Reimagine the Culture Within School and Family Systems
We are excited to invite you to join our first Innovative Education Summit at The Elms in Colwall, UK. Date TBC.
In Person
Pioneering Thought Leadership
Expert Speakers
What is the event?
This inaugural event at the Elms brings together leading experts and practitioners from around the world to deliver keynotes, practical workshops and panel presentations for attendees to learn how to enhance their own mental wellness activities both at school and at home. It is a unique opportunity to bring education and understanding from around the globe, hear from leaders in the field, exchange ideas, learn from research and pick up practical strategies and approaches to promote mental wellness at schools and at home.
The event begins
Featuring Key Speakers:
The Schedule
Saturday - Educators
8:00am - 8:30am
Registration
8:30am - 9:30am
Opening Keynote with Steve Peters for Parents and Educators
More Information Coming Soon….
9:30am - 10:00am
Break
10:00am - 11:00am
Workshop with Professor Steve Peters
More Information Coming Soon…
11:00am - 11:15am
Break
11:15am - 12:15pm
TBC
Information Coming Soon….
12:15pm - 1:00pm
Lunch Break
1:00pm - 2:00pm
Safety, Connection and Belonging Within the School System: The Culture We Crave in Our Physiology with Michael Allison
It’s not that we aren’t good enough, smart enough or trying hard enough. When we come up short of our potential, behave in ways that don’t align with our intentions, or want to give up altogether, we are in a suboptimal, defensive, threat-oriented physiological state. That’s all that it is. Despite what we may sometimes think or even be told.
When we understand this, we can build strategies, inner resources, ways of relating to ourselves, and relationships to meet our body where it is, that care for our adaptive bodily reactions to challenges, and realign our physiology to support our values, intentions and performance.
Imagine a culture at school that recognizes that beneath what we see in our classrooms – the motivation, behaviors & outcomes – are simply bodies that feel safe or under threat. That respects how the removal of threat isn’t enough to feel safe. That meets each body where it is without evaluation of right or wrong. That collectively cultivates safe spaces, friendly faces and playful environments to nurture a felt sense of safety, connection and belonging. This is our shared journey, no matter whether we are an educator or a student, whatever stage of life we may be in.
At every moment, we either feel safe or unsafe, connected or disconnected, a sense of belonging with, or isolated and alone. These feelings reflect at a deeper level whether our autonomic nervous system is regulating our internal bodily systems to support our wellness, resilience, growing, learning, performing and relating to others, or diverting resources toward attacking, defending, escaping, hiding or hunkering down. These bodily feelings influence how we experience the world, interact with others, and feel about ourselves from the inside out.
Through a series of true stories played out on a variety of stages, we will untangle the complexities of Polyvagal Theory, explore how we reflexively, adaptively respond to challenges in our internal, external and relational environments, and how this biases how we move through the world including what we see, hear, think and feel. Beyond that, we will apply the core components of Polyvagal Theory to life at school in ways to optimize both teacher and student wellness, performance, relationships and our shared human experience.
Learning Objectives:
Understand what The Play Zone is – the optimal state for learning, creativity, problem solving, curiosity, engaging and performance
Learn subconscious scanning for safety and risk
Understand how to meet our body where it is
Understand the difference between potential and performance is bodily state
Empathy to Compassion – A 2 Step Process
Discover the Performance Hierarchy
Learn how to build a Container of Safety
Discover the how to create a habit of safety
Take away a number of strategies (Awareness, Attentional Control, Breathing, Muscle Tension, Posture)
Understand when the breakthrough moment occurs – the safety, connection & belonging loop.
2:15pm - 3:15pm
Time to RISE Up - A guide to Early Intervention Mental Wellbeing Programmes with Neil Moggan
In this presentation we will explore the benefits of early intervention wellbeing programmes in reducing young people’s anxiety, building their confidence and how schools across the world have prioritised whole school early intervention programmes.
We will explore the current mental health problems we are seeing in schools and how trauma informed practice can be applied by front line teachers to transform relationships across your school, so that every young person can thrive.
We will look at the special role physical activity plays in regulating our young people and helping them feel connected to reduce isolation, loneliness and depression. We look at how schools make this knowledge memorable so that young people can easily remember and apply these strategies long after they have left your setting, so they can be happy & healthy for life.
We will finish by exploring 10 different ways schools across the world have implemented the RISE Up programme to create a sustainable, whole school early intervention programme and the benefits it brings to a school, their staff body and most importantly our young people.
Learning objectives:
You will leave this session knowing:
How to transform your school from being reactive to proactive in identifying those young people who are struggling with their mental health, so that they can get specialist support as early as possible
How we can incorporate trauma informed practice to transform relationships with our most challenging young people
How to build a holistic foundation of confidence in each of your young people and staff so that they can deal with the rollercoaster of life
How physical activity can be our secret weapon in helping young people regulate and feel connected
10 different ways to create a whole school culture that prioritises your young people’s mental wellbeing, so that they can all thrive.
3:15pm - 3:45pm
Break
3:45pm - 5:15pm
Rewiring Our Perceptions of Discipline: Connections Over Compliance with Dr Lori Deshautels
Applied Educational Neuroscience is a framework that is built upon educator brain state, attachment, co-regulation and teaching ourselves and our students about their neuroanatomy.
In this presentation we will explore discipline protocols from the lens of neuroscience. We will address specific shifts within the traditional and brain aligned models and practices. We will begin to understand that traditional discipline works the best for kids that need it the least and works the least for kids who need it the most.
When we are dysregulated, our brains do not respond to words, lectures, consequences, or rewards. Relational discipline is not something we do to children, it is something we want to create within them.
Lastly, we will share new brain aligned strategies for meeting students in brain development promoting lasting behavioral changes and the healthy regulation of our nervous systems. This new lens for relational discipline is effective and supportive for all students! This shift takes leadership and begins with regulated adult brain states.
5:15pm - 5:30pm
Break
5:30pm - 6:30pm
The Pandemic Changed Us All: Creating Conditions for Felt Safety with 4 Core Practices of The Regulated Classroom© with Emily Daniels
Have you felt like you are different since the pandemic or at least feel the world is different? Perhaps your students and families seem different. If so, you aren’t alone in your experience.
For most, the pandemic severely disrupted their felt sense of safety. In this keynote address, author and former school counselor Emily Daniels will help audience members understand why prolonged stress is so damaging to individuals and communities and what needs to be done to help us recover and move towards a brighter future together.
In this experiential session, participants learn how their nervous system state impacts them and their students and how to shift it with the 4 Core Practices of The Regulated Classroom©.
Saturday - Parents
8:00am till 8:30am
Registration
8:30am - 9:30am
Opening Keynote with Professor Steve Peters for Parents and Educators
More Information Coming Soon…
9:30am - 10:00am
Break
10:00am - 11:00am
Conscious Connected Parenting with Dr Gauri Seth
The Parent-Child Connection is the most powerful mental health intervention known to mankind” – Dr Bessel van der Kolk
There is a paradox in the reality that parenting, as a life stage, can create the most challenging of emotional states in parents, whilst simultaneously being merely ‘another chapter in life’ – but one with profound potential to influence the long-term mental wellbeing in the next generation.
For children with an evolving sense of self amidst a developing mind, conscious connected parenting can help nurture a solid sense of self which can be leveraged so children can achieve their academic goals and dreams alongside positive self-regard, healthy self-esteem and an inner motivation rooted in their own autonomy.
Not only can this support their learning and outcomes but, crucially, this can promote sustainable mental wellbeing for long-term mental health.
Conscious connected parenting promotes a philosophy of parenting where mutual respect and non-judgemental curiosity to parenting dilemmas are prioritised, alongside self-care, perspective switching, and reflection on transgenerational patterns which may be influencing present-day dynamics.
Learning Objectives
What is Conscious Connected Parenting?
Learn how to view emotional wellbeing holistically and collectively
Understand the science of connection
Receive strategies and tools to repair ruptures
Come to understand the role of transgenerational patterns on current relationships with children
Uncover the mysteries behind the teenage brain and the importance of emotional connection in the family
Learn how to get the best results from your kids without harmful pressure
Learn how to develop emotional wellbeing and self-esteem in children of aspirational parents aiming high in academic or sporting performance
Receive strategies and tools for staying connected to your children
11:00am - 11:30am
Break
11:30am - 12:30pm
Chosen Suffering, Youth Fragility, and the Cultivation of Self-Efficacy. Maks Ezrin, CARC, MAPP Co-Founder, Youth Prevention Mentors & Lily Magill
Before one can foster purpose, meaning, and well-being in their life, one must first establish self-
efficacy. Self-efficacy is the belief in one’s ability to obtain a desired result based on their actions. Self-
efficacy is the foundation upon which healthy young adults can build their lives.
While one can learn the tenets of self-efficacy through books or therapy, true mastery comes through
lived experience. One’s experience may include chosen suffering, anti-fragility, and performative or
vicarious action.
As a young adult, I was naturally drawn to hedonistic pleasures. I looked to external sources in my search for meaning and happiness and consistently chose to take the road with fewer hurdles. This tendency rendered me powerless when introduced to drugs and alcohol during my adolescence.
Up to this point, I had encountered little adversity in my life. I was coddled by my loving family and was not taught the value of personal well-being. I had no safeguards around substance use and no power to mitigate their harmful effects. My lack of preparedness contributed to my increased usage, declining mental health, and other maladaptive behaviors.
My addiction and accompanying behavior affected my executive functioning and autonomy. As a result, by the time I got sober at the age of 22, I had already missed out on establishing positive habits and building life skills during my all-important formative years. I was behind the curve.
At YPM, we aim to equip young adults with the desire and ability to experience the ups and downs of life with an open mind rather than avoiding pain and discomfort. The development of resilience is critical for these young adults, not just to navigate life but to thrive in the life they create.
Learning Objectives:
- It is OK for our young adults to feel discomfort (as long as there are options for growth afterward)
- Encourage your children to take the road paved with hurdles.
- Although it may be difficult, do not swoop in to fix the adversity your young adult is facing.
- Self-Efficacy is best learned through lived experience.
- The connection your child seeks may not always be with you.
12:30pm till 1:30pm
TBC...
More Information Coming Soon….
1:30pm - 2:30pm
Lunch
2:30pm - 4:00pm
TBC
More Information Coming Soon…
4:00pm - 4-30pm
Break
4:30 - 6:30
Shame, secrecy, and silence: Tending to the tyranny and the seduction of the straight-jacket of unmetabolized grief with Linda Thai
We live in a grief-phobic and death-denying society that promotes avoidance and denial, celebrates control, and normalises amnesia and anesthesia as the main strategies for dealing with emotions. Shame, secrecy, and silence become the straight-jacket that holds everything in… until it no longer works.
Grief is emotional, not logical. And yet our families, our school system, our society may not equip us with the knowledge, skills, tools – or empathy – in order to work through the feelings associated with losses and transitions that are inherent in life.
Developmentally normative transitions and upsets become obscured by life’s losses, thwarted hopes, break-ups, deaths, divorces, personal and professional failures, and a pandemic – and all get crammed into an ever-smaller straight-jacket.
The inability to mourn. When there’s no more room in the straight-jacket, we adapt by developing an array of coping strategies: addictions and compulsive behaviors, codependence and/or anti-dependence, disordered eating and emotional eating, school refusal and truancy, isolation and social disengagement, perfectionism and workaholism, and a stoic death-gripping control over our own lives in order to never experience loss ever again.
Furthermore, this burgeoning, constricted straight-jacket of grief becomes shrouded in a sense of shame around our losses and our inability to control ourselves and our lives.
Fortunately, the tasks of grief can be taught and passed on. We can take care of our past in order to move forward more effectively.
I invite you to join me as we unpack the anatomy of grief, where I will offer a synthesis of research and story-telling, skills and practices, the practical and actionable, and the soulful. Together, we can reclaim the legacy of unmetabolized grief in order to re-shape the inheritance for future generations.
Learning objectives:
Why our approach to the topic of grief is paramount
Identify the conditions within which grief naturally arises
Identify signs of unresolved grief
The dynamics of different types of grief and how the loss defines the grief
The somatic responses to grief
How to respond to grief
How children’s grief gets overlooked and strategies that can help this
Practices for transforming our relationship to grief and loss.
Reasons to Join us
NONE OF OUR CHILDREN ARE IMMUNE. ANY OF THEM COULD BE NEXT…
Culture
Practical Strategies
Networking
Statistics
• 1 in 5 girls develop an eating disorder.
• Rates of suicide among boys are on the rise.
• The only way to change this is by doing things differently.
Outcomes
Resources
Key Topics Include:
- Emotional resilience
- The importance of play
- Family dynamics
- Connecting with our children
- How to ask the right questions
- Grief – coping with death and divorce
- Eating disorders
- Social media/Gaming
- Somatic work to reduce stress and anxiety
- Polyvagal Theory for a well-regulated classroom
- Staff and parent wellbeing
- Importance of nature for the mind
- The importance of movement
Choose your Well Educated path
- Exhibit with Us – Sign up early to have first choice of sizes and placements.
- Become a Partner, and Sponsor with Us – With a tiered package series of Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze Sponsorships options – there are plenty of bundled options and price points available.
- Extras – Enhance Your Well Educated Journey:
- Event – Check out our list of incredible opportunities to brand event aspects and promote your company including being involved in the event brochure.
- Education and Gala Dinner – Become a part of the conference by putting your name behind our most prominent event features.
Who Should Attend?
Pastoral Leads / SMHLs / Headteachers / Deputy Heads / Assistant Heads / Heads of Houses / School Counsellors / School Nurses / Matrons / Heads of Year / Educational Psychologists / Therapists or other professionals working with young children and adolescents / Parents & Caregivers / School Mentors
Event begins in:
Buy Tickets
Educators Ticket
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Hear from expert speakers
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Attend the event in person
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Leave with clear strategies, tools and pathways for better wellbeing of staff and students
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All day access to workshops and presentations
Parents Ticket
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Hear from expert speakers
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Leave with clear strategies, tools and pathways for better wellbeing of parent and child
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All day access to workshops and presentations specifically tailored to parents and families
Dinner with Special Guest
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Three course meal on Saturday 11th March 2023
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Wine included
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Key note speech from special guest
To find out more, or enquire about group discount contact enquiries@welleducatedevents.com or use the contact form below.
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