When you speak with Catrin Eyers, you immediately meet a headteacher who refuses to let isolation limit ambition. Leading West Durham Junior School, a standalone local authority-maintained primary in rural Norfolk, she serves a community where half of pupils are eligible for pupil premium, 22 have Education Health and Care Plans to support their special needs, and a third are on the SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) register. Catrin has built improvement in her school through curiosity, collaboration and intentional professional learning. Discovering Challenge Partners has given her a national network to learn from, contribute to and grow alongside.
Last year we undertook the SEND Developmental Peer Review for the first time, working as a trio with two very different schools in Barking and Dagenham and Ealing. On paper we had little in common, but that diversity became our greatest strength. The protected time for heads and SENCOs to visit each other’s schools was genuinely invaluable, with even the train journeys becoming space to think.
We began with a tough, honest self-evaluation, but the real transformation happened in the triad conversations. With seven leaders in the room (two from each school and the Lead Facilitator), we were challenged, supported and often encouraged to recognise strengths we had overlooked. It was a safe space without ever being soft.
Seeing each other’s schools gave us detailed and strategic insights: leadership structures, inclusion models, Teaching Assistant deployment and approaches to commissioning Educational Psychology and Occupational Therapy. We magpied ideas shamelessly, from highly strategic Occupational Therapy use to superbly embedded colourful semantics. We shared our own Daily Inclusion Plans, compared books as an internal moderation exercise, and picked up tiny but brilliant practicalities, such as keeping an Ofsted “where-are-they-up-to” tracker.
The process created a true professional community. We left each visit buzzing, and even when Dame Sue John (Executive Director of Challenge Partners) attended, it still felt like a place where you could openly say, “We are not there yet” and get honest, useful answers.
We made immediate changes. We invested in InPrint (software for creating accessible learning and communication materials) to help teachers adapt materials quickly, and we reshaped our Educational Psychology contract to include more Occupational Therapist time. This has led to targeted sensory diets and sharper routines for pupils with additional needs.
The whole-cohort event also shifted something fundamental in my thinking: moving beyond the old binary of mainstream versus special. More children with complex needs are in mainstream, and our job is to be truly inclusive. This has filtered through staff practice, with more neurodiversity-friendly environments, from wobble cushions and fiddle tools, to flexible timetables and a low-stimulation room.
Although new to Challenge Partners, the impact has been significant. I have taken part in Quality Assurance Reviews in Liverpool and Nottingham, and the combination of protected time, open challenge, and the freedom to magpie good ideas has already made our provision stronger. I genuinely cannot think of a single negative.