Testimonials

The key speakers were really thought provoking.

They were fantastic!

I really enjoyed the introductory session with Derek and Colin. I felt the way it was presented taught us a great deal about ‘thinking outside the box’ in terms of inclusion.

Excellent presentation – lots of active participation. Colin and Derek involved us and kept us motivated.

Reaffirmed my values and principles re inclusion.

This was very useful for making us think from the child’s point of view.

Impact – more preparation to welcome families more effectively.

Learnt to go right back to basics and not to judge people.

Very well presented – passionate and thought provoking.

The enthusiasm of the presenters was inspiring.

This was very interesting and made me very reflective.

‘Brilliant’

‘An unforgettable day’, ‘The vision we all dreamed of today is not a possibility but a reality if we all work together and support each other’

‘The whole day had a big impact on my day to day attitudes, responsibilities and awareness of the community around me’

‘Visual and auditory aids were particularly interesting’, ‘Being able to share views and opinions on what it means to run an inclusive provision/setting’

‘Reflecting on the meaning of inclusion, I was able to visualize the past and the focus of future work’, ‘I have learnt a lot about people, team work, friendship, and kindness and strength together’,‘Extremely inspiring’!

‘Excellent training!’, ‘Fantastic course – inspiring leaders’.’I feel I have developed my knowledge and skills and the information provided will inform my future SENCo ethos, ‘Very insightful and informative’.

“Thank you so much for an excellent two days. I was especially moved by the second evening and all that the team brought to it. I don’t think I could ever have created a vision like that alone or earlier in my time at the school.”

Thanks for your work with us -much appreciated! All the best!-Patsy Wagner

‘I have just done a rough count of children who have been involved in Restorative Conferences since we completed our training with you and I am up to about 100 children. We have also had about 12 parents involved in conferences. We are using the language so much it is second nature and there have been many more children who have benefited from this I’m sure! We are really pleased with how it is going and just this week me and Jane Cunningham (Head Teacher) have held a couple of really successful conferences where the children have been so on board and positive at the end of the process it has confirmed to us that we are doing the right thing! We have had times when we doubt what we are doing because we are still struggling to get some staff on board but luckily we have been able to remind each other of our successes! We both agree that your training was very inspiring and would like to thank you for that! We will keep chipping away at everyone! Thanks again-Alison Holmes, Relationship Manager, Seaview Primary

Feedback from a Secondary Head after a day on behaviour and relationships with the full secondary staff team:Thank you so much for the excellent training day you delivered last week. I found the whole experience quite uplifting and inspirational.I have always been a great believer in the restorative approach to behaviour management and you provided the evidence that it actually works. The day gave all the staff food for thought and I hope they will now begin to use this approach more.There was already evidence on the first day of school for pupils that staff were adopting a different approach. Thank you so much for helping us to make a difference.

Feedback from secondary teacher after whole Secondary school INSET day:Although I spoke to Derek right after the course, to express my thanks and offer some immediate feedback, I feel compelled to write to offer a little more of both. I personally found the whole day immensely rewarding; I often enjoy good INSET days and I am always seeking new sources of inspiration, but, as you revealed early on, many of my colleagues do not share my enthusiasm for such activities. The sustained applause at the end of the session was indeed a powerful testament to the breadth of your ‘reach’ throughout the staff; I have never known such a full and ringing endorsement of a staff development session, as I said afterwards to Derek. It was only later on in the afternoon, in the staffroom, that I became increasing aware of how wide and how deep the immediate effects were. I heard no negative feedback at all and people who rarely express positive sentiments about anything to do with staff training were engaged in active discussion about the positive feelings which had been released by your input that day. Several of us ‘old guard’ agreed that we had not witnessed such uplifting staff reaction to anything for a very long time. “It’s just like the old days, when we all used to have so much more fun!” said a particularly valued colleague. Thinking back, it was also very noticeable that there was so much discussion during the breaks in the day about the course; this is also relatively rare in my experience. I have no doubt that your course will have much more impact in the longer term. I could go on to list all the aspects of your course which made it so successful, but I think you are well aware of these already. I will just offer two bits of feedback which were not appropriate to give at the time:We found it painfully difficult to come up with a title for the “vision” and what we arrived at was unsatisfactory. Perhaps this was partly because we were trying to label something at the start of the process, before any of us knew what it was going to be. (This was about the only thing which niggled me during the day) On a purely personal note I was really shocked that there was so little true idealism (as I would define it) in people’s vision of an ‘ideal’ future. My older colleagues tell me that few people bring any idealism into teaching today, which would greatly sadden me if it were true. That activity would seem to bear this out (but perhaps there is a more straightforward explanation why so many things suggested were pragmatic rather than idealistic?)I’ve taken enough of your time. I’d just like to say a really sincere THANK YOU to both of you.

“In an intact group the pool of shared understandings is like a shared bank account of the group wealth”

The course has made me think that everyone feels excluded at some time in their life, including me. Previously I have thought disability and inclusion is something that is happening around me and this course has made me realise I am a big part of that, particularly with my family and friends.

Having a good circle of friends myself it has made me understand what it must feel like to have that circle taken away. Therefore, I will in future not judge anyone and make more of an effort to find out people’s thoughts and feelings both in my work and my private life and offer help to school and encourage people to attend future Kindred Spirits courses.

It makes me want to go out there and get a more ‘hands on’ job with children. I regret not training to be a teacher.

The Circle of Friends day was brilliant and I feel like going out to every school and enforcing them everywhere!

I shall be going home and telling my 8 year old son all about it and I hope he’ll spread the word to his teachers.

Dear Colin and Derek, many people have helped me with my problems over the years, but no-one has helped me as much as you (and The Circle) have. Without the Circle (Your own very brilliant invention), I don’t think I’d have made it into year 11 let alone the sixth form. The Circle has taught me much about respecting other people and their wishes and now I send my respect to you, Colin and Derek. Thank you very much for the Circle.