Become equipped with the knowledge, skills, and deep understanding to deliver an ambitious and achievable 3-year diversity, equity, and inclusion plan in your organisation
The programme for Principals, Headteachers, CFOs, and School Leaders
As an organisation, you want to not only be confident in your diversity, equity, and inclusion work but have a skilful and well-versed team who can enact their ambitions for DEI securely.
If you’ve heard your staff say they lack confidence in talking about diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice matters because they do not have strong DEI literacy, it’s up to you to make a change.
Understandably, without proper training, your team has a collective anxiety about unintentionally offending people with minoritised identities.
Especially when every now and then a complaint comes in, you hear whispers of discontent from a staff member who doesn’t feel they truly belong, or you hear from a pupil or a parent regarding glitches in the culture that give the impression that diversity, equity, and inclusion are not priorities.
These things stir up fear that procedural blank spots may lead to people with minoritised identities having less than satisfactory experiences.
It’s time to terminate the inadequate and outdated policies that do not accurately reflect your DEI ambitions and acquire the training that allows your organisation to move forward confidently.
If the goal of your organisation is to attract a great pipeline of staff from diverse backgrounds and ensure that your diverse student body thrives, you need a plan.
Oftentimes, organisations have no strategic plan in place for DEI and, consequently, do not know where to start.
This programme is how you achieve a culture that becomes your best advert.
You will be trained to be compliant in all things DEI. You’ll end up with a solid strategic plan, excellent procedures and practices, and a suite of DEI-related policies that will protect your community and ensure they thrive.
The Being Luminary Programme will support leaders in building a culture to be proud of in which everyone feels a sense of belonging.
This programme addresses minoritised identities and the intersections between them. It takes a holistic account of all identities so that you can shape a strategy that ensures belonging for all.
This programme relies on the wisdom of many, not the energies and ingenuity of the few. It is built as a group programme so you can get to know your team better and learn about each others’ identities and value systems as they apply to DEI collaboratively.
In both content and approach, this teaches the assembled how to create a culture to be proud of.
“Having the opportunity to really reflect on my own lived experience and the experience of others.”
“I love that we have dedicated time to explore these complex issues. I like how Angela keeps our discussion points concise by offering 3 main elements to discuss. This is helpful because often the topics we discuss in break-out rooms are so complex you can find yourself going off in different directions.”
Here’s what’s included in this programme:
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(*Sex, Pregnancy, and Maternity)
This session includes but is not limited to key debates regarding sex discrimination and harassment in the workplace, pregnancy, menopause and intersectionality.
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(*Race)
Indicative content: The critical debates regarding the protected characteristic of race covering key terminology, input on structural racism, and a small essential reading list.
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(*Sexual Orientation)
Indicative content: Critical debates regarding the protected characteristic of sexual orientation covering a short history of LGBTQ rights from Section 28 through to current SRE guidance and implications for leadership.
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(*Disability)
Indicative content: Critical debates regarding the protected characteristic of disability covering key terminology, input on models of disability and resources to support workplace improvements.
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(*Trans Inclusion)
Indicative content: Critical debates regarding trans inclusion covering the trends in transphobic hate, a glossary of terms to support trans and non-binary stakeholder inclusion and a range of contemporary debates to put into the organisational context.
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(*Religion, Belief and Socio-Economic Status)
Indicative content: Key debates regarding religion and belief, islamophobia, anti-semitism hate crimes targeting people of faith, the missing protected characteristic of poverty.
We also recommend
Whole Staff Keynote:
This keynote, which addresses all staff in the organisation, takes somewhat of a narrative lens and amplifies the power of personal stories and high-profile cases to create a compelling and often moving session.
It is delivered in an interactive style and expected to be provoked, challenged, and leave energised and galvanised. There is also encouragement for your staff to take an (optional) survey and a curriculum audit to support you in gathering crucial data on your workforce.
Your organisation will also receive our signature and proprietary resources. You will not find these anywhere else:
The Being Luminary Staff Survey and Analysis
The Being Luminary Belonging Framework
The Being Luminary Policy Analysis Toolkit
Plus, a bonus: Being Luminary Curriculum Audit
To support curriculum leaders across all subject areas to audit their curriculum and check belonging and representation across several protected identities.
Meet your facilitator, Angela Browne
My passion for creating schools where everybody feels confident bringing their identity to the forefront arises out of my own experience.
As a child, I was often the only brown face in a sea of white ones, and although I loved school, the many incidences of racism, the microaggressions, and the culture that I had to navigate alone could have so easily been improved.
When I moved into school leadership, I was at the receiving end of many microaggressions and slights, but I was one of the lucky ones; this didn't significantly impact my ability to progress to school leadership.
Since 2001, I have strategically led DEI training in organisations and spent 18 years working in a diverse range of schools. First, as a Head of English and, more recently, as Interim Deputy CEO of a semi-rural, multi-academy trust.
I committed at that point to support other people in organisations who held protected characteristics by improving the culture of belonging—The Being Luminary Programme is part of this commitment.
Each session inside the programme is clearly focused on one or two characteristics with a structured approach to developing a foundational understanding of the issues, debates, and vocabulary.
We use the Being Luminary Belonging Framework to build leadership skills in reflective practice and inclusive planning. The balance of coaching, teaching, and co-creating a sustainable strategy means that you are left with the confidence to move forward once our work together draws to a close.
My ambition is that luminary practice is nurtured from within and that your organisation becomes a leading light for others.
“The personalised delivery is excellent, as is the ability to reflect on our current practices.”
“Elements of diversity that I have felt of great importance have been highlighted, which reassures me about my own practice, but equally, being encouraged to self-reflect has opened up new opportunities for me.
The opportunity to come together and focus on specific protected characteristics, having a decent amount of time together, and to learn from Angie's knowledge, the materials and small and big group sessions. Angie is holding a large group very well opportunities to explore a wide range of information on specific aspects of DEI and being able to come to our own decisions about what is required in our Trust.”
This programme takes an intentionally different approach to what you might have tried in the past.
What I find most often is organisations have pieced together different pieces of training and “solutions,” such as:
Engaging in training modules that have educated you on some of the institutional challenges facing people with minoritised identities.
Employing a DEI lead, but this person finding it difficult to know where to start and get traction with the wider staff.
Enrolling key members of the SLT on training programs, but without the whole team on board, finding it becomes difficult to embed and sustain the practice learned. (This is why the keynote is essential.)
Holding focused INSET days and having meeting times directed towards training and development of DEI practice but noting that it hasn’t led to anything sustainable.
Running book clubs for staff, and running some societies for students like the LGBTQ Society and the BAME Society, but realising these are disparate and need drawing together more strategically.
This programme is designed to support organisations in developing the language and context for powerful conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion.
Everyone is welcome, and everyone will finish this work confident in approaching challenging conversations.
The Being Luminary Approach
The approach is always human-first. DEI work does not work when some outliers and sceptics feel like they sit outside the work scope or when people feel too much discomfort or fear to engage.
As an experienced coach, I am skilled at eliciting the stories, challenges, and blank spots of stakeholders across the organisation to ensure that everyone feels inspired to drive the work forward, all in a container of no guilt, no shame and no blame.
I bring over two decades of experience in Headship and marry my passion for DEI with the pragmatics of fitting it strategically into an already crammed leadership agenda.
I have been a Headteacher in mainstream education, an alternative provision, in an all-through school, and I worked as a leader in special education.
My diverse experience in teaching, leading, and managing gives me a unique perspective on leaders' shared challenges in today’s organisations.
This programme is best suited for
organisations that are:
Ready to deepen their understanding of their different stakeholder groups.
Excited to begin strategically planning with the safety and belonging of minoritised groups in mind.
Eager to illuminate their blank spots to improve the culture for all.
This programme is NOT for organisations that are:
Looking for quick solutions for immediate problems. This is a 6-8 month commitment; there are no quick wins or simple solutions.
Unable to commit their leadership teams to this work. We aim to train staff at all levels, so senior and executive teams are vital to our success.
Not ready to make a time commitment both in and between sessions. We know things come up, but immersion in the programme will generate the highest levels of success and engagement.
“Angie worked with our Trust to deliver DEI training over the course of the academic year, to raise awareness around the nine protected characteristics.”
“Angie's training is evidenced based, thought-provoking and subtle. She puts the needs of those who are protected characteristics at the heart of the training. Trust participants, including staff, governors and Trustees, were offered a fresh perspective to consider and a safe environment to ask questions and discuss ideas. Much of Angie's training was educational and provided participants with a new understanding and vocabulary around some of the protected characteristics.
Every school and Trust would benefit from this training, both as an employer and educational establishment. Highly recommended!”
Jo Coton, CEO/Executive Headteacher
Frequently Asked Questions:
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These DEI intensives consist of six live 2-hour sessions, 1 orientation session and 2-3 strategic planing sessions. All session materials are held in our online learning platform, allowing participants to access the learning even when they can not attend live. There are several structured activities to be completed by your team between sessions.
The programme cost is £9000 + VAT, and the cost of the Keynote is £3000 + VAT. The keynote is not a compulsory part of the programme, but it is highly recommended.
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Yes, but the structure of the work is slightly different. Please reach out for further details.
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I flex my support in order that you are provided with the best possible support for your organisation. Stakeholder engagement is thus on request.
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Click here to book your call to get started.
This Programme is underpinned by an array of tools and templates, as well as fundamental staff elements to guarantee success.
This programme will:
Add value to your SLT competence and skill
Contribute to reductions in staff turnover and associated costs of this as you create a culture of belonging for all
Safeguard against discrimination claims and complaints
Contribute to reductions in pupil mobility as you commit to a culture of belonging for all
Unlike other programmes, we do our own data and survey following the keynote. Our comprehensive staff survey means our discussions and initial planning are rooted in what staff need the organisation to do to improve the culture of belonging for all.
We have created the tools to support curriculum review, the development of policies, and a strategic action plan.
This programme is packed with resources and insights that are all available 24/7 on our online platform.
