An Efficient Solution to Training Issues
Why a virtual SEND conference can be an effective, and cost-effective, solution to teacher training, says Sal McKeown…
- by Sal McKeown
It is so annoying when you are off to a conference to update your skills and gather ideas and information for staff back at base and then there is a crisis and you are called back to school. If you are lucky, you attend half the conference but probably not the session that really mattered.
That is why some companies are now developing a different model of training. Virtual training offers schools considerable savings in time and money, but also offers greater flexibility.
Teachers might attend the crucial session live and send questions to the presenter knowing they will get an answer. Then they can watch other sessions, maybe after school or at home when they have fewer distractions.
‘Three keynotes and 12 sessions for just £60 is extraordinarily good value,’ says Dale Pickles, managing director at B Squared.
His company is a specialist in SEND. It produces assessment software, tracking systems for KS3 and 4 covering over 25 GCSEs and profiling tools for children with autism. These products have helped many schools secure and retain OFSTED Outstanding status.
Dale spends a lot of time in schools and was hearing first-hand from headteachers that increasing conference, cover and travel costs put most training events out of reach.
B Squared started with webinars to support their products but graduated to full day SEND events with some of the experts normally found at the TES SEN show or BETT.
The first conference featured sessions on funding, dyslexia and supporting children with speech language and communication issues in early years.
The next conference is 8 November, 9.15 to 4.15, and already over 100 teachers have signed up. But the beauty of a VConference is that there is no limit to the delegate list and none of the options can ever be over-subscribed, even if you book at the very last minute.
Even better, delegates – and their colleagues – can access the videos for all the sessions, along with slides and handouts and these can form the basis of in-house CPD.
All too often a conference is like a menu and participants go away with a few headlines and every intention of revisiting their notes back at school. It rarely happens.
With a VConference staff can sit down together, pause the video for discussion of key points with colleagues and plan how to put the theory into practice in their setting.
Teachers attending the first conference agreed: ‘Excellent content delivered in a convenient way and at a very reasonable price,’ says Janet Bristow, Senco at Perrymount Primary School. ‘More information than I could handle in one dose – but thankfully I will be able to re-visit in my own time.’
Delegates will learn from some of the major players with Fin O’Regan talking about ADHD and behaviour issues in the classroom, Aqualma Murray advising on anxiety and school refusal and Lorraine Petersen OBE explaining the different roles and responsibilities for managing SEND in schools
‘This is a cost-effective way of making SEND expertise accessible to all,’ says Dale Pickles, ‘and now that the government has announced an extra £700 million of SEND funding hopefully delegates will have a real opportunity to put some of their new-found expertise into practice.’
Find out more at virtualsendconference.com.
