SEND Toolkit: Neurodivergent Students in Mainstream Settings

We are delighted to welcome back the educator and author, Karen Marshall, for an insightful training session at Hertford.

Karen's career in music education spans more than three decades, driven by a personal passion for making music accessible to everyone. After discovering she was an undiagnosed dyslexic, she made it her mission to champion neurodiverse learners in music. She currently chairs the British Dyslexia Association's Music Committee and is a regular trainer across the UK.

This session will focus on the different specific learning differences including eg. Dyslexia, ADHD, dyspraxia amongst others as well as adaptive teaching and multisensory music teaching, an approach that uses visual, auditory, and kinesthetic elements to reinforce learning—a method widely recognised as highly effective for neurodiverse students. Karen's expertise is informed by her extensive teaching practice, where she works with students of all ages and abilities. She will provide practical, hands-on strategies that you can immediately apply in your own lessons. She will also talk about sensory issues and the PACE approach to supporting challenging behaviour.

Karen has an upcoming book, Music and Neurodiversity: A practical guide for teachers and parents, due out in November 2025. Here is an extract from it, her manifesto, to give you a taster on some of the things she will be sharing with us in the session.