Turning ambition into delivery – Dorset’s SEND award winning journey

We’re incredibly proud to celebrate an outstanding achievement. Huge congratulations to Gill Howard and the team at Mountjoy Special School for winning the SEND Award for their leadership of the Moving On approach in Dorset. 

This recognition reflects the powerful work happening across Dorset to support children and young people with SEND to successfully move from specialist provision into mainstream settings where they can learn, belong, and thrive in their local communities. 

At IMPOWER, we specialise in turning your ambition into delivery, and we’re proud to have partnered with Dorset Council and partners to make this a reality. Through our Valuing SEND approach, we’ve supported the system to build a shared, evidence-informed understanding of children’s strengths and needs – enabling more confident decisions and real progress on inclusion. 

Through honest conversations, joint working, and a commitment to doing things differently, the system has already seen meaningful impact: 

• Children successfully transitioning into mainstream schools 

• Increased confidence among families and schools 

• Stronger collaboration across education partners

Gill Howard, Headteacher at Mountjoy shared:

 

“Valuing SEND has helped us have more honest conversations about what children need and how we can work together differently to support them….

 

Valuing SEND has enabled us to reintegrate these two children, which we wouldn’t have been able to do without it.” 

This award is a testament not only to Gill’s leadership, but to what’s possible when systems come together with a shared ambition to improve outcomes for children and young people. 

If you’re a local authority or system leader looking to go beyond strategy and into delivery – reimagining inclusion and improving your SEND system – we’d love to talk: [email protected].