND Teaching in the Classroom conference. The event was attended by nearly 150 education professionals including SENCOs, Assistant Headteachers and Inclusion Managers, to name but a few. The day kicked off with an inspiring keynote from...
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Alex Masters

Middle leaders: the pressure is on but help is at hand

‘The success of Primary phase in the next five years will depend heavily on its middle leaders.’ Russell Hobby’s statement sums up all too clearly the pressures that today’s primary middle leaders are facing . Middle leaders have to get to grips with more demanding curricula, cope with declining...
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Evie Prysor-Jones

Children's mental health: an exciting challenge for schools

Last Wednesday (12th November) we had the pleasure of hosting the Promoting Positive Mental Health in Schools conference in partnership with Place2Be , and what a day it was! Taking place at the Ibis Hotel in West Brompton, it was a relentlessly busy day, packed full of information and professional...
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Owen Carter

Excellent teaching: borrow shamelessly, learn from the best

Growth mindsets. Innovation and excellence. Marginal learning gains. Chances are you’ve heard some of these terms flying around the staffroom or seen them filling up your twitter feed. But how can you put them into practice and make sure you’re walking the walk as well as talking the talk? A...
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Sarah Gaffney

Child Protection in Education

On the 14th of October, me and other members of the Optimus team travelled up to Manchester for the Child Protection in Education conference. Wet, chilly and a bit bleary-eyed from the early morning, we headed to the beautiful Lowry hotel to set up the event, ready to welcome the delegates and...
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