The Chartered College of Teaching is delighted to have partnered with ACAMH to present a FREE online training series, ‘Pedagogy in practice’, exclusively for teachers and school leaders.

This series focuses on pedagogical approaches and practical strategies that can be used to support a range of aspects of pupil mental health in school.  It gives attendees a unique opportunity to take part in interactive expert webinars looking at how to approach key topics in school.

About the session

This webinar brings together teachers from a range of settings to consider how they are supporting pupils in the school to understand bereavement.

Event attendees will have access not just to the event itself but to supporting materials and resources to help them embed effective practice in their schools.

Presentations by:   Bhavina Sachania (Learning Mentor, Pinner Park Primary School) and Beth Khan MCCT (Teacher of English, Invictus Education Trust)

Panelists:  Jan Forshaw (Head of Education, Coram Life Education) and Bethan Miller (Subject Specialist, PSHE Association).

Recommended reading: This recommended reading provides useful wider, related reading on this topic but is not required in advance of the event. Two useful guides on bereavement and grief in children and young people are available:

Children, young people and grief – Cruse Bereavement Support

Supporting bereaved children and young people | Child Bereavement UK

About the ‘Pedagogy in practice’ series

This webinar is part of a series of FREE online events exclusively for teachers and school leaders, and offer insights into best practice in supporting children and adolescents building on the latest evidence base. They are brought to you as part of an exciting new partnership between The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH) and the Chartered College of Teaching, two charities who are dedicated to supporting teachers to make a difference to the mental wellbeing of children and young people.

These sessions are designed to help close the knowledge gap in a range of topics that now form part of the statutory Relationship, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) curriculum.  We think it is important to help equip teachers with knowledge in areas that may be less familiar to them and to help them consider how they might most effectively deliver these topics to children and adolescents as part of the curriculum.

These sessions will build on previous webinars run by ACAMH, attendees are strongly encouraged to watch back the ‘Ask the Expert’ series, you can also book to attend  ‘Ask the Expert: Bereavement, Grief and loss’, which will take place on 31 January 2023.   All of these sessions plus a host of other free resources for teachers can be found on ACAMH’s Teacher Hub.

The Association of Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH) is a unique multi-disciplinary organisation, and charity, established for over 60 years committed to ‘Sharing best evidence, improving practice’.

Our Presenters

Bhavina Sachania, Learning Mentor at Pinner Park Primary School – with over ten years of experience planning, developing, and implementing interventions, events, activities and projects to help pupils overcome behavioural, social, emotional barriers to learning and improve mental wellbeing.  Bhavina has been running the Rainbows Bereavement and Loss intervention at Pinner Park Primary School for the past 8 years. Prior to becoming a Learning Mentor Bhavina spent the best part of 9 years working in the Banking and Financial Services industry as an Operations Team Manager and Office Manager.  After having children of her own and having enjoyed working at Pinner Park Primary School for a couple of years as a Learning Assistant, Bhavina decided to retrain as a Children & Young Person’s Mentor. Bhavina took naturally to supporting children with additional needs and those who faced difficulties in other areas such as anxiety.  Bhavina’s role also involves working with parents and families in the school community to ensure children are supported in the best possible way.  Bhavina is passionate about her role which is a world away from her degrees in Business and Sociology which she studied at university. Bhavina believes this to be by far the most rewarding role she has undertaken in her career so far.

Beth Khan MCCT, Teacher of English, Invictus Education Trust – Beth studied English with Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham, before training to teach English in a Secondary setting.  Beth is a staff lead on her school’s wellbeing council and became keenly aware of the impact that Covid-19 was having on her pupils, which led her to seek a way of addressing it. She has since gained a distinction in her MA in Teaching Studies, with a focus on creative writing and student mental health post Covid-19. This entailed designing bespoke lessons to tackle the topic of Covid-19, with an aim to improve student wellbeing and address trauma, which were delivered across her current Yr.8 cohort.  The outcome of her research was that participating in a variety of creative writing methods, with varying levels of teacher scrutiny, appeared to have a cathartic impact on students and improved their self-efficacy.

Jan Forshaw, Head of Education, Coram Life Education – Jan began her career teaching across primary and middle schools, including senior leadership roles, in Bradford, West Yorkshire.  Children’s wellbeing and mental health was always at the heart of her work as a teacher and influenced her move to children’s health and wellbeing charity Coram Life Education.  She has been Head of Education at Coram Life Education since 2009, having been Director of Training and before that an educator and senior trainer.  Jan oversees development of the diverse education programmes at Coram Life Education which include provision of high-quality education workshops in school and its acclaimed SCARF online PSHE (including statutory RSHE) curriculum.  She understands that within education the teacher’s role is crucial in helping children to thrive – socially, physically, mentally and academically – and works hard to ensure that Coram Life Education’s ethos and practices prioritise relevant, practical and timely support for teachers, alongside the provision of the highest-quality, inspiring programmes and resources that children deserve and need, to be their best.

Bethan Miller, Subject Specialist, PSHE Association – Before joining the PSHE Association, Bethan led PSHE education in an 11-18 school in Croydon. Her role included developing a PSHE education programme of study and facilitating students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development across the whole school. Bethan has completed both a Master’s Degree in Psychology and a Master’s Degree in Education Practice. She has undertaken research exploring the needs of teachers to manage disclosures and teach about domestic violence and abuse, as well as ways to develop higher-order thinking skills for students with special educational needs and disabilities. She sees PSHE education as one part of creating a more equal starting point for young people and empowering them to make decisions that reflect their own values and aspirations.

Full membership information and the benefits of being a member of the Chartered College of Teaching can be found here 

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