Anti-Racism CPD & Wellbeing Support Sessions

We are pleased to launch the ACEN Anti-Racist Leaders Circle program (ARLC) for all EDI & safeguarding leads and well-being sessions for minoritised staff.

 

Leaders Circle

Launching May 2023, these sessions are for all EDI and safeguarding leads, and will facilitate cross-school learning, open discussion, problem-solving incorporating anti-racist best practice. 
The focus of each session will be communicated in advance and led by a subject expert. The expert will open with a presentation and the remainder of the session will be discussion-based. 
An additional session will be run annually, specifically for heads. 

 

Reflective Wellbeing Sessions

Equally, with growing requests for support from minoritised EDI leads, we are now pleased to be in a position to offer facilitated solution-focused wellbeing sessions for staff. The discussions will reflect on EDI related practice issues with Dr Ama Collison (bio below).

 

Sponsorship & Coaching

In addition, the opportunity for half-termly (online) sponsorship & coaching covering all areas of EDI is available from Dr Enya Doyle and Dr Malcolm Cocks (bios below).
These 1-2-1 sessions will assist EDI leads with accelerating their learning curves, structuring their approach, and gaining professional support – all helping to mitigate burnout. 
In these 45-minute sessions, facilitators will also pass along lessons they’ve learned, leverage their resources, and empower leads to advocate for positive, realistic change in their own environments.

Timings

– Leaders Circles: 15:30 – 17:00
– Reflective Wellbeing Sessions: 19:00 – 20:30
– Sponsorship: Once per half term. 45 mins agreed at a mutually beneficial time to be scheduled with the sponsor.

 

Dates (2022/2023)

Leaders Circles 
– Thursday 25th May
– Thursday 14th September – Heads session
– Thursday 21st September
– Thursday 25th January
Reflective Wellbeing Sessions
– Thursday 6 July
– Thursday 16 November
– Thursday 22 Feb

Facilitator bios

Dr Ama Collison
Dr Ama Collison is an Educational and Child Psychologist, based in South London with more than 15 years’ experience supporting children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), their families and educational professionals across early years, school, 16+ settings, alternative and specialist provisions and also in the youth charity sector. 
She currently works both independently and also as a senior practitioner Educational Psychologist in a London local authority, with specialisms in social, emotional and mental health and anti-racist practice in education.
Through her work, she supports children, individuals, groups, organisations via organisational change projects and provides training and coaching to professionals as part of this.
Dr Malcolm Cocks
Malcolm is an Inclusion expert and English Teacher with 15 years’ experience. He is on the advisory board for the African and Caribbean Education Network with a particular focus on Research, Policy, and Teaching & Learning.
He is also on the Steering Group for the Schools’ Inclusion Alliance and remains committed to helping schools foster anti-racist cultures and champions the inclusion of pupils and teachers with African and Caribbean heritage.
Malcolm has worked as a teacher and/or Inclusion Lead in some of London’s most prominent Independent Schools.
Educated in Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom, he studied for his BA at Oxford and his PhD at King’s College, London. He has lectured in Literature and Visual Cultures at the University of London and in 2014, he was elected to a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Shakespeare’s Globe.He has recently embarked on a research project at the University of the West Indies with a focus on decolonised curricula & inclusion.
Dr Enya Doyle
Enya’s collaborative, compassionate and creative approach to driving social change has been recognised on local and national levels for almost fifteen years.
As a consultant, Enya brings valuable experience of taking a wide range of organisations through their inclusion journey from the very beginning, by helping them to develop and deliver measurable, achievable goals, through audits, training, and policy development. Enya takes a pragmatic approach to leading what are often perceived to be difficult and uncomfortable conversations and enjoys working at all levels and with a variety of people, be that one-to-one with senior leaders and governors, with small teams and committees, and on an organisation-wide level. Enya loves working with parents and carers.
Enya specialises in challenging gender-based discrimination, sexism, and sexual misconduct with intersectionality at the heart of her work. She holds a PhD from Durham University on gender diversity and inclusion in music, which reflects her commitment to scrutinising the often subtle and underlying forms of exclusion embedded in organisational systems and culture. Enya has enjoyed working with universities and arts organisations across the world and has led inclusion in a prominent independent school. She has presented her research in the UK, Australia and the United States. Enya has a track record of providing effective and insightful training and thoughtful, evidence-based guidance on how best to embed a culture of belonging for all.
These sessions are not limited to one person per school.
For more information, please contact aisha@aceducationnetwork.com