Bernie Henderson

Senior Teacher Adviser (SEN/ICT)

Bernie is a Senior Teacher Adviser (SEN/ICT) with the Baglan IT Centre in South Wales. He is responsible for the assessment of children with individual needs across the breadth of difficult and impairment. In addition, he is responsible for the support and training of all staff, (teachers and non-teachers) across the 200 schools in the area.

Bernie has used ICT to support the learning of children since 1980. He was appointed to the Advisory Service of West Glamorgan in 1982 with a responsibility for children with special educational needs. In the same year he formed a self help group for teachers, parents, students, educational psychologists and therapists called Microelectronic Aids In Special Education (MAISE). The group generated early software which it made available nationally free of charge and encouraged the development of the later 'Blue File' material used by the four SEMERCs. He was responsible for the development of a number of packages in the Scottish 'MicroSpecial' pack of software and was heavily involved in the regional SEMERC network from their beginning.

In 1988 he was invited to be a Course Director for the training of new ESG advisory teachers in the South West and in 1990 and 1991 he was one of the National Directors of the four national residential SEN/IT advisory teacher training courses. He has contributed to many national and regional conferences and is a very experienced training provider.

He was a member of the Welsh Office National Curriculum Special Needs Panel and has trained as an Estyn School Inspector in Wales. He also co-ordinates the South West and South Wales Special Needs Information Technology Consultancy that meets in Bristol once a term.

More widely, his awareness of technological change has led to him representing Wales on the PICT (ICT project within the European Socrates Programme) Steering Committee at the British Council in 1998/99 and the National Interactive Video Steering Committee for Education in1991/92.

Recently, the Republic of Ireland National Agency for ICT (NCTE) invited him to Dublin to address a conference of the country's thirty ICT advisers on ICT and Special Educational Needs.

A parent of three children and an experienced school governor, he was once a keen sportsman, however he now restricts his out of hours energy to golf and singing in two local choirs.

Training providers

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