Staff from the growing North Star Academy Trust gathered in Bristol last month (September) to hear from inspirational speakers about safeguarding and inclusion and learn more about what they can do as educators to better support pupils.

The Trust, which oversees four schools and an outreach service supporting a further 40+ local schools with pupils with additional Social Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs, gathered at BAWA conference space in Bristol on 30 September 2024 to hear from some incredible keynote speakers and take part in thought-provoking workshops.

It was an opportunity for new colleagues from outside of Bristol – the new school NS180 school in Bath – to meet peers from across the Trust, and hear from CEO Kaye Palmer-Greene and School Improvement Lead Andy Gowell, who further emphasised North Star Academy Trust’s values – Navigate, Success, Together, Ambition, Relevance.

Keynote speakers were:

• Jim Gamble – former national child protection policing lead, founder of a global task force to tackle online child exploitation and CEO of INEQE Safeguarding Group.

Jim gave a powerful talk on the threat of online grooming in an increasingly predatory world where perpetrators use things like social media and gaming platforms to target their victims, and crucially, the role schools have to play on the frontline of safeguarding children.

• Catrina Lowri – teacher, SENCO lead with lived experience of neurodiversity, and founder of Neuroteachers.

Catrina gave a talk on inclusion around neurodiversity – from autism and ADHD to dyslexia and dyspraxia. Building on the Trust’s existing work around celebrating neurodiversity, Catrina delivered more training on how educational settings, families and employers can provide equity of opportunity for unique, neurodivergent minds including around emotional connection with children to avoid fight or flight setting in.

• Gary Saul Paterson – former teacher, headteacher, lecturer and founder of GSP Coaching.

Gary specialises in coaching teaching staff to be the best they can and shared some inspirational advice. He talked through a ‘Bin-Bottle-Brew’ approach to collaborative working across the Trust where teachers connected with their peers they don’t get a chance to speak to day-to-day; and explored how staff can further embed visions and values into all areas of work.

Staff also took part in a range of practical workshops, where they could get together in smaller groups to focus on the a range of areas including Social Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) ‘Safe Haven’ training (led by the Trust’s Head of Outreach Dawn Edwards), metacognition (led by Trust’s SENCO lead Jo Grayson) and emotions coaching (led by Dr Louise Gilbert, founder of Emotion Coaching UK), youth sports (led by Youth Sport Trust’s Development Manager Chris Caws).

“We all found these sessions incredibly insightful,” said Ollie Benzie, Communication and Safeguarding Lead at North Star Academy Trust. “It was so much more than listening and learning, with practical things teachers can take back to their classrooms to support pupils with a range of challenges.

“We’re a growing Trust dispersed across Bristol and Bath and it’s rare we all get together like this but it’s really important to ensure we’re all doing the best we can for the children and young people in our care.”

Teachers and staff took a lot from the conference, many reporting they left feeling better informed, and even more proud to be part of an Academy already doing such good work to support pupils. Jim’s talk was the highlight for many, despite being difficult to digest at times, as outlined in the following testimonial:

‘Jim’s seminar was both compelling and thought-provoking. It was immediately clear that he spoke with genuine passion for the subject matter, which resonated throughout his presentation. He shared startling figures, statistics, and truths that he warned would be difficult to hear—and they were. Yet, these hard-hitting realities only deepened my engagement with the seminar, making me reflect on the urgency and significance of the issues he addressed.’

The team will now take what they’ve learned back to their respective schools – NS82, NS180, NS240, NS265, NS360 – to put into practice the excellent safeguarding, inclusion and wellbeing knowledge and advice.