#KeepThePromise Pupil Support Staff training day

Friday, 15 November 2024 | Dundee

9:30am - 3:30pm

Venue: Bonar Hall, Park Place, Dundee DD1 4PD

This fully-funded training is for Pupil Support Staff focusing on improving care experienced learner’s experiences at school.

Tickets

Free for pupil support staff

Join us in Dundee for a unique, free-to-access learning opportunity aimed at Pupil Support Staff. This event is part of our #KeepThePromise: Pupil Support Staff learning programme.

This event takes place on Friday 15 November, which is an in-service day for Dundee City, Fife and Aberdeenshire Council. Registration will open at 9am. The event will begin at 9.30am and run until 3.30pm. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

This training is free to attend, however there are costs to delivering the event and a limited number of spaces. We reserve the right to charge an administrative fee of £10 to anyone who has registered but does not turn up on the day. To avoid this, please let us know in advance if you are no longer able to attend.

Photography and filming may be taking place at the events. Please let a member of our staff know when you arrive at the event if you do not want to be filmed.

Context

Funded by the Keep The Promise Fund, since March 2023 we’ve been planning and codesigning #KeepThePromise Pupil Support Staff learning programme. Over the past year, we’ve worked with care experienced children and young people and a group of Pupil Support Staff to gather their views on what should be in the programme. The programme has been shaped by what they’ve told us about support for care experienced pupils in schools and what they think needs to improve further. It includes a range of in-person training events, online practice-sharing sessions, eLearning modules and online resources. All the learning opportunities are free for Pupil Support Staff.

The Promise tells us about the importance of supportive schools for care experienced pupils, and we know that Pupil Support Staff don’t always get consistent professional development opportunities. The #KeepThe Promise Learning Programme will provide a platform to improve awareness and understanding of care experience and bring Pupil Support Staff together to network and share best practice about supporting care experienced learners.

This event is for:

The event is open to anyone working in a role with a specific Pupil Support remit nationally. This could include roles such as: support for learning worker, pupil support assistant, classroom assistant, ASN assistant, home-school link worker, behaviour support staff and others. The event is also open to teaching staff who line-manage pupil support workers.

Click here to read more about the project

Getting here:

We encourage delegates to consider the most environmentally friendly option when travelling.

The venue, Bonar Hall, is a short walk (12 minutes) from Dundee train station. If you are travelling by bus, the following buses stop at Queens Hotel, which is a 1 minute walk from Bonar Hall: 73, 73A, 73C, 5, 5A, 17, 39

Please note, there is no on-site parking available. The closest public car parks are:

Yeaman Shore, 33 Yeaman Shore, DD1 4BJ (8 minute walk)
NCP Dundee Bank Street, DD1 1RW (10 minute walk)
Roseangle Car Park, DD1 4NB (13 minute walk)

Programme

9am-9.30am	Registration opens
9.30am-9.45am	Welcome from the Chair Dr Judith Turbyne, Chief Executive Officer at Children in Scotland
9.45am-10:10am	Keynote Jimmy Paul, Head of Scottish Violence Reduction Unit As the Head of the Violence Reduction Unit, Jimmy will reflect on the need for children feel loved. Jimmy will discuss key findings from the workforce group that he co-chaired as part of the Independent Care Review as well as some of his personal experiences, and how we must ensure the realisation of young people’s rights (including those who have care experience).
10:10am-1pm (includes a 20-minute comfort break with refreshments)	Trauma workshop – Nicola McAllister, Consultant and Founder of The Regulated Child This extended learning session explores how trauma can impact children and young people’s brains, bodies and behaviours. Key outcomes: Understanding how adverse childhood experiences can result in trauma. How a child's body and brain is impacted by toxic stress. Interpreting and responding to behaviour signals. Soothing stress responses through co-regulation and relationships.
1pm-1.45pm	Catered lunch
1.45pm-2.30pm	Panel discussion – Whole-school approaches to supporting care experienced children and young people, and the role of pupil support staff We’ll hear from Kerri Abbott, Pupil Support Worker for Care Experienced Young People at Morgan Academy, Dundee; Laurie Goldie, Project Manager: Creating Communities that Care at Who Cares? Scotland; alongside Beth-Anne McDowall, Senior Development Officer at Includem. The panel will be moderated by Dr Judith Turbyne and will include time for questions from the audience.
2.30pm-3.15pm	Presentation – Fostering People Scotland Amber Mann, Keep the Promise Change Officer, and Cassie Yeaman, Registered Manager at Fostering People Scotland, will share some of the key themes emerging from their School Through My Eyes Project, a live research project which is collecting the views of care experienced children and young people about education.
3.15pm-3.30pm	Closing remarks