FREE Online Training for Members
click here to download a summary
These sessions take place between 3:45 and 5:15 pm.
As these sessions are 100% FREE for Equals members, they are likely to fill up fast, so please register your interest asap, to secure your place/s.
To book on to any of these sessions please email admin@equalsoffice.co.uk
and state the delegates name and email address
so they can be sent the joining instructions.
Attendance certificates can be purchased for a charge of £1.95 per certificate; these can be requested by emailing sarah@equalsoffice.co.uk. The certificates will then be emailed to you so you can print or save them.
NB – Those marked with a * will not be recorded and no certification will be provided.
Spring Term 2023 – FREE Online Training for Equals Members
26th January 2023 – MAPP with Mike Sissons
Mapping & assessing personal progress (MAPP) is a suite of materials to facilitate the planning, assessment and recording of progress in relation to personal learning intentions.
31st January 2023 – Play for Children with Autism with Dr Lila Kossyvaki
In this session the audience will be introduced to the importance of play in the life of children with special attention to autistic children, how play is likely to look like in these children and how adults can support it.
2nd February 2023 – Teaching Communication with Peter Imray
Explores how we might break away from the enormously complicated subject that is National Curriculum English, so that our learners can concentrate on effective communication. Besides looking at what we should be teaching, there will be an extensive exploration of what is meant by ‘reading’ with an emphasis on phonics, especially synthetic phonics, with a view to questioning those who assert that a synthetic phonics programme is necessary for all. This is very much an evidence-based session, with the strong assertion that there is no evidence for assuming phonics works for all!
7th February 2023 – Teaching Thinking & Problem Solving with Peter Imray
Is a classic example of the ‘different not differentiation’ approach which permeates the Equals Semi-Formal Curriculum. For those with SLD, Thinking & Problem Solving cannot be abstracted but must relate to everyday experiences, which can only be generalised once individual solutions have been learned. This then is no longer a small part of Mathematics, but becomes one of the four core subjects of the Equals Semi-Formal Curriculum.
9th February 2023 – Autism and Communication with Dr Lila Kossyvaki
In this session the audience will be introduced to some of the main communication difficulties autistic children are likely to face and also be provided with several hands-on ideas on how to support communication in these individuals.
13th February 2023 – Play Based Approaches to Semi-Formal/Informal Learning with James Waller & Jonathan Moffatt
In this session James and Jonathan will outline the stages of play in the EQUALS My Play and Leisure Semi Formal Curriculum and share practical information about how play is used to develop learning within Sunningdale School across the school’s semi-formal and informal curriculum pathways, as well as how the Engagement Model is used to support this.
16th February 2023 – Attachment Disorders with Peter Imray
May well affect a very high percentage of those with PMLD and SLD, and a basic understanding of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth’s theories are probably essential for effective teaching of these learners. Attachment theory is overwhelmingly concerned with relationships between children and caregivers, why these go wrong and what we might do to repair such breakdowns. The most important tenet is that all young children need to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for normal social and emotional development to flourish.
7th March 2023 – Being a Reflective Practitioner and using Video in the Classroom with Dr Lila Kossyvaki
Being a reflective practitioner is easier said than done. The audience of this session will be introduced to what being a reflective practitioner means and they will be provided with ways to achieve this in practice at a busy educational setting.
15th March 2023 – Teaching Independence with Peter Imray
Summer Term 2023 – FREE Online Training for Equals Members
20th April 2023 – Pre-formal Approaches to Teaching Learners
with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties with Peter Imray
Has been written specifically for learners of all ages (that is, 2 to 92) with PMLD, recognising that such learners may be the very hardest to reach and teach, and therefore require a highly specialised and individualised curriculum model. It is entirely process based, concerning itself with the process of communication, cognition, sensory awareness, self determination, physical well-being and creative exploration.
24th April 2023 – Informal Curriculum with Peter Imray
Recognises that there are those at the very complex end of the SLD spectrum who are still ‘learning to be’ rather than ‘learning to do’. Such learners are very likely to have an autism diagnosis, have fixed and limited areas of interest and be behavioural communicators, that is, they will not readily use language as their main means of communication. The depth and complexity of their learning difficulties calls for a separate, though related, curriculum model that is the Informal Curriculum.
9th May 2023 – Semi-formal Curriculum with Peter Imray
Addresses the issues facing teachers and learners who are unable to master literacy and numeracy to a degree that will enable them to succeed within the National Curriculum. This is not a differentiated model, this is different model, because it recognises that those with SLD learn differently, and if they learn differently, we ought to be teaching them differently and teaching them different things.
16th May 2023 – Play Based Approaches to Semi-Formal/Informal Learning with James Waller
23rd May 2023 The Engagement Model with James Waller
This session will recap the main principles from the statutory approach as well as offer some practical ideas around how you might use the model in school for pupils not yet fully accessing subject specific learning or the content of the national curriculum.
24th May 2023 – Formal Curriculum with Peter Imray
Attempts to answer the problems facing learners and the teachers of those learners who are working consistently and over time below age related expectations in the primary phase. There is a special (but time bound) emphasis on teaching Mathematics and English to those who struggle enormously with both, as well as an in-depth analysis of why this is so.
13th June 2023 – Mapping & Assessing Personal Progress (MAPP) with Mike Sissons
Mapping & assessing personal progress (MAPP) is a suite of materials to facilitate the planning, assessment and recording of progress in relation to personal learning intentions.
14th June 2023 – Myth Busting Multisensory Rooms with Joanna Grace *
You have a lot of students in your setting described as having high sensory needs, does this mean you need a multisensory room? What does the research say about their use and effectiveness? What are the must have features? Will asking questions like this ensure you get the best multisensory room, or the best out of your multi-sensory room? Come and join Jo Grace in questioning contemporary use of multisensory rooms, and discover what makes for truly effective sensory room (or no room) practice!
“We feel the online training delivered by EQUALS has been WONDERFUL. The relevance and depth of the sessions has been fantastic; Peter is a very knowledgeable man. Having training delivered online has enabled all our teachers to attend and have discussions after the event rather than one teacher attending and disseminating which can water down the content. Thank you so much and keep them coming!“
Rodney House School in Manchester.
Not an Equals member?
Then please contact paul@equalsoffice.co.uk to talk about new members offers and to learn
how you can access members training sessions.
Would you like some training for a different area? If so please email paul@equalsoffice.co.uk to put forward any suggestions for future training.
