Speakers

Shahana is director of TPC Therapy, a mental health service that supports organisations to become trauma-informed and attachment aware. She is also the creator of the Therapeutic Schools approach through which she is working with schools across England to put children's wellbeing at the core of education. Pioneering a vision for all schools to become therapeutic schools, Shahana’s unique approach has been recognised and featured by BBC Newsround and BBC Teach. She recently won the Business Entrepreneur Award at the Katie Piper Foundation’s inspirational women’s awards 2021. Shahana also writes a regular segment in Head Teachers Update magazine.

Frances is a former headteacher of a secondary special school for learners ages 11 to 19 with autism and associated difficulties. A qualified SENCO, over the past 20 years she has worked in a variety of roles across primary, secondary, special/alternative provision and local authority, from Art/Design Technology teacher to an SLCN advisory teacher liaising with speech and language therapists across a local authority. In January 2023, Frances co-launched BAMEed SEND hub as part of the BAMEed Network, a diverse network for educators which aims to ensure diversity and address racial inequities in education. As a neurodivergent educator, Frances uses her experiences to support and mentor people who may be struggling in the workplace. She is also an anti-racism coach

With over 20 years’ experience (11 as headteacher) at Lisburne SEN Primary School, Sam has extensive experience supporting the wellbeing of children, parents and staff. Lisburne School is a WAS school and prioritises wellbeing and mental health as a conduit to progress, development and achievement. In partnership with colleagues, Sam has established a wellbeing team that, along with trained staff in Mental Health First Aid, provides the school community with a stable and enriched environment. Sam is an experienced speaker – delivering training across the local authority to other headteachers and is an integral part of the Stockport Special Schools Alliance.

Lorraine is passionate about supporting young people experiencing mental health difficulties and is currently Head of School at a Tier 4 CAMHS inpatient provision, The Beacon, in Leicester. They are part of The Children’s Hospital School, Leicester, and she has worked with them for six years. Prior to this role, Lorraine worked for the Local Authority’s Autism Outreach Service, and was a primary school teacher and SENCO. Additionally, she is an instructor with Mental Health First Aid England.

A renowned speaker, training and author on mental health and SEN. Sam was a SENCo in a large secondary schools, is a qualified CBT Therapist, Child and Adolescent Counsellor, and CBT Coach. Sam regularly speaks at conferences, provides consultancy and training for organisations both nationally and internationally. Lauded for her humour and 'tell it like it is' approach to mental health and inclusion, Sam has also written a range of CBT resources which are used by staff in school to support student mental health.

Rachel is currently deputy head, pastoral & DSL at Roedean School in Brighton, and has worked in various pastoral roles for 12 years now. Within her work, Rachel leads on supporting pupils with eating disorders and has recently written articles for the Times Educational Supplement (TES) on this area. With extensive pastoral experience in the independent sector and boarding schools especially, Rachel is passionate about supporting staff at all schools to create a consistent and replicable approach when dealing with eating disorders and mental health.

Kat Howard is director for a large Multi-Academy Trust teaching school hub, delivering national professional development programmes at scale to over 150 schools. She is a writer, speaker and expert advisor at Teacher Development Trust, a charity dedicated to teacher development. Kat is the founder of LitdriveUK, a national charity supporting English teachers, as well as a school governor and ambassador for the Maternity Teacher Paternity Teacher Project. She is the author of the bestseller Stop Talking About Wellbeing: a Pragmatic Approach to Teacher Workload and co-author of bestseller Symbiosis: the Curriculum and the Classroom, written with Claire Hill.

Following her teacher training, Grace has supported the children at Lisburne Special School as a teacher and the PSHE lead for multiple years. Grace works closely alongside other mental health trained staff to implement her DFE Mental Health & Wellbeing and Millie’s Trust Mental Health First Aid accreditations. Grace acts as a lead teacher in developing wellbeing changes across the whole school community via the curriculum and appropriate strategies to meet the needs of the neurodiverse children. Grace has worked to support school to become Optimus Wellbeing Award accredited twice.

Hugo is a psychologist interested in cultivating sustainable wellbeing cultures. He specialises in designing evidence-based leadership, resilience and wellbeing programs, drawing on over 16 years’ experience working in the field of mental health and wellbeing in the NHS and private sector. As Director of Programs at the Happy Mind Tribe, Hugo has designed and delivered evidence-based training programs, and has been invited to speak at conferences and training events around the globe.

Founder of Mental Health Learning, Alice is a provider of mental health, self harm and suicide prevention training. Having worked and studied in the field of mental health and suicide prevention for over 12 years, Alice has psychology degree, worked for a national Suicide Prevention Charity and managed a nationwide helpline and training team, equipping individuals with life-saving skills. Passionate about not just creating a society in which mental health, self harm and suicide are no longer taboo, but where any member of the community feels confident and prepared to ask and support an individual with any of these concerns, Alice is a Silver trainer in Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training and one of the first UK trainers to provide the Assessing Suicide Risk in Kids workshop.

Following a Clinical Doctorate from Royal Holloway University in 2001 Helen developed a specialist interest in OCD and eating disorders and worked for 14 years within CAMHS and in her last position before leaving the NHS as the lead consultant psychologist for a psychological therapies team within an adolescent inpatient unit. Helen left the NHS to work at St Swithun’s in 2015 as the schools psychologist. Whilst working primarily with girls both preventing and managing mental health problems, Helen has developed an interest in helping teachers and education leaders consider ways of improving wellbeing for pupils in the classroom.

Karen has worked in SEND across various sectors within Stockport for the past 30 years, supporting parents and carers through a range of roles. Initially Karen worked at the David Lewis centre supporting children within the assessment unit, and following this worked for Portage as a community home worker. Latterly Karen worked for Manchester Princes Carers Trust, supporting parents and carers. In recent times, Karen is in role of Lead Family Liaison Coordinator at Lisburne Special School, a large SEND school in Stockport with over 170 children. Karen has become Millie’s Trust Mental Health First Aid accredited and works alongside multiple other trained staff to implement this training & provide support across the whole school community. Karen has worked to support the school to be Optimus Wellbeing Award accredited for the second time.

A key focus of Graham’s work is ensuring that pupil wellbeing is at the heart of everything the school does. As recognition of this work, St. Swithun’s have recently achieved the Gold Award from the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools run by Leeds Beckett University and their Positive Education programme was shortlisted in the Pupil Mental Health Initiative of the Year category of the 2022 TES Awards.