03 OCTOBER 2026
We’re delighted to welcome parents and carers from across the North West to Pontville School on October 3rd for a day dedicated to understanding and supporting children and young people.
📆Date: Saturday 3rd October
⏰Time: 10am-2pm
🏫Venue: Pontville School, Black Moss Lane, Ormskirk, Lancashire, L39 4TW
The Event Agenda
🌟 Understanding Autism: Beyond the Diagnosis Presented by Anne-Marie Harrison, Education Director for Ideas Afresh Education
🌟 Supporting Emotional Regulation and Sensory Needs at Home and School Presented by Pippa Turner, Occupational Therapist at Pontville School
🌟 Building Communication and Connection: Supporting Interaction and Relationships Presented by Colin Foley, Training Director for Neurodiversity Training UK
🌟Clinical Team Q&A, EHCP Support and more.
About our speakers
Anne-Marie Harrison, Education and Training Director Ideas at Afresh Ltd
Anne-Marie has extensive experience across the SEND sector. After early experience in child development and education Anne-Marie enjoyed a 15-year career training multi-disciplinary teams in supporting autistic children and their families, at the National Autistic Society (NAS). Anne-Marie has contributed to NAS programme development, is acknowledged in Plan A for Autism (Dr Caroline Smith) and has delivered lectures at university. Her book Babies Are Noisy was published in 2013 while her professional reflections have been published in sector journals. Anne-Marie has travelled internationally to deliver speeches and training, experiencing autism practices in different cultures. Her professional experience and personal neurodiverse journey have empowered her in developing a thriving training and support business that offers personalised and bespoke CPD accredited training courses for both families and professionals. Her expertise reaches across all sectors and facilitates a rewarding opportunity to fully value the contribution, the neurodiverse community makes in today’s society.
Colin Foley, CEO of Neurodiversity Training UK
Neurodiversity Training UK aims to provide practical, engaging and evidence-based training opportunities for professionals on supporting neurodivergent children and young people in education or colleagues in the workplace. Before this, Colin had a successful twenty-five-year teaching career, including ten years in school leadership and led the Training team at the ADHD Foundation for ten years to be become the largest provider of training for professionals on ADHD in the UK. Our training sessions are rooted in taking a strength-based approach to neurodiversity- understanding the conditions, how they can overlap, the impact of neurodiversity on people’s lived experience as well as empowering educators, employers, line managers, service providers, families and neurodiverse people with evidence based strategies for living well and being successful in education and in the workplace.