SENDcast Spotlight – Welcome Jo Clayton and Natalie Lauren!

Jo is a screenwriter, storyteller and ex-educator from South London. She’s worked for Shakespeare’s Globe, Great Ormond Street Hospital, BBC Studios and the Royal Festival Hall, as well as hundreds of schools, nurseries and community groups in the UK and abroad. She’s also a mum and campaigner for educational rights for all children, regardless of need or ability.

Jo wrote the script for Unauthorised Absence, a short film that puts Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) on screen in a way that has never been done before, and is campaigning to end school fines and prosecutions.

Jo is currently researching a new project and would like to talk to primary school teachers, TAs and heads about the way their work impacts them personally, their experience of Ofsted, how the job has changed, and what they’d like to see in the future of the education system.

Natalie Lauren is an award-winning actor, filmmaker and mentor from Norfolk, selected for the BFI NETWORK x Film Hub South East Future Producers programme in 2024. She has produced a range of short films across drama, comedy and experimental filmmaking which have screened at numerous BIFA-, BAFTA- and Academy Award-qualifying festivals. She is particularly drawn to psychologically driven stories that explore complex social issues and the human experience.

Unauthorised Absence (British Short Film Award Shortlist, 2026) brings together this work with her experience as an education mentor to children outside of mainstream education, for which she was awarded for Commitment to Educational Equity in 2025.