PDA Society Training Hub

Jilly also worked for the National Autistic Society Schools’ (NAS) and was the assistant head and specialist PDA teacher for Robert Ogden specialist school and continues to consult for the school in retirement. In 2004 she was given the responsibility of developing and managing a learning environment within the school to cater for children who have been excluded from a range of educational provision and to develop good autism practice to meet the needs of young people with complex autism profiles including Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA). Jilly has presented at the NAS PDA conferences and delivered training for the NAS regarding educational approaches for working with PDA children.

Ceri has been the Head of School at a large urban primary school for the last 7 years. Prior to this post Ceri had worked in a number of challenging schools and supported other schools in their district with their behaviour policies and procedures. Having raised two Autistic step children she also has the personal daily insight that enables her to support parents with relevant lived experience. Her recent Ofsted inspection deemed behaviour and attitudes at the school to be outstanding. She has a passion for appropriate behaviour management approaches in schools and received a Pearson Silver Teaching award linked to this in 2017.

Sandy has been working in the field of special education for 35 years. She is currently Principal of The Link school in the borough of Sutton, part of the Orchard Hill College and Academy Trust. Having come across increasing numbers of children with a demand avoidant profile painfully trying to squeeze into our school systems she has guided her school to set up an alternative pathway to match the profile learning style and enable the young people to flourish within a school setting. She is working with other key professionals and organisations to help them think outside the box for young people with PDA and to spread the message that small adaptions can have life changing results.