Introducing Sara Alston...
Personal statement
" I believe that all children deserve the best from their education. After working in schools for over 30 years as a good and outstanding SEND and Safeguarding practitioner, I set up SEA INCLUSION & SAFEGUARDING to work with teachers and school leaders to support them to achieve excellence in their SEND and Safeguarding provision."
Sara Alston
Work​
experience​
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Author of Working Effectively with Your TA (Bloomsbury, Feb 2023)
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Co-author of The Inclusive Classroom (Bloomsbury, 2021) Short listed for ERA Education Book of the Year 2022
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Regular contributor to Headteacher Update and Teach Primary
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Accredited Trainer with the Safer Recruitment Consortium
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CEOP Ambassador
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Very experienced school leader, including roles as Deputy Head, Head of Inclusion, SENCo and Designated Safeguarding Lead
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Multi-agency Safeguarding Trainer since 2010
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Contributor to The Key
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Experienced worker with children with special needs in mainstream school and specialist units
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Expertise in identifying needs to support effective staff deployment, development and support of effective approaches to line management and appraisal
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Experienced in work with vulnerable pupils including Looked After Children, EAL, G&T, GRT community and military families.
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Successful multi-agency and partnership working, including development of Partnership groups and Multi-professional Team meetings
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Led the development and running of Nurture Groups
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Expertise in writing moderation at school and LA level,
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Wide range of work with governors
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Experience working with voluntary groups, including as Safeguarding Consultant to Liberal Judaism and LJY-Netzer
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Qualifications
Member of AoCPP (Association of Child Protection Professionals),
CAPE (Child Abuse and Protection in Education) and AACOSS
(Association of Adult and Child Online Safety Specialists)
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2017: Accredited trainer with Safer Recruitment Consortium
2016: CEOP Ambassador
2011-2012: NPQH (NCSL)
2010: Training the Trainers (Surrey Safeguarding Children Board)
2009-2010: Pathways to Leadership (National College for Leadership of School and Children’s Services)
2007: Post Graduate Diploma: Professional Studies in Education: Management of the Education of Pupils with Behaviour, Emotional and Social Difficulties (BESD with Distinction) (Kingston University)
1998: Post graduate diploma in Primary Education (University of Reading)
1986-1987: PGCE (Primary) (University of Leicester)
1983-1986: BA (Hons.) II (i) in History (University of Leeds)
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Publications
In addition to regular blogs and updates about safeguarding and SEND legislation and guidance found on this website, Sara Alston has published a number of articles and written a number of online courses.
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ONLINE ARTICLES AND RESOURCES include
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Regular contributions to The School Bus website on a range of Special Needs and Safeguarding topics
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Contributions to Headteacher Update and SecEd including their Excellence in SEND 2019 supplement
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ONLINE COURSES AND WEBINARS include
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A wide range of SEND training courses for Inclusion Expert
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2 video coureses for Inclusion Expert
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2 safeguarding webinars for Civica Education
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Online Safeguarding courses for School Compass