Hello Everyone,

We are just a few months away from our gathering in Washington, D.C. I wanted to reach out now, as while our individual planning efforts are progressing well, it’s crucial that we align our approaches to ensure consistency across all offerings. Unlike traditional conferences, our event requires a unified language and philosophy. 

We also need to gather all of our resources so we can set up our SENIA Academy platform, where all of these will be stored.

To achieve all of this, I am sharing some key expectations and due dates leading up to our meeting.

Institute Agenda

This is a basic agenda for each day of the institute. We are in the process of gathering survey results from our participants to help determine how many electives need to be duplicated, which size rooms are needed, etc. Once these needs are determined, we will provide you with a detailed agenda.

*Andrew and Lauren, as your sessions are mandatory and offered twice, you know your schedule, which is Tuesday- Friday from 10:30-12:00 during Block 2.

• Block One: Opening Remarks & Ignite Speech
• Block Two: Core Course block
• Block Three: Elective block 
• Block Four: Facilitated team time to work on policies, procedures, and plans moving forward
• Block Five: School Spotlight Presentation
• Block Six: Team reflection and planning

Language

Please review our “SENIA Language Matters” resource. This ensures we use and model language that represents the wishes of the people we support. 

We use “Identity First Language” and will model this throughout the week. We also use the Office of Overseas Schools guide when discussing students. Rather than, “A student with significant needs,” we would say, “A student requiring a high level of support.”

Protocols

We want to ensure that our participants are introduced to good quality protocols during our sessions as well as be able to use some of those protocols in their self-directed team time.

Kim Bane and Jason Hicks developed this protocol resource for us. When determining your protocols, feel free to choose from this list or use one of your own. 

Timeline

Individual Consultations

After attending our sessions and understanding our expertise, school teams may wish to “book us” for their team sessions during blocks 4 and 6. A low-tech poster sign-up for these blocks will be available. Please be available during these times to consult with schools.

Materials & What to Bring

Each room WILL HAVE the following:

• Projector & Screen
• Chart paper
• Markers
• Post Its
• Pens

Rooms WILL NOT HAVE the following (please bring these items if you need):

• Dongles, Charging Cords, Laptop/Device Specific HDMI Cables
• Bluetooth speaker for videos (If you do not have one, let me know)

Would you like to request an item?

We understand that some sessions may require additional setup or equipment. You may use this form to request extra items for your session/s.

⚠️ Please note: We have limited funds and availability for extra materials and tech, so we may not be able to fulfill all requests. We encourage you to request only items essential to your presentation. We’ll do our best to accommodate based on availability, budget, and priority.

Thank you for your continued excitement and hard work you’re putting into this institute, which is sure to be transformative for our participants!

Sincerely,

Lori