The SENDcast

Too many children with SEND are missing out on school residential trips every year - and it needs to change.
Nicholas Hands, CEO of Boundless Outdoors, joins Dale to discuss how we can make residentials and outdoor learning truly inclusive for every child.
Together, they explore why so many children with SEND are excluded from residential trips - often not through deliberate decision, but through assumptions, poor planning, and a culture of saying no without even asking the question. Nicholas is refreshingly clear: the activity adaptation is almost always the easy part. It's the funding, the staffing ratios, and the paperwork that create the real barriers.
They also discuss the transformative power of the outdoor environment itself - why it acts as a leveller, why children who struggle in the classroom often thrive outside it, and why the child nobody notices suddenly gets to shine when everyone is facing the same challenge together.  
"You can remember the school trip you went on. You can't remember second period French."
Nicholas Hands
 
About Nicholas Hands
Nick Hands is the CEO of Boundless Outdoors, an outdoor education centre in Malvern dedicated to making the great outdoors accessible to all. With a background in adventure and expeditions — including kayaking some of the hardest whitewater rivers in the world and climbing 20,000ft peaks in Nepal — Nick is a firm believer that anything is possible outdoors.
In 2013, Nick fronted a bid to take on the Malvern Outdoor Centre and turn it around. Over the years, he and his team have transformed it from a loss-making operation into a thriving centre turning over £1.6m, accommodating more than 10,000 children a year. A central focus has been modernising provision to make it as inclusive as possible — most recently through a new £1m purpose-built dining and catering facility.
B Squared Website – www.bsquared.co.uk 
Meeting with Dale to find out about B Squared - https://calendly.com/b-squared-team/overview-of-b-squared-sendcast 
Email Dale – dale@bsquared.co.uk 
Subscribe to the SENDcast - https://www.thesendcast.com/subscribe
The SENDcast is powered by B Squared
We have been involved with Special Educational Needs for over 25 years, helping show the small steps of progress pupils with SEND make. B Squared has worked with thousands of schools, we understand the challenges professionals working in SEND face. We wanted a way to support these hardworking professionals - which is why we launched The SENDcast! Find out more about how B Squared can help improve assessment for pupils with SEND in your school.

If you missed the Tes SEND Show - or were there but couldn't make every session - this is worth a listen.
 
This is a special episode recorded live at the show, where Dale was joined by Simon Airey, an autistic teacher, speaker and neurodiversity consultant, and the founder of Neuroaffirming With Simon.
 
Simon makes the case that there's no wrong way to play. He talks about lining up 37 Radox shower gels in height order, and a child happily waving sticks around the playground on his own, to show why solo play can be so regulating: there are no demands. He and Dale discuss observing without judgement, asking "what are you noticing?" instead of "why are you doing that?", and adding to a child's play rather than trying to change it. Simon's top tips: always observe first, keep resources open-ended, and let children show you what play looks like for them.

About Simon Airey
Simon Airey is an autistic teacher, speaker and consultant, and the founder of Neuroaffirming With Simon. He works to bridge the gap between parents and teachers in supporting children, with a focus on neuroaffirming practice, play-based learning and practical classroom inclusion.
Drawing on his classroom experience and lived insight, Simon helps schools and local authorities adopt approaches that work for both children and staff.
About the Tes SEND Show
The Tes SEND Show is the UK's largest event dedicated to special educational needs and disabilities, bringing together teachers, SENCOs, school leaders, therapists and parents for two days of CPD, seminars and exhibitors.
This series brings you short summaries of some of the 2026 seminar programme, recorded on site in our pop-up podcast studio. A new episode lands every Tuesday for eight weeks.
https://tessendshow.co.uk/
https://thesendcast.com/tes-send-show-special-episodes/ 
B Squared Website – www.bsquared.co.uk 
Meeting with Dale to find out about B Squared - https://calendly.com/b-squared-team/overview-of-b-squared-sendcast 
Email Dale – dale@bsquared.co.uk 
Subscribe to the SENDcast - https://www.thesendcast.com/subscribe
The SENDcast is powered by B Squared
We have been involved with Special Educational Needs for over 25 years, helping show the small steps of progress pupils with SEND make. B Squared has worked with thousands of schools, we understand the challenges professionals working in SEND face. We wanted a way to support these hardworking professionals - which is why we launched The SENDcast! Find out more about how B Squared can help improve assessment for pupils with SEND in your school.

Attendance is not the problem. It's the signal. And until schools start treating it that way, children with EBSA will keep falling through the gaps.
In this episode, Dale is joined by Jack Mallaby, Assistant Headteacher and SENCO at Chiltern Way Academy, a specialist autism provision, to discuss emotionally based school avoidance - and why the answer is never more pressure.
Together, they explore:
- Why bums on seats is not the same as safety, engagement, or belonging.
- Why celebrating 100% attendance without considering why a child achieved it misses the point entirely.
- How a relational approach - relationship before curriculum - reduces incidents, builds trust, and saves time in the long run.
- Why reasonable adjustments are rarely as complicated as schools fear, and why giving a little gets you so much more back.
- Why consequences should replace punishments - and what a genuinely reflective conversation looks like in practice.
- Why collaboration between schools, families, and young people is not optional: parents are the experts on their own children.
"The attendance is the effect. It's what you're seeing as a result of something. It's a flag saying something's going on - but schools often don't see it as a flag."
Jack Mallaby
About Jack Mallaby
Jack Mallaby is an Assistant Headteacher and SENCo working within a specialist autism provision. He previously led Learning Support and SEND in a large mainstream secondary school, giving him experience across both mainstream and specialist settings.

Jack's work focuses on inclusive SEND strategy, EBSA, autism, SEMH, attendance, safeguarding, behaviour, curriculum access and EHCP processes. He works closely with families, schools, therapists, health professionals, local authorities, social care teams and commissioners to develop practical, person-centred support.
He is particularly interested in moving EBSA conversations away from blame or compliance and towards understanding, safety, relationship, reasonable adjustments and sustainable re-engagement with education.
B Squared Website – www.bsquared.co.uk 
Meeting with Dale to find out about B Squared - https://calendly.com/b-squared-team/overview-of-b-squared-sendcast 
Email Dale – dale@bsquared.co.uk 
Subscribe to the SENDcast - https://www.thesendcast.com/subscribe
The SENDcast is powered by B Squared
We have been involved with Special Educational Needs for over 25 years, helping show the small steps of progress pupils with SEND make. B Squared has worked with thousands of schools, we understand the challenges professionals working in SEND face. We wanted a way to support these hardworking professionals - which is why we launched The SENDcast! Find out more about how B Squared can help improve assessment for pupils with SEND in your school.

If you missed the Tes SEND Show last week - or were there but couldn't make every session - this is worth a listen.
 
This is a special episode recorded live at the show, where Dale was joined by Samantha, founder of Journey With Me and an independent SEND advisor with over 20 years' experience working across early years and primary settings.
 
Sam was at the show delivering a session on emotional regulation through the lens of neurodivergence, and the conversation covers a lot of ground from that session and beyond.
 
Dale and Sam explore why co-regulation must always come before self-regulation, how neurodivergence presents so differently in girls and boys - and why girls are identified so much later as a result - and why understanding fight, flight, freeze, and fawn matters for anyone supporting neurodivergent children.
 
They also have a fascinating conversation about neurodivergent play: why no play is wrong, what schema play tells us about how children are developing, and why a child who lines up cars or spins wheels rather than building a track is still fully engaged - and deserves to be met where they are, not redirected to where we think they should be.
 
Sam also shares the thinking behind her brand name, Journey With Me - and why her role, as she sees it, is not to pull children towards a fixed destination, but to join them on their own path.
About Samantha Asher
Samantha Asher has over 20 years, experience of working with children across the early years and primary education sectors. She previously led an early years team, that was dedicated to supporting children across the Early Years, and Key Stage One with characteristics of emerging SEND.
Samantha Asher is the founder of Journey with me, an independent SEND support service, offering support to Early Years and Primary settings. Her work is rooted in a strengths-based approach, that is dedicated to supporting every child, based on their own unique profile.
Samantha is committed to delivering high quality, flexible support that considers the needs of the children, families and the wider school community. Samantha works closely with educators, understanding the realities and pressures of school life, and is committed to offering practical, manageable and effective strategies. She believes that building strong relationships are at the heart of inclusion and is dedicated to helping practitioners feel confident and supported, enabling every learner to thrive!
About the Tes SEND Show
The Tes SEND Show is the UK's largest event dedicated to special educational needs and disabilities, bringing together teachers, SENCOs, school leaders, therapists and parents for two days of CPD, seminars and exhibitors.
This series brings you short summaries of some of the 2026 seminar programme, recorded on site in our pop-up podcast studio. A new episode lands every Tuesday for eight weeks.
https://tessendshow.co.uk/
https://thesendcast.com/tes-send-show-special-episodes/ 
B Squared Website – www.bsquared.co.uk 
Meeting with Dale to find out about B Squared - https://calendly.com/b-squared-team/overview-of-b-squared-sendcast 
Email Dale – dale@bsquared.co.uk 
Subscribe to the SENDcast - https://www.thesendcast.com/subscribe
The SENDcast is powered by B Squared
We have been involved with Special Educational Needs for over 25 years, helping show the small steps of progress pupils with SEND make. B Squared has worked with thousands of schools, we understand the challenges professionals working in SEND face. We wanted a way to support these hardworking professionals - which is why we launched The SENDcast! Find out more about how B Squared can help improve assessment for pupils with SEND in your school.

Behaviour policies were never designed to be a log of misery. But for too many children, that's exactly what they've become.
In this episode, Dale is joined by Adam Hayes, Managing Director of Therapeutic Thinking, to discuss behaviour policies - and what it would actually take to make them work for every child.
Adam brings extensive experience across social care and education, and a refreshingly honest perspective on why so many schools are still punishing children for having an unmet need rather than helping them address it.
Together, they explore: 
- Why behaviour policies too often focus entirely on deficit - what children aren't doing - rather than building a shared understanding of what we value and why.
- What a behaviour curriculum actually is, and why it's the missing piece that turns a policy from a document on a shelf into something that's lived and breathed across a school.
- Why children should be taught why a rule exists, not just expected to follow it.
- Why every interaction is an intervention, and why children need to feel liked, loved, respected, or safe before behaviour change can happen.
- The problem with rewarding 100% attendance.
- Why we need bold children who ask why — and what we lose when we train that instinct out of them. 
"Experiences lead to feelings, and feelings create behaviours. If my intervention wouldn't work in the staff room, why do I think it will work in the classroom?"
Adam Hayes
A candid, thought-provoking, and at times genuinely funny conversation that will make you look at behaviour very differently.
About Adam Hayes
Adam has extensive experience in both Social Care and Education, both mainstream and SEND, having worked across the full range of ages and stages of education. He joined Therapeutic Thinking Ltd. from his role with Hertfordshire County Council.
During his time with Hertfordshire Adam held a range of roles including Area Manager for Integrated Services for Learning, County Inclusion Lead, and Behaviour Advisor and Hertfordshire Therapeutic Thinking County Lead. Adam has a solution-focused approach which ensures that young people are at the centre of all that he does. This child centred work has been positively recognised by the stakeholders he works with. Adam has become the managing director of Therapeutic Thinking and as such is taking this positive, well considered approach forward and sharing it more widely with Local Authorities, Trusts and standalone schools.
B Squared Website – www.bsquared.co.uk 
Meeting with Dale to find out about B Squared - https://calendly.com/b-squared-team/overview-of-b-squared-sendcast 
Email Dale – dale@bsquared.co.uk 
Subscribe to the SENDcast - https://www.thesendcast.com/subscribe
The SENDcast is powered by B Squared
We have been involved with Special Educational Needs for over 25 years, helping show the small steps of progress pupils with SEND make. B Squared has worked with thousands of schools, we understand the challenges professionals working in SEND face. We wanted a way to support these hardworking professionals - which is why we launched The SENDcast! Find out more about how B Squared can help improve assessment for pupils with SEND in your school.