Ask the team

education@nasen.org.uk

Thereisalways asteady stream of questions arriving at nasen House and, of course, the Education Team answers them as soon as possible. But, while many of themare specific to a particular context, the answers to anumber of them could be helpful to the wider nasen membership.‘Ask the team’ provides the space toshare thesequestionsand answers.

If youhaveaquestion, and think the answer wouldbe useful to everyone, please submit it to education@nasen.org.uk Of course, youcan always givenasen House acall too.

Iamcurrently working in amainstream setting and we havereceived anumber of children with hearing impairments. We haveapproached the local authority forsupport but thereisnospecialist teacher of the deaf in place. HowdoI go about contacting one, or training one of our staff to become aqualified teacher of the deaf?

SENCO, Richmond https://bit.ly/3hPsUEG

This is becoming acommon issue, not just regarding teachers of the deaf, but across specialist teachers and professionals. The number of speech and language therapists, educational psychologists etc. has been decreasing while demand is increasing. The statistics show that there has been a reduction of 17 per cent in the number of qualified teachers of the deaf since 2011. Below is alink to the British Association of Teachers of Deaf Children and Young People (BATOD), who will be able to provide further information on the routes to qualification and how you may go about recruiting or finding asuitable professional in your area.

We havebeen looking into supporting children with sensory issues to find the best wayof working within the classroom and havetried avariety of tools and equipment. Is thereany research that backs up the impact that changing the environment has on children’slearning?

SENCO, Wakefield

This is aparticularly interestingarea of research, mostly focusing on the impacton those childrenwithsensoryneeds. Very littlehas been carried outregarding how thesecan be implemented foranyone within theclassroom who may require it, and the effect that this

During anti-bullying week last year,I was staggered by thehigh percentage (70 per cent) of people whoreported hearing disablist language withintheir setting. This wasnot something Ihad considered an issue,and I wasshocked by howhigh thepercentagewas. Arethere anyresources we canuse to support ourpupils to understand theirpeers?

Inclusion Lead, London

Talking to peers about disability and special educational needs is an area that has had less focus than it deserves. As asectorwehave ensured that staffare trained in the understanding of different needs and the language to use, but we tend not to offer the same to young people. In response to the statistics, the Anti-Bullying Alliance has created six shortfilms to supportschools in challenging disablist bullying. One of the modules in the Whole School has.Most research aroundsensory processing happens in the therapeutic environment. We did havea case presentedaroundthis area at nasen Live by one of the team of Whole-School SEND regional leadswho, with theCentre forResearch in Autism Education (CRAE), has undertaken astudy around flexible seating and its impactonthosewith defined sensory needs and those without.Interestingly,this study utilised student voice in all aspects and is interesting to consider when thinking about sensoryneeds in your specificsetting.Google Scholar produces arange of research, link below https://bit.ly/3ZE4eAy– Google Scholar search https://bit.ly/3tEEPro –challenging disablistbullying short films https://bit.ly/3AraLmV –autism resourcesuite https://bit.ly/3gjF9ce –the language we use nc www.nasen.org.uk

SEND Autism Resource suite focuses on promoting autism-inclusive attitudes, aims to raise awareness in primaryand secondarysettingsand was codeveloped with young people. There is also agreat presentation aimed at developing positive language across the setting as awhole; this may supportstaff to model appropriate interactions.