Unconditional Positive Regard. Dave Whitaker & Luke Mitchell - Wellspring Academy Trust

Deborah Firat - a parent and school governor - has seen first hand the difference it makes when teachers approach their pupils with unconditional positive regard.

Her son Zack has autism and although he went to a good mainstream school, it didn’t have the tools to maximise his potential.

Dave Whitaker (Director of Learning at the Wellspring Academy Trust) and Luke Mitchell (Head of Behaviour Support) share what they’ve learned from years of experience and some guiding principles about how to support the most vulnerable learners.

Dave, Luke and the staff at Springwell Special Academy are changing lives - Deborah’s, Zach’s and the many others’ at the school; and it comes back to unconditional positive regard.

(Dave Whittaker-Director of Learning at the Wellspring Academy Trust)

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The best ‘In Beta’ bits

Every episode, I curate the practical strategies and solutions to the challenges guests face so you can learn from them too.

In next week’s newsletter Dave and Luke share:

1. A list of researchers and providers that have been pivotal to Luke’s professional development, which has taken his whole career to collect.

2. Information about the training programs Wellspring Academy Trust run

3. The research that that forms the foundation of the Springwell’s approach

4. Some other bonus content from our conversations with Dave and Luke

If you’d like to access these resources via your inbox next week hit the button below to subscribe

Thanks for reading.

Thanks for playing your part in making education the place we all know it can be.

Speak soon,

@NiallAlcock

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What you are up to—positivity from the We Are In Beta community

If you’re a new subscriber, as a thank you to everyone who listens, subscribes and shares the podcast, I share what they are up to in this section.

I ran it as it’s own post this week. Early signs were that this went down well. So keep an eye out next week for jobs. blogs, books, news, events and CPD from the We Are In Beta community.

Want to share your news? Let me know here. I’ll include it and tweet if I can.

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