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Colette Davis – MA LIE Programme

Colette is the Leader of Inclusion for Beacon Hill School in Hong Kong. Her school have 540 students on roll with 21 spaces for students with more moderate needs. Leading a team of 3 teachers and 7 assistants, Colette and her team aim to help support children and teachers to remove barriers to learning. She is working toward gaining her MA in Leading Inclusive Education (MA LIE) with Real Training. Having completed the Leading Inclusive Practice 60 credit module, she has gone on to begin the Gender and Sexuality and Social, Emotional and Mental Health modules. Colette explains her specialist interest areas of SEND are: mental health, wellbeing and Autism. Having recently completed a mental health first aid course and previous training in social thinking as a way to support. We caught up with Colette to see how her studies with Real Training have been going. 

What made you choose the Real Training course over other options?

The tutor support was excellent. I enjoyed the variety of coursework including readings, videos and practical work. It was great to be studying again and having a bit more rigour and ownership of my professional development. I enjoyed the interactions with some of the other students and was particularly interested in those who were also in international settings. 

How has the course helped make an impact at school? 

The course has had a direct impact on the work we have been completing at school in terms of inclusion. In the last two years, we have redefined what inclusion means to us as a school and changed our model moving forward. This has involved whole school reflection, professional learning and intense professional development days.

The course has meant that our approach towards the leadership of this change project and the measurement of the impact has been much more intentional. The timing was perfect. The change project that I shared and unpacked for this module was just a small part of the larger change project that we were already leading.

The impact has gone a little beyond the school as we have also had an opportunity to share within our wider foundation and at two international conferences.

How has the course helped develop you as an educational professional and what do you hope to achieve with the new knowledge/skills in the future?

I am looking forward to continuing my studies and deepening my understanding of a broad range of topics linked to inclusion. There is a big move in my organisation towards recognising and respecting Diversity, Equality and Inclusion and I look forward to Real Training helping me to dig deeper into this.

I have also been reflecting on my personal qualities as a leader and how I might become more intentional and inclusive in my approach.

An Interview with Wirdani Yusoff – Leadership of Inclusive Practice

Wirdani Yusoff is one of our international students, currently working in Istanbul Turkey as a lecturer at a university. She specialises in Moderate Learning Difficulty, Social, Emotional and Mental Health, Hearing Impairment and Visual Impairment. Wirdani studied the Leadership of Inclusive Practice course, the first mandatory module in the Masters in Leading Inclusive Education which we deliver in partnership with Middlesex University. Read on to see what Wirdani had to say about her experiences studying with us at Real Training and what the course has done for her career.

What made you choose the Real Training courses over other options?

I received a recommendation via Middlesex University, London.

What was your experience of learning with Real Training? 

I have always been interested in pursuing my study in the area of inclusive education especially in the UK, but since I am working in Turkey it is rather difficult to do so. Real Training has bridged that gap by offering an outstanding online learning platform partnered with Middlesex University so that I could take up courses/modules in the area of my interests and learn from anywhere in the world. The portal displays excellent tools and features showing progress, engaging delegates through forums, and a virtual notebook which is useful to support note-taking and share options with the course leader. Tutors/Course Leaders are easy to get hold of and I often receive swift responses from them when help and support are needed.

How has the course helped make an impact at school?

The course has totally changed my view in dealing with students who are often marginalized by society. I have also successfully changed the perspective of my colleagues through a change project I undertook as a part of a requirement for the Practice Analysis Assignment. As a result of the project I led, students’ performance has increased significantly by 40%.

How has the course helped develop you as an educational professional and what do you hope to achieve with the new knowledge/skills in the future?

Fostering an inclusive environment in an educational institution starts with the upper management particularly leaders. This course has helped me become an effective, better leader. Its learning activities, reading materials, and assignments have opened my mind wider to understand more critically, develop my skills, and have practical experience leading and managing a project even better than I had done before. It goes without saying that in the process there are also difficulties I have encountered but in the end, it has been a worthwhile ride. Continuing along these avenues of leading inclusive education, I would definitely continue to use what I have learnt for a future reference to success.