Watch the webinar
Over the past four years, Anthony Benedict, CEO of Ambition Community Trust, has pioneered a transformative approach to school culture through his development of the Relational Inclusion model. Rooted in empathy, connection, and systemic change, this model has been piloted across an 18-month research project with Victorious Academies and The Laural Trust - yielding powerful insights and practical strategies for schools nationwide.
In this on-demand webinar, Anthony shared the key findings from the research pilot and explored how Relational Inclusion can reshape ethos, leadership, and student engagement in meaningful and measurable ways.
What we explored
Guiding principles: the foundational values that underpin Relational Inclusion and how they translate into everyday school life.
Leadership buy-in: why senior leadership commitment is essential, and how to nurture it.
Student profiling: tools and techniques for understanding students beyond academic data.
RICs (Relational Inclusion Champions): the role of trained champions in embedding inclusive practices across the school.
Impact: what’s working, what’s shifting, and how it’s being measured.
Policy review and key vocabulary: how language and policy can reinforce or undermine inclusion.
Honest reflections from the pilot: successes, challenges, and what’s next.
Our speaker
Anthony Benedict, CEO, Ambition Community Trust
Anthony has been a qualified teacher for 27 years. He started his career as an English teacher and has worked in five different authorities and held senior roles, predominantly in secondary education, in six different schools. He holds a National Professional Qualification in Executive Leadership and a Diploma in trauma and mental health.
Roughly five years ago he left mainstream education for alternative provision. It seemed to him that the school system was “losing” too many children, even when some of them were hidden in plain sight. He had recognised that if children were tired or hungry or scared then they weren’t going to be able to learn. He had a simple idea that if schools could meet these very basic needs, it might help prevent some of the so-called behavioural problems that were so prevalent and seemed to escalate so quickly.
After his first day in charge of a Pupil Referral Unit, he realised that he needed to unlearn all he had previously thought about how schools work and start again. He fell down what he likes to refer to as a trauma and attachment rabbit hole and hasn’t looked back since.
He has become unashamedly evangelical about what he has learnt in terms of neuroscience and childhood brain development and cannot believe that anyone who wants to work in schools or with children isn’t provided with this as prerequisite training before they are taught how to teach.
He has spent the last four years developing Relational Inclusion and has worked with anyone and everyone who is prepared to listen including the Violence Reduction Unit, the police, Manchester University, and of course primary, secondary, and special schools and PRUs.
His book, Educating Everyone – an introduction to relational inclusion will be on sale from April 2025
