The Department for Education (DfE), Havering Education Services (HES), Corbets Tey school and BESA have announced a national education technology conference focusing on SEND.

Designed to deliver free access to peer-to-peer guidance and first-hand insights, LearnED SEND edition provides teachers, leadership teams and SENCOs with a platform to share best practice and advice on the best use of technology in the classroom.

Staff at Corbets Tey special school will be providing real-life classroom demonstrations and sharing their experiences of working with other schools and suppliers to gather expertise and specialist approaches to using technology effectively, to support SEND students.

Other agenda items include prominent keynote speakers, suppliers’ hands-on workshops and panel discussions.

The chaired panel discussions will cover ‘using technology to support effective classroom practice for inclusive teaching and learning‘ and ‘the challenges of assessment and target setting‘; a hot topic at the current time due to national changes to assessing children working below National Curriculum expectations.

The event will be held at CEME Innovation Centre, Rainham, Essex on Thursday 14 November 2019, from 8:30 until 16:15; registration is free of charge at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/learned-send-edition-tickets-64971860584 or simply go to LearnED.org.uk. Travel bursaries of up to £30 per person are available.

Attending delegates will all receive an official CPD certificate. Numbers are limited to 120 and therefore pre-registration for the event is required.

Susan Cumbers, enterprise and technology lead at Corbets Tey School said: “The day promises to equip teachers with tools to tackle problems they experience in schools. We will be running a demonstration session covering the use of technology in a range of differentiated learning activities. In addition, suppliers will deliver hands-on demonstrations of their products in virtual classrooms throughout the day where delegates can gain a greater understanding of the technology and how it would fit into their own classrooms. Delegates will leave the event with a wealth of tangible evidence and ideas that they can use.”

Dave Smith, senior inspector at HES said: “We’re really excited to have partnered with the DfE and BESA for this event. With a huge amount of technology resources available, it can be hard for teachers to find the most effective tools for teaching and learning, especially in the context of SEND. Therefore, we wanted to provide them with a space in which to share best practice, hear from peers and gain first-hand experience with innovative education technology. We’re really looking forward to welcoming as many teachers as possible.” 

Caroline Wright, Director General , at BESA said: “Feedback from previous LearnEd events across the country has been overwhelmingly positive. However, many came back with a request for a similar event with a SEND focus. We have therefore spent the last year working with teachers, SEND experts and HES to build a lively interactive agenda to appeal to education professionals in special schools, as well as mainstream schools and academies.”