Venue: Zoom (online) 

Audience: Independent and boarding school nurses, matrons, health and wellbeing leads, pastoral staff

Content:

Our annual conference is the highlight of our events programme and the culmination of another academic year.

Our focus last year was on anxiety and the importance of inclusion for sufferers. This year our focus will be on the ever-changing landscape of health care and how we can support everyone, young people and adults, in fulfilling their potential both physically and emotionally. We will soon be announcing more detail and information regarding our speakers.

Cost:

• HIEDA/BSA Member Rate: £215
• HIEDA/BSA Additional Full Member Fee: £110
• BSA Affiliate Member: £325
• BSA Additional Affiliate Member: £140
• Non-member Rate: £430*

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Programme:

09:00 – 09:45

Session 1 – Inspirational Speaker – Building Emotional Regulation for Whole School Wellbeing

The core of resilience and wellbeing resides in emotional awareness and regulation. This talk delves into the developmental aspects of emotional regulation in children, explores strategies to enhance their capacity to tolerate challenging emotions, fosters the cultivation of emotional intelligence, and examines methods to maintain composure when confronted with emotional triggers.

• Chair: Lee Glaser, Executive Director, Specialist Services
  • Speaker: Alicia Drummond, Founder of Teen Tips LTD

09:45 – 10:00

Break

10:00 – 10:45

Session 2 – Discussion Group – The role of Health Professionals in our Schools

The Health Centre is the heartbeat of an Independent School. It serves the community in many ways and the Health Centre team will often be the first to spot trends amongst the pupil and staff body. This session will consider the ways in which the Health Centre can support and improve the wellbeing and performance of its community.

• Chair: Lee Glaser, Executive Director, Specialist Services
  • Speakers:
    • Skyler Moulder, Lead Nurse at The Leys in Cambridge
    • Louise Howel, Head of HIEDA

10:45 – 11:00

Break

11:00 – 11:45

Session 3 – School Nurse – Coaching, mentoring and supervision. Getting the best out of yourself and the team

Who supports the supporter? This session looks at the importance of clinical supervision and school nurses receiving the right support on a timely basis. This ensures that the Health Centre team has the resilience to support the wider community and reduces the risk of burnout.

• Chair: Louise Howel, Head of HIEDA
  • Speaker: Rosie McManus, HIEDA Nurse Advisor

11:45 – 12:00

Break

12:00 – 12:45

Session 4 – School Nurse – The HC in International Schools. What we can learn from each other

Health Centres in International Schools play a significant role in supporting the community. Are there differences in the way they operate when compared with schools in the UK? What can we learn and how can we collaborate? This session aims to look at similarities and differences with the aim of improving practices across the world.

• Chair: Lee Glaser, Executive Director, Specialist Services
  • Speaker: Natalie Bosmans, School Nurse

12:45 – 13:30

Lunch

13:30 – 14:15

Session 5 – Discussion Group – Seacole Standard and lessons learnt.

The Seacole Standard was introduced in September 2024 with the aim of supporting all schools in providing an excellent level of health and medical care. Nine schools have undergone a review and fed back to us on the process. This session considers the positive aspects of working towards The Seacole Standard and the lesson learned along the way.

• Chair: Lee Glaser, Executive Director, Specialist Services
  • Panel:
    • Louise Howel, Head of HIEDA
    • Alice Beard, Health Centre Manager, Sherborne Girls

14:15 – 14:30

Break

14:30 – 15:15

Session 6 – School Nurses – Current challenges and approaches (Eating disorders, vaping, mental health, neurodiversity….)

This session is designed provide up to date guidance and practical strategies for supporting young people with disordered eating. It will also cover a range of other subjects that could have a negative impact on a young person’s mental health along with strategies to support them.

• Chair: Louise Howel, Head of HIEDA
  • Speaker: Lisa Jones, Co-founder of HeadStrong

15:15 – 15:30

Break

15:30 – 16:15

Session 7 – School Nurses – Current challenges and approaches continued…

Continuing on from session 6, this session aims to  provide up to date guidance and current thinking on other current areas of concern including vaping, snus and substance abuse.

• Chair: Louise Howel, Head of HIEDA
  • Speaker: Dave Parvin, Drug Sense UK

16:15

Conference close

Lee Glaser, Executive Director, Specialist Services    

Lee has extensive experience in pastoral care. Prior to becoming Headmaster and CEO at Taunton School in Somerset he was the School’s Deputy Head which involved leading the pastoral team and being the Designated Safeguarding Lead. Outstanding support for student and staff wellbeing has always been at the heart of his approach and the School was recently shortlisted for a TES Award for excellence in this area.

Lee has always worked closely with the School’s medical team which provided excellent support to the community, particularly during the COVID pandemic. He is excited to be supporting HIEDA members in delivering the highest quality of care in their own environments.

Louise Howel, Head of HIEDA

Louise Howel is a paediatric nurse with experience in children’s A & E, plastics and respiratory care. Health visitor for ten years.  Nine years experience in independent school nursing working in a mix of boarding and day school settings. Six years experience as Health centre manager most recently at Wycliffe College.

Alicia Drummond, Founder of Teen Tips LTD

Alicia is passionate about providing evidenced-based advice to parents, teachers and all those looking after children and young people, so they can be pro-active in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of those in their care.  Alicia also works directly with children and young people empowering them to look after their mental health and wellbeing.

Alicia draws on the latest research from psychotherapy, psychology and neuroscience, along with her experience of working as an adolescent therapist.

Alicia is a BACP accredited therapist, parenting expert, sought after keynote speaker, member of the All Party Parliamentary Group for a Fit and Healthy Childhood, author and a mother.  She is regularly sought for her expert opinion by the media.

Having worked with schools across the UK for more than a decade delivering webinars, talks and workshops to parents, carers, staff, and pupils; in 2020 Alicia created The Wellbeing Hub. This award-winning platform offers a proactive approach to young people’s mental health and wellbeing by providing evidenced-based support for the whole school community – staff, parents, carers and pupils.  The platform is currently impacting more than 130,000 pupils in over 220 schools.

Skyler Moulder, Lead Nurse at The Leys in Cambridge

Skyler did her Adult Nursing BSc at Kings College London in 2011 and went straight into community nursing. After the birth of her first son she stumbled into community school nursing and never looked back. During her time as a community school nurse she covered primary and secondary schools all across Cambridgeshire. She completed training such as the CAMHS foundation module, Sexual Health and Contraception module and was trained in Safeguarding Children Level 3. She completed her PG Diploma in Specialist Community Public Health Nursing in 2016 when she was pregnant with her second son, which she later topped up to a full MSc in 2023 when she was pregnant with her daughter! This also included qualifying as a Nurse Prescriber. Skyler co-lead the development of a 0-19 Duty Desk and the introduction of the Chathealth text service in Cambridgeshire Community Services. In 2019 she became a Team Manager for the CCS Healthy Child Programme – managing a team of Nursery Nurses, Health Visitors and School Nurses during the pandemic. In 2020 she was recruited to be the Lead Nurse at The Leys in Cambridge, to lead a team covering 24 hour care for around 575 pupils (over half of which are boarders). This is where she is now and where her passion for independent school nursing started.

Rosie McManus, HIEDA Nurse Advisor

Trained at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children Rosie came to school nursing in the independent sector 16 years ago. With a passion for boarding pastoral and health care Rosie has developed an interest in the understanding and development of the health needs of boarding school students.

Lisa Jones, Co-founder of HeadStrong

Lisa Jones is a multi-award-winning, science driven, fact-based therapist, coach and passionate trainer who believes that prevention is better than intervention.

Lisa works in both the corporate and education sector teaching others the importance of brain health, resilience, stress management and emotional wellbeing as well as running a busy private practice.

Lisa is a fully qualified and insured Psychotherapist, Counsellor, Health Coach and Mental Health Consultant registered with The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). She is also a senior accredited member of The National Counselling Society and The Association for Coaching.

After graduating with a BSc (Hons) in Counselling & Psychotherapy, Lisa went on to work with adults to overcome addiction and mental health issues. Having experienced chronic ill health for many years, Lisa developed a keen interest in brain health and the brain / mind/ body connection. Lisa was fascinated by how our minds can influence our wellbeing and vice versa. After overcoming her own health issues, she then specialised in the field of chronic ill health and stress. Lisa went on to certify in Applied Neuroscience and Brain Health, Applied Neuroscience and Coaching and Women’s Health and Neurobiology.

She also gained a NLP Practitioner Coaching Diploma and certified as a Life Coaching Practitioner, Youth Coach, NLP Master Practitioner, Hypnotherapy Practitioner, Mental Health First Aid and completed a BPS approved certificate in clinical supervision. The specific focus of her work addresses the mind-body connection and the impact our language (self-talk) and belief system has on all aspects of health and wellbeing as well as self-esteem and confidence. The principles of Neuroscience underpin the work Lisa does as she believes it is essential to educate people on how the brain works, how to influence mindset and to understand neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to form and re-organise neural connections). By doing so, this enables us to build resilience, develop essential life skills and learn how to manage stress effectively.

Together with her business partner, Veronika Chidemo – a Teacher and School Mental Health Leadership Consultant, she co-founded HeadStrong Training in Education. Lisa and Veronika are passionate about an integrative approach to Mental Health and Wellbeing in Education and believe that everyone should be equipped with essential skills to confidently manage the stresses in life.

Dave Parvin, Drug Sense UK

A former Drug Squad Officer- Dave has seen the damage and destruction first hand that  ‘drugs’ can bring to those who choose to have a life that involves the use of these substances and as such is passionate about raising the awareness of the ‘potential risks and dangers’ associated with this life style. Since leaving the police Dave over the last 17 years has delivered hundreds of Drug Awareness Sessions to Schools and Colleges all over the country engaging with all parties (Students/Staff and Parental Sessions) to ensure his key message about raising the awareness of the real risks and dangers associated with many substances young people in particular are likely to come into contact with. He does not preach and delivers his presentations in a ‘non judgemental manner’ in his own ‘unique style’, ensuring that his audiences engage with him from the very minute he starts to speak. He also has strong links with NAMSS (National Association for Managers of Student Services), the BSA (Boarding School Association) and Hieda (Health in Education) delivering bespoke Drug Awareness Training events for their staff (including work overseas with international schools).

Alice Beard, Health Centre Manager, Sherborne Girls

Alice has been a qualified nurse for coming up to 20 years, initially specialising in orthopaedics in the local acute trust, then working as a clinical site manager. As her own family grew, she moved into practice nursing, enjoying the 1-2-1 patient care and finding her passion of health promotion.

She started working for Sherborne Girls 8 years ago as a member of the nursing team and took over as the nurse manager 2 years ago. She loves school nursing and the age range of the pupils in her care; she has seen many changes in the needs of her pupils and every day presents a different scenario or challenge.

Her and her team have a passion to ensure, the pupils leave SG, with the confidence and knowledge on how best to look after their health and wellbeing.

Natalie Bosmans, School Nurse

Natalie is originally from the UK where she trained as a nurse, midwife and health visitor.  She worked as a Specialist nurse for Looked after children before making the move to working as a school nurse in the international school setting in Switzerland over 18 years ago.  She is passionate about child and adolescent health and well-being, and have a particular interest in health promotion and prevention, this led to her undertaking her Masters degree in Public Health in 2020.   She is the professional development coordinator for the School nurse Collaborative Learning Group for the Swiss Group of International Schools,  a role that  enables her to connect with other school nurses in the international school setting, giving them the opportunity to work together and learn together, promoting best practice within our schools for our students and their families.