Support for LEANS: The LEANS Champions programme

About the LEANS Champions programme

LEANS Champions are experienced education professionals with specialised LEANS training, who have generously volunteered to support and advise other educators in the UK and Ireland. They represent a range of roles, schools, and communities.

LEANS Champions have four roles: 

1. Awareness: To raise awareness of the LEANS programme and importance of neurodiversity education among other education professionals.  
2. Adoption: To encourage considered, ethical choices about adopting LEANS. 
3. Support: To provide advice and model good practice in LEANS delivery. 
4. Connection: To help connect educators using LEANS with each other. 

Champions can offer help based on their professional experience and knowledge of the LEANS programme—but they can’t make decisions or deliver LEANS on your behalf. Speaking to a Champion may be especially helpful for schools and teachers who are adopting/delivering LEANS for the first time, or educators who do not yet have a local community of practice around this topic.

This programme is starting small, as a pilot in 2023. All Champions are volunteers. Help us to help you by reading the guidance below BEFORE contacting any Champions!

Currently, the Champions only offer support to educators and community members in the UK and Ireland. They will not be able to answer queries from other parts of the world.

Checklist: What to try before contacting a Champion

Please stop and read this guidance before going on. You may be able to answer your LEANS question right now, with our existing resources! We have extensive, free guidance on this website and in the LEANS resource pack itself. 

Champions contact checklist

Please don’t contact a Champion for advice/support unless you have already done the following:

1. Downloaded the free LEANS resource pack, and reviewed the Teacher Handbook. The handbook is the most important source of LEANS information. Try Part 1 for an overview or refresher of what’s involved in the LEANS programme. Download it as part of the free resource pack.
2. Checked our FAQs section to see if we’ve already answered your question.
3. Read the LEANS terms of use, which explain what is and isn’t allowed when using and sharing the materials.
4. Checked our ‘LEANS list’ which lists and links to the many other types of LEANS and neurodiversity-related information available through the website or as free downloadable documents.

Still stuck after the checklist? How Champions can help

If you’ve tried the checklist of steps above and still need further guidance, you might ask a LEANS Champions for advice and support about…

• Strategically talking to colleagues about adopting LEANS, or more generally about neurodiversity and education
• The LEANS self-evaluation process (in Teacher handbook), if you’re deciding about adopting the programme
• Understanding or applying the guidance in the Teacher Handbook
• Safety and ethics issues around neurodiversity teaching
• Challenges/questions that have come up as you are delivering LEANS
• How different staff members can work together to adopt and deliver LEANS

These are ideas, not an exhaustive list!

If you can’t find an answer to your LEANS question and think a Champion might be able to advise you, please reach out.

Champions and other LEANS project team members are not able to advise educators or families about supporting individual children at school, or help with issues such as diagnoses or securing supports. This is outside of our remit. Thank you for your understanding.

Contacting a Champion

Please choose one Champion/Champions team to contact, based on your location (Scotland, England, Wales, ROI). In NI? See our note about support.

Some Champions have listed special areas of expertise. For example, rural schools or fee-paying schools. This may help you decide who to contact with your query.

All initial contact is by e-mail.

Individuals or teams have indicated whether or not you can request to schedule a call with them. Some Champions are also open to event and speaking invitations related to LEANS and neurodiversity teaching (see individual listings).

Please do…

• Start with the checklist above before-mailing anyone, to see if LEANS has already answered your question elsewhere! 
• Mail only one Champion or Champions Team at a time, not the whole list.
• Include “LEANS Champions” in your subject line, to help them find your query.
• State your location and question up-front, to help them judge if they can help.

Remember that Champions’ availability will vary, around their main roles. If you have a time-sensitive query, contacting a Champion may not be realistic; we would encourage you to please ask local colleagues.

A Champion may sometimes pass your query to another Champion or directly to the LEANS research team. Or, they may let you know it’s outside our remit.

Reminder: the Champions programme only offers support to educators and community members in the UK and Ireland. They will not be able to answer queries from other parts of the world.