ACE Tiverton’s Hannah features in new Podcast

Hannah Smart, Head Teacher at ACE Tiverton, part of Transforming Futures Trust, has been interviewed on the popular Teaching Schools South West podcast.

Hannah, who has been at Tiverton since the school opened in September 2019, was asked onto the podcast to talk about how to teach relationship, sex and health education in a school catering for young people with a diagnosis of autism or a social, emotional or mental health need. The school has 62 students covering years seven to 11. So what did Hannah say about RSHE in Tiverton? “We always start with the young people; where they have come from, what background they have experienced, what their life in mainstream education was like. And then we draw out themes that can be discussed on the RSHE curriculum, but always based around them. So some of our young people with autism are happy to talk about, for example, personal hygiene and showering – it is just a process of them gathering information. But for others with social or emotional challenges, the very fact of having such a conversation can be very difficult. We have to be flexible.” Hannah was interviewed by Lisa Whitworth, Project Director at South West Institute for Teaching. She said “It was great to have Hannah on the pod. Her unique experience and expertise - and the examples she gave about teaching RSHE in a special school – were both interesting and very useful to our listeners.” Gavin Gracie is the Chief Executive of Transforming Futures Trust. He said: “Our schools are full of experts; teachers and leaders with incredible insight and knowledge. I’m very glad that Hannah was able to do the podcast and I am sure her thoughts would have been extremely helpful to teachers in all schools.”