Professor Barry Carpenter has been a headteacher of three schools in the UK, a national director at the UK government's Department for Education and was the first professor of Mental Health in Education in the UK.

Barry's due to retire this June and has had a very high-profile career in education over more than 40 years.

In fact, the UK government has just released guidance that Barry developed that helps schools understand how to assess pupils performing below the standard of the national curriculum assessments.

Barry can speak widely about how special needs education has changed since he started his career 40 years ago and how it needs to change further.

He has strong views on the need to 'teach grief' in schools and fears that the teaching profession is ill-equipped to deal with pupils' and colleagues' poor mental health.

Barry has published books, including one on autism and girls, and is in the Who's Who in acknowledgement of his national and international contribution to the field of 'Special Education'. He has been awarded the OBE and CBE for services to children with special needs.

https://www.brookes.ac.uk/school-of-education/

Resources mentioned:

https://www.nurtureuk.org/

Engaging People with Complex Needs (Routledge)

Girls and Autism

Wellbeing Toolkit

http://www.pretermbirth.info

https://www.bliss.org.uk

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