And the Summer Term begins…..
The past term has enabled lots of the Autumn Training ideas to be embedded across the school.
It is so nice to see ‘Communicate in Print’ being used in a variety of classrooms. In particular, one teacher and her teaching assistant team are using this resource in every display and the majority of their lessons; they are thinking carefully about how they can support the needs of all their pupils. After the ITS Spring SENCO Hub, I returned to school and created Work-Stations (using Communicate in Print) for three pupils within school who were struggling with focus and behaviour within classrooms. These have been very successful in supporting, not just the focus and learning of these pupils but also reducing the distractions for their peers within the class. Sharing good practice will be the focus on my next training, so all staff can see these resources in use, the ease of creating them and the impact on the pupils’ learning. I have also just attended Merton Local Authority training of ‘Lego Therapy’. This has been successfully rolled out to all schools within the borough and I have already planned to ensure all support staff in my school have the skills to run these sessions. I have added to the resources provided using ‘Communicate in Print’, explaining the roles of each participant (Architect, Supplier and Builder) and a clear self evaluation for each job as well. My aim is to film some sessions I deliver with a small group of pupils, to clearly show how ‘Lego Therapy’ can have an impact with our own pupils.
Another big achievement is the use of ’WellComm’, the speech and language screen and follow up intervention, which can be purchased from GL Assessment. We have run this out over our Reception classes, the majority who came in with low CLLD scores. The initial baseline showed that only 15% of pupils were at age expected levels, after one term we had increased this to 36% and after two terms we now stand at 73%. The majority of the remaining children (barring 3 pupils) are working at an amber level for their age group, so we have targeted these pupils being at age related by the end of the summer term. The three pupils who are below these levels are getting more frequent sessions and I’m talking to the parents about referrals to speech therapy.
My aim is to have at least 90-95% of pupils at age expected language levels by the time they enter Year 1 – this should also be reflected in their Early Years profiles.
The Spring term has allowed me time to focus on early identification of pupils with additional needs within our Nursery, this allowed pupils time to settle over the Autumn term and develop their skills. I ensured I allowed time to meet all parents to discuss their children’s successes and challenges, their hopes for the future and what we can do together to support their children in achieving these goals. It was good to have conversations about our local offer and how we can support a whole range of needs starting within our nursery and further up through the whole school.
My first new EHCP assessments were completed and are now ready to be submitted to the local authority. It has been enlightening having lengthy discussions with the parents/carers about their children’s needs and what they aspire for them to achieve later in life. It is empowering to be able to support parents in their aspirations and ensuring the steps along the way to achieve these are clearly signposted.
I attended the London Grid for Learning (Lgfl) conference today, as it was clearly focused on safeguarding and SEND, both of which are part of my roles and responsibilities within school. The Lgfl are trying to incorporate a wider range of resources for SEND pupils online and have already started with a great photo based social stories package for pupils with social communication difficulties. It is called ‘Look Think Do’ and is available on the London Grid for Learning website. These are definitely resources I will be introducing at my school as they are all editable so can be personalised for individual pupils.
SENassist are also working with Lgfl to make their resources available for subscribers from Oct / Nov 2015. If you do not have access to Lgfl, then SEN Assist resources can be brought through their website. I particularly liked the Early Shakespeare resource, which adds symbols above the text to enable pupils with a wide range of special needs to access William Shakespeare’s works.
I subscribe to a variety of magazines and websites so I can stay up to date with new initiatives, new resources and events that are happening. One very useful newsletter I have discovered is ‘Special Needs Information Press’. This is a monthly newsletter, usually about 12 pages long, which is full of up to date information and a whole ream of links to websites for further information. A sample is available on the SNIP website
Obviously the role of a teacher, support staff member, SENCO or Senior Leader continues, no matter the time of year, so lots more to do during this Summer term…
Written by Kay Ottley on behalf of Integrated Treatment Services
