Event Details
Date: Friday 10 October, 2025
Venue: Trinity Park, Ipswich, IP3 8UH
Time: 9.00am – 4.30pm
Cost: This is a free event; all schools and settings are welcome to register for up to two places. Refreshments and a light lunch will be provided.
Event Summary
The day aims to facilitate reflection on first hand experiences across a range of protected characteristics and what schools can do to create a genuinely inclusive and supportive experience for all children and young people.
Below you will find further information on the keynote speakers, as well as details of the 6 workshops available. We hope this information will be useful to you when selecting your preferred workshops.
Keynote Speakers
No Outsiders – Andrew Moffat
No Outsiders provides materials to develop a whole school ethos to teach children about equality and diversity in preparation for life in modern Britain. The resource uses lesson plans and assemblies to ensure every child knows they are valued and they belong. The author, Andrew Moffat, works as PD Lead for Excelsior MAT in Birmingham and when he is not delivering training, teaches in Y6. Andrew has an MBE for services to education and he was listed as a top 10 finalist in the Global Teacher Prize in 2019. Today, No Outsiders is used in hundreds of schools across the UK.
Andrew will give a background to No Outsiders to place it in context with the current education climate. Legal duties and guidance for schools will be covered and Andrew will talk about lessons learned from the challenging parent protests that emerged against him and his work in 2019. Andrew will then show a range of picture books that he uses in the resource with examples of children’s learning and finish by demonstrating how school assemblies can be used to drive an inclusive narrative.
No-outsiders website
Michael Howell
Michael Howell is an extraordinarily gifted young composer and musician. From the age of 11 he taught himself composing by listening to classical music and opera on YouTube, translating the pieces by ear onto the piano. Before long, he developed a unique singing style reminiscent of baroque opera yet made up entirely of random vowels instead of lyrics. Michael attracted public attention in 2017 when he released his piece ‘Great Is the Grief’, as well as featuring in the BBC series “Amazing Humans.” Michael also happens to be autistic. In his early childhood he struggled to speak and later faced bullying and ignorance from both pupils and teachers in school. However, with the unwavering support of his mother Nadine and a dedicated mentor, he eventually overcame many of his struggles and found in music his form of self-expression and emotion.
Michael has future projects already on the horizon and others still developing, as a young black man from West London living with autism and ADHD, he will likely continue to face discrimination and misunderstanding. However, having found his voice in music gives him hope and aspiration.
Michael was a finalist on series two of Channel 4’s The Piano. He is an advocate for neurodiversity. He will be speaking and performing his music at the EDI event on October 10.
Michael Howell’s website
Workshops
There will be a series of workshops to join during the day, which will aim to stimulate self-reflection on ensuring equality and inclusion is embedded into your education delivery. Each attendee will have the opportunity to join 2 workshops from an available 6. Workshop preferences can be selected on the registration form.
Schools of Sanctuary – Wood Ley Primary
A School of Sanctuary is a school that is committed to being a safe and welcoming place for all children including migrants and refugees. Wood Ley Primary School founded the first School Of Sanctuary in Suffolk in 2022 and were appointed as the Suffolk Leader for the organisation.
There is now a growing network of more than 1200 primary and secondary schools, nurseries and sixth forms all committed to creating a culture of welcome, understanding and belonging. Driven by teachers, school staff, parents, governors and community groups, this network supports the thousands of children and young people seeking sanctuary in the UK, raises awareness of the experiences of people seeking safety, and plays a key role in building a culture of kindness and compassion. Wood Ley Primary School will demonstrate how they use the Schools of Sanctuary programme to promote awareness of personal and social development in a multi-cultural society where everyone feels valued.
Schools of Sanctuary website
Bex Bothwell-O’Hearn, Northgate High School
Bex is passionate about inclusion in schools and the community. She is very experienced at working with a range of groups, promoting a consistent message about genuine diversity, representation and access for all. Her work has included the development of an inclusive curriculum across all subjects, particularly history. She has set up regional networks across Suffolk for both primary and secondary schools, in which teachers share practice and support each other in overcoming challenges. This has extended to involving community groups in the networks too, aiming at matching up expertise. The networks have an annual conference at The Hold in Ipswich each November and have won the BBC Making a Difference Award. Amongst many other activities, Bex is also a trainer for Representation Matters and The Kite Trust, a member of the National Education Union (NEU) where she is an LGBT+ District Officer and is on the LGBT+ National Organising Forum. She has recently been elected to the National Executive of the NEU.
Suffolk Mind
Suffolk Mind provides a range of services including support, advice and signposting for people of all ages with mental health issues.
Their workshop will explore how schools can address wellbeing with children and young people, how to spot early signs of concern and how to offer support.
Suffolk Mind website
Just Like Us
Just Like Us are the LGBT+ young people’s charity. Since 2016 they have been equipping schools across the UK with the tools they need to foster LGBT+ inclusion, allyship and an environment where everyone can feel safe and thrive.
At this session you’ll learn how the power of representation and storytelling can make a huge difference to the wellbeing of LGBT+ young people, hear real life stories from LGBT+ young people and find out how Just Like Us can help you to embed LGBT+ inclusion in your school.
Just Like Us website
Strategies for Combating Racism in the Classroom, Bury St Edmunds for Black Lives
Bury St Edmunds for Black Lives (BSE4BL) is a small grass-roots, totally voluntary organisation that aims to build stronger, inclusive communities through education and understanding. We offer a suite of workshops designed to nurture understanding and promote anti-racism. We create dialogue to foster a more tolerant, accepting future for our community.
As we all know, teachers hold a powerful role in childrens’ lives and who better placed to make a genuine, lasting difference in their charges’ lives than teachers. This workshop is designed to give you an understanding and insight into the impact of racism in schools and strategies for handling racist behaviour for both victim and perpetrator. We will offer tools and tips to help you feel more able to intervene when you witness challenging behaviour and to encourage minority students to speak up when they experience racism. We want to help you create a positive setting where teachers are at the vanguard of change.
Bury St Edmund’s for Black Lives website
Using No Outsiders to Address Toxic Masculinity – Andrew Moffat
A key strength of No Outsiders is that it teaches about every strand of the Equality Act and we can use it to ‘turn up the volume’ on a particular strand if we need to. Recently there has been a lot of discussion around toxic masculinity, particularly following the TV drama “Adolescence”.
Andrew will show how he has used No Outsiders in his school to explore these issues with children and staff and further develop the inclusive narrative.
No Outsiders website