More Kind Words From Students, Their Parents and Others
“Working with Mark Harrington to create educational resources for the Breck Foundation has been such a rewarding experience. Mark’s positivity and proactivity are always greatly appreciated as getting our messages to as many people as possible is so important, especially considering the added vulnerabilities that special needs present to young people. We look forward to continuing to work together to educate and empower young people to keep safer online.”
Loring La Fave - Founder of the Breck Foundation
“Mark joined the Breck Foundation as a Trustee on 1/1/2020 after he had seen a presentation at his school on the work that the charity does to enable children to live a safer life online and he wanted to be more involved in the charity’s actions and goals.
Mark realised that there was a huge gap in the market for educating children with special educational needs and that this needed to be addressed but in a format that children could easily understand. As a SEN teacher, Mark had the knowledge on how to approach this and he decided to write 2 books, using Breck’s true story as the basis for the storyline.
Mark worked tirelessly to write the books, Breck and the Online Troll and This is Breck, raising all the funding for the illustrations and books himself through Go Fund Me and producing the most stunning books for 2 age groups. Both books are beautifully illustrated and clear to understand. Mark also wrote a play to run alongside the books called Play Virtual, Live Real which is again aimed at educating SEN children and a series of songs which are from the prospective of Breck, his mother Lorin and the murderer.
The books and the play were launched on 9th March 2021 and have received a fantastic response from schools who are using them to educate about online safety and its importance in this world today where children spend more time online than ever before.
The Breck Foundation is incredibly grateful to Mark for all his hard work in making these resources available to children and for giving up so much of his free time to do this, whilst still teaching during the day. They are already proving to be a valuable resource for the charity and are helping to keep the most vulnerable children safe by teaching them the importance of online safety, in a way that they can understand.”
Liz Mason - Chair of Trustees to the Breck Foundation
“It was a joy to work with Mark on a set of drug education resources for SEND young people. Mark brought his professional expertise and experience in special education together with his writing skills, and his commitment to equip his students to make safer choices about drugs. We were so pleased as a drug education charity to be able to commission these two beautiful creative products – a book and a play – and the teaching resources to accompany them. Mark was great to work with – incredibly sensitive in approaching the story of my son, on which the writing is based, and always working so quickly, and always so prompt to respond. We’re proud to have been part of creating these resources which we know will be of huge benefit for neurodiverse young people, who can be differently vulnerable to taking risks, and to their teachers.”
Fiona Spargo - Mabbs - Founder of the DSM Foundation
“It was a joy to work with Mark on a set of drug education resources for SEND young people. Mark brought his professional expertise and experience in special education together with his writing skills, and his commitment to equip his students to make safer choices about drugs. We were so pleased as a drug education charity to be able to commission these two beautiful creative products – a book and a play – and the teaching resources to accompany them. Mark was great to work with – incredibly sensitive in approaching the story of my son, on which the writing is based, and always working so quickly, and always so prompt to respond. We’re proud to have been part of creating these resources which we know will be of huge benefit for neurodiverse young people, who can be differently vulnerable to taking risks, and to their teachers.”
Fiona Spargo - Mabbs - Founder of the DSM Foundation
“Mark is an inspirational teacher at Manor Green College in Ifield. Mark is also the creative genius behind all of the college’s Drama/Creative arts work. Mark is a fantastic role model for staff at the college and regularly gives his time to staff and students. One of his great strengths is his ability to work with a team effectively. He is able to galvanise, inspire and get the best out of teams/adults and students. “