A Tale of Two Cities (in Derby!)

I was asked to created some drawings for the Derby School Inclusion conference that happened back in June. Unfortunately, whilst all the schools have signed up to the Inclusion Charter, the number of annual exclusions is still rising. 

This story plus some acted out theatre sketches were used to illustrate different behavioural approaches to difficult situations at school. Hats off to all the teachers out there - it's a really hard job!

Thanks to Jo Wilkinson at the Derby County Community Trust's Inclusion Partnership for asking me back! https://inclusionpartnership.co.uk/

Derby Inclusion Conference 2026

 My 4th visit to this lovely day of celebration and sharing good ideas all about 'Inclusion' for the teaching community in Derby. This is a large paper mural, 3 metres wide and 1 metre tall.

Please click on the image to enlarge!

Discovery Trust - Schools in Leicester

Had a wonderful day last week working for the Discovery Trust up in Leicester. https://discoverytrust.org/

Some really great speakers, kicked off with Tier Blundell https://tierblundell.com/ who is passionate about keeping children in education. His experience of being excluded from school at a young age has led him on a journey from leaving school with no qualifications, to now studying for a doctorate at Oxford University. Quite incredible.

Violence Reduction Unit, London UK

I worked on an event held by the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) in London, quite a long time ago at the mayor's office. I was told that they wanted to use the images I created at the live event for a poster, and now I've seen the poster, twice in one week! 

So I thought I'd show it up 'in the wild'. These were both outside primary schools in southeast London, one in New Cross, the other near Bellingham.

The reason 'Why Talk Matters' is because it has the potential to help young people before they end up in dangerous situations, and this campaign is focussing on the very young, because gangs are targeting the young and the vulnerable.
 

SEND conference in Leicester

Please click on the image to enlarge.

A couple of weeks ago I was live scribing at this conference in Leicester because they spotted me working on a similar conference up in Derby last year. 

This inclusion conference was for the Discovery Trust https://discoverytrust.org/ and was the first gathering for quite a few years. It was a big cohort of about 600 and the room was just buzzing with enthusiasm and a lot of laughter.

I was really amazed at how much this trust has achieved in only 14 years. They have a large network of SEND schools, with other more mainstream schools also in the process of joining and they pool resources. This means that the kids get to enjoy a really well rounded education and are really given so many chances to exceed everyone's expectations. It's really wonderful :)

Chinese Students visit Derby

A large format image (1 metre square) commissioned by a school in Derby to celebrate a recent cultural exchange. They packed a lot in to 3 days!

I wasn't there for the 3 day trip, I was sent a description of what the head wanted to include, as well as photos and descriptions. It was fun bringing it all to life!
 

Keeping Children in School, Derby Inclusion Partnership

Had a fab time up in Derby City last week scribing for their Inclusive Partnership, and I loved how the've embraced my drawings and are using them for a campaign to get kids back into school, and enjoying themselves there!

They've teamed up with the talented team at Fluid Media: https://www.fluid-ideas.co.uk/ to do a media campaign, more on that later in the summer :)

This (pink image) was for the teaser for the campaign:

Derby Educational Event

A day up in Derby for an education conference with a difference - how to build on inclusion within schools, so that everyone feels a part of something and no-one has to feel 'not good enough'.

Inspiring day, Jo Wilkinson is a wonderful leader and I felt humbled and privileged to work on this event. It felt like a movement for change was really taking shape!

 

Posters for Children's Safeguarding Partnership

I've been doing a lot of work for Merton council over the last few years, and most of it centres around healthcare and children and young people. The two subjects collide here:

 

And this is an alternative format for their annual report. Which background do you prefer?

Live drawing for 'Booktrust'

As a bookworm I was absolutely thrilled to be asked to work for the charity 'Booktrust': a national charity that aims to get children reading.

The project is called 'My Dream Reading Adventure' and primary school children were asked to come up with ideas on this theme. These images were drawn while the children were digging deeper into their selection of ideas and I coloured them in digitally afterwards.

The children were fully of energy, enthusiasm and ideas: oh to be 8 again!

Thanks to Booktrust for asking me to get involved, here is a link in case you want further information about the charity:
https://www.booktrust.org.uk/