Conference programme
08:45 Refreshments and registration
09:15 Welcome and introduction - Emma Phillips, Head of Educational Achievement & Belonging (Virtual School) Devon Inclusion and Learning Service
09:30 Through the kids eyes - Nick Barwick, CEO Insight Wellbeing Services LTD
A journey through foster care and education that delivers a raw and informative story on survival, legacy, and achievement. Every child is one caring and trusted adult away from being a success.
10:45 Refreshments, networking and exhibition
11:15 Workshop session 1
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- “I’ll reject you before you reject me “– understanding relational needs in children who have had interruptions to their attachments
- Understanding the REDS approach
- Families First programme
- Language that matters
12:15 Lunch, networking and exhibition
13:15 Working Together, Making a Difference: The Virtual School's Four Cornerstones for Effective Partnership - Sarah Lord, Team lead, Virtual School
Strong partnerships are at the heart of improving outcomes for care-experienced children and young people. In this interactive session, the Virtual School team will introduce their Four Cornerstones approach to working alongside schools, settings, social care, health professionals and families to create a shared understanding, build trust and strengthen support around children.
Through practical examples, delegates will explore how the principles of Welcome and Care, Value and Include, Communicate, and Work in Partnership can be embedded in everyday practice.
The session will highlight approaches that promote meaningful collaboration between Designated Teachers, Designated Safeguarding Leads, Headteachers, social workers, health colleagues and families, ensuring that children remain at the centre of decision-making.
Delegates will leave with practical ideas they can implement within their own settings, alongside a clearer understanding of the commitments the Virtual School is making to foster stronger, more effective partnerships across Devon.
By the end of this session, participants will:
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- Understand the Virtual School's Four Cornerstones approach to partnership working.
- Identify practical strategies for strengthening collaboration across education, social care, health and families.
- Explore the commitments being made by the Virtual School to model and strengthen collaborative practice.
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Leave with actions to embed partnership-focused approaches within their own role and setting.
13:50 Move to workshop 2
14:00 Workshop session 2
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- “I’ll reject you before you reject me “– understanding relational needs in children who have had interruptions to their attachments
- Understanding the REDS approach
- Families First Programme
- Language that matters
15:00 Comfort break - move to final keynote
15:05 Lessons from the care system: What I wish my teacher knew - Sam Gardner, Founder of Lessons from the Care System™
Drawing on his lived experience of growing up in care and his background as a primary school teacher, Sam Gardner takes audiences inside the emotional reality behind behaviour, instability and mistrust. Through honest storytelling and practical reflection, he explores what children may be communicating beneath the surface and how the everyday responses of adults can shape safety, trust and belonging. Ultimately, this keynote asks us to look beyond the behaviour and see the child who may be trying to survive, connect and be understood.
16:15 Close of conference - a continued chance for networking and discussion with the exhibition
