Specialist SEND Educator · 40+ Years
Claire
Inclusion, Music & Creative Practice
In a career spanning over forty years, Claire brings passion and joy to the world of SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) and music education. Her unwavering commitment to inclusion, creativity, and meeting the needs of every individual has been the driving force behind everything she does.
A qualified UK SEND educator and graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, Claire has held roles as a class teacher and music teacher across mainstream, special and inclusive schools, and other learning, therapeutic and medical environments. Her teaching experience spans individuals from the age of 1 to young adults of 25 — and she has led creative, sensory and wellbeing workshops with groups ranging from a single participant to more than 500 people.
Her educational philosophy is rooted in music, incorporating movement, sensory processing and integration, and intercultural, cross-curricular activity — using a variety of educational and therapeutic skills to include individuals with a wide range of intellectual and physical abilities, while addressing the wellbeing, mental health and resilience of everyone in the room.
For over 25 years Claire has also trained fellow educators and therapists. Her retirement from full-time UK teaching in early 2020 marked the start of a new chapter: sharing her knowledge with professionals in Ghana and the USA. She has facilitated training and support in Ghana since 2005, working with staff, children and young people aged 4 to 21 across educational, therapeutic and medical settings — and in Atlanta, Georgia, she works with pre-school children aged 0 to 5. Claire currently spends six months of the year in Ghana and three in the USA.
For more than 25 years, Claire has developed global-citizenship and international projects in Ghana and across Europe, including grants and funding from the British Council's Global Partnerships programme — pioneering global-citizenship and international work in SEND and inclusive education.
How She Works
Collaborative Training
Claire works directly with children and young people alongside their teachers, carers and therapists — sharing skills, activities and lessons in real practical scenarios, not lectures.
Multi-Disciplinary Teams
She collaborates with MDTs to develop schemes of work, lesson plans, Individual Learning Plans (ILPs), Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and behaviour plans — and builds bespoke paperwork that fits existing systems.
Nipadua Creative Practice
Alongside Ananse Nipadua, Claire develops creative practice spanning theatre, music and education that asks searching questions in a quest for social and environmental change — part of the Foundation's work.
In the Field — Ghana & the USA
Rooted in this heritage, the Nipadua work invites audiences to see themselves as part of one living tree, where the wellbeing of every single branch, root, or leaf is inseparable from the health of the whole. It speaks to interconnectedness and community, and to recognising that difference is beautiful.
Onipa baako nsa nkata Nyame ani — "One person's hand cannot cover the sky." It takes many hands, working together in their difference, to accomplish what one alone cannot.
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