We are proud winners of a nasen award for Co-Production with Children and Young People and their Families.
Our nurturing and person-centred approach with students, families and organisations has been validated with a 2020 nasen Award!
Bright Heart Education wins nasen award
Bright Heart has won a 2020 nasen Award! This was awarded for Co-Production with Children and Young People and their Families.
The nasen awards
The annual nasen awards celebrate achievements within the global SEND sector. Nasen (the National Association of Special Educational Needs) is a UK charity that has been supporting SEND practitioners for over 25 years.
The awards are typically presented at an awards dinner in central London. Due to COVID-19, the ceremony was postponed this year and the awards were announced virtually – see from 5:26 in video.
This year, nasen received a record number of nominations from across the world.
How does nasen judge its winners?
Nasen expects to see evidence of common features of practice across all 13 award categories. Award categories include awards for individuals as well as organisations from the UK and globally.
Common features are:
- inclusive leadership and governance which would be visible at every tier in an organisation;
- a collaborative approach to working;
- productive engagement with the full community of the organisation;
- innovation; and
- a commitment to sharing effective practice beyond own organisation.
Validating our mission
Bright Heart was established to be the UK’s leading provider of tuition for students who would benefit from a more nurturing approach to learning. We strive to serve students as well as other stakeholders involved in the holistic learning process. This includes family members, tutors and local authorities.
On receiving this award, Bright Heart’s Co-founder, Dr Ryan Stevenson, noted:
We are extremely proud to have won this nasen award. It is great to see our nurturing, person-centred approach being acknowledged with this award. This is inspiring for the Bright Heart team and its dedicated tutors. We look forward to continuing to provide exceptional service to all of our students and their families.”
Bright Heart’s success working with families
Three examples of our work with families were cited for consideration by nasen in support of Bright Heart’s nomination:
- Bright Heart provides tuition for a young man who has limited verbalisation and is on the autism spectrum. His unique needs were not being met at his special school, leading to disengagement. Collaborative meetings were held with the family, case worker, his educational psychologist and the Autism Trust. An iterative approach was first adopted. It soon became clear that he had a strong leaning towards maths and science. This was not being reflected in the level of work assigned. Through patient, steady work this student has progressed to A Level and has pride in his work. He now aspires to study at university.
- We were approached in February to provide Maths and English tuition for a 13-year old boy with ADHD, ASC and ODD. He was initially very reluctant to engage with the tutor, but through creative methods – introducing his love of art into lessons and using cooking to work with numbers – engagement significantly increased. He is now more confident and looking forward to GCSEs. As part of the process, the tutor also helped his sister to take her English GCSEs confidently. The tutor has also supported his mother as a sounding board during lockdown. She has also worked closely with Westminster council’s education team, CAMHS and the family’s social worker.
- We were approached to help a mother with her three, recently adopted children. These young children (Y0 girl, Y2 boy and Y3 boy) had emotional trauma from their birth family. This was hindering their school progress. Bright Heart spent time to properly understand the family’s needs. We carefully considered input from NHS psychologists, social workers and teachers as part of this process. Before academic progress could be made, gaining the children’s trust was a major obstacle to overcome. Over a 10-month period, through care and attention, the young girl developed her confidence and the younger boy became more diligent and attentive. The older boy, who had been most affected by the previous trauma, became more engaged with his work and schooling.
Bright Heart is very appreciative of the families that offered their time to share their positive experiences of working with us as part of the awards adjudication process.
Learn more about Bright Heart’s award-winning tuition
Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us to discuss your tuition needs. Learn how one of our experienced, caring tutors could be the perfect fit for your child. We specialise in helping students with SEN, those that have fallen behind at school (possibly lacking confidence or motivation) and those being homeschooled. We currently offer a 10% discount on all online tuition due to COVID-19.
Please have a look at our Facebook page for current events, or feel free to get in touch directly to chat.
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