nasen CONNECT November 2022

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Motivation for Reading We discuss some of the methods teachers can use to boost engagement

What does the latest SEN data and EHCP data tell us?

Questions we need to ask, and what we can do as a result

RSE in schools Breaking taboos by providing inclusive sex education for all

EMAIL US: education@nasen.org.uk

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Welcome

By Annamarie Hassall MBE, Chief Executive, nasen

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elcome to the celebratory edition of nasen Connect.

A focus on what stands out, for all the right reasons. A spotlight on practice from across the UK and internationally, role models for inclusion. Back in October, the sixth nasen Awards concluded with an evening of celebration. An annual highlight in the nasen calendar, this year the celebration event was held regionally, in Birmingham, the first one outside London.

The evening was the culmination of many months of coordination, assessing all the nominations we received for 16 awards, and we appreciate the dedication of the independent judges who spent summer weeks reviewing those shortlisted.

I am delighted with the kindness of social media. Our thanks go to you, our 70,000 members and other supporters, for lifting the mood and sharing the moment. The countless messages of congratulations for the winners, individuals and organisations, amplified those examples of practice. I would like to encourage you all to continue to share those with your networks. This edition of Connect magazine shines a well-deserved spotlight on the award winners.

In our 30th Anniversary year of nasen, a Lifetime Contribution award was presented to Alex Griffiths, who served as a trustee and member of nasen throughout that 30-year history.

Addressing the financial barrier to nasen membership, removing a membership fee, was a big decision for nasen. Previously, membership subscriptions provided essential income, enabling production of this nasen Connect magazine, for example.

This makes sponsorship and donations even more crucial. I am delighted to say that support for nasen Awards 2022 was fantastic, with sponsorship for each award category and the event itself. Do look out for more information on the nasen website or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn as we will continue to share the practice while taking an opportunity to say ‘thank you’ to all.

This edition is usually a popular one as it features the nasen digest of the annual SEND data. It would be wonderful to hear that nasen Connect reaches every school, college and setting, can you play a part in sharing this edition with others?

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A CIS Education

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I am delighted with the kindness of social media.

Our thanks go to you, our 70,000 members and other supporters, for lifting the mood and sharing the moment.

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Editorial enquiries: nasen House Tel: 01827 311500 Email: education@nasen.org.uk

While every care has been taken in the compilation of this publication, nasen cannot accept responsibility for any inaccuracies or changes since compilation, or for consequential loss arising from such changes or inaccuracies, or for any other loss, direct or consequential, arising in connection with information in this publication. The views herein are not

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necessarily those of the editor or nasen. Acceptance of advertisements does not imply recommendation by nasen. Not all photographs in nasen depict children with special educational needs.

Many of the photographs are taken in integrated classes. nasen would like to thank all those who have contributed photographs.

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INSIDE

Contents N OV E M B E R 2 0 2 2 / I S S U E 3 6 REGULARS

6 / Membership Focus

43 / Ask the team

7 / Have your say

44 / Reviews

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46 / Events diary

nasen awards

11/ Sector update FEATURES

16 / RSE in schools

Johanna Aiyathurai argues that relationships and sex education (RSE) needs to be prioritised for pupils with SEND.

20 / London Bi-Borough

How the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster City Council have adopted a collaborative approach to drive transformation.

24 / Motivation for reading Miriam McBreen discusses some of the methods teachers can use to boost engagement.

28 / Calm, orderly, safe

and supportive classrooms Miriam Walker looks at the benefits of having such an environment.

31 / The identification of

SEN in Early Years Settings

Mandy Wilding discusses the importance of identifying SEN, examines the role of the SENCO and key person and outlines some effective strategies and support for settings.

34 / Connection, disconnection and digital wellbeing

In a world of ever-increasing digital conection, it is crucial for educators to be able to ‘switch off’, says Lisa Blackett.

37 / All about the data Zoe Mather takes a look at the latest SEND data and considers some of the questions we need to ask, as well as what we can do as a result.

40 / Medicine

optimisation in schools

Is pharmacy part of the solution to a collaborative health and education service delivery model for children and young people in special schools?

Nirusha Govender discusses.

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SECTOR UPDATE

Welcome to November’s Membership Focus e’re delighted to open this month with the exciting announcement of the launch of our partnership with Rockerbox News.

As nasen’s latest headline sponsor, Rockerbox News will work collaboratively alongside us to promote good practice through the networks of schools, academies, practitioners, and all other organisations involved in the delivery of education of children and young people with special educational needs.

To celebrate this new partnership, Rockerbox News is proudly offering members of nasen free and unlimited access to their online non-fiction reading comprehension platforms throughout November in celebration

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of National Non-Fiction month. If you haven’t yet signed up, you can do so by visiting the following link: http://ow.ly/eK2Y50LnKeQ) We are also proud to announce that that nasen LIVE will return to the Vox Conference Centre in Birmingham on 7 July, 2023! We know that many members thoroughly enjoyed 2022’s event and are eager to secure tickets for next year’s show. Early release tickets are NOW available and we have 100 tickets at a reduced rate of £79. Get yours today, at https://www.nasen.org.uk/nasenlive-2023 If your setting requires some more immediate support, then our exclusive members’ area will provide you with access to our online repository of

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Journals Playing to learn: Learning to talk (from the September 2022 edition of the British Journal of Special Education) By: Julia Lindley-Baker and Laura Mills. his article reports on a piece of action research conducted with a class of ten neuro- and physically- diverse pupils, aged five to eight, which aimed to identify an original and comprehensive whole school approach to teaching communication skills.

An innovative structured teaching approach, including videomodelling, was devised – Total Augmented Language and Key Skills (T.A.L.K.S). Using play as the medium to measure children’s progress, impacts of specific interventions were evaluated.

Diagnosis and evaluations were supported by formal assessments of communication competence, completed at the start of the research.

Three communication checklists were used. Progress was measured against these at each review stage of the three cycles, with results categorised as pre-verbal, limited speech or developing speech.

Towards the end of each cycle, five-minute video recordings (VRs) were taken, every half hour, over one school day to capture

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And finally, why not take a few moments to recap on the 2022 nasen Awards Ceremony, which took place on 14 October at the Grand Hotel, Birmingham? We greatly value the overwhelmingly positive feedback that we have received for this celebration of SEND and invite you to find out more about our winners here: https://www.nasen.org.uk/awards

Kind Regards,

The Membership Team

the children at play. Each series of 12 VRs from each cycle were analysed to identify the percentage time each child engaged with different types of play.

This research demonstrated that increasing spontaneous interactions and communication can evolve through individually structured routines promoted through play.

Building communication competence through learning to play requires nurturing relationships between peers and staff alongside building familiarity with selected resources to promote free choice. Transitioning to ‘free, unstructured’ activities demands re-framing staff roles and adjustments from directing to guiding.

Opportunities to form working relationships with each other as a team and with children, need to be fostered first.

In addition, this research identified that when children become engaged in play, classroom anxieties reduce and spontaneous communication increases.

The results of this research also indicate that to achieve inclusive practice and provide opportunities which enable children to reach their full potential, a connected and creative ‘T.A.L.K.S’ approach is worth exploring. In particular, the video modelling element of T.A.L.K.S offers innovative practice in developing communication.

Finally, it is important to note that this research aided rewriting both the school communication curriculum and communication policy. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) was written on ‘play’ and was shared with all staff as the medium to assess spontaneity in communication and interaction in learners.

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resources. Enjoy access to a range of complimentary SEND resources and tools, which are rooted in research and evidence-informed best practice.

Take a look today: https://www.nasen.org.uk/resources

HAVE YOUR SAY

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We would love to hear from you, so please send any comments or letters to education@nasen.org.uk In case your letter is chosen for publication, please include your name and setting.

Don’t forget, you can ‘Have Your Say’ via Facebook and Twitter too.

01827 311500

@nasen_org

@nasen.org

Have Your Say gives you, the reader, a forum to share your thoughts and opinions about current issues in the world of education and SEND. It is also the place to share your reactions to, and thoughts about, what you have read in previous editions of nasen Connect.

Research project

nasen Awards

I wanted to say a big thank you for contacting my school with regards to taking part in a research project. We have thoroughly enjoyed the training and delivering the Social and Emotional Literacy (SEL) programme to our students as part of the research. Our students have benefited a lot from the programme and it was great that we were given all of the resources for free, and paid for taking part!

A real bonus in these cash-strapped times.

Thank you so much for such an inspirational evening that was the nasen Awards. Although I did not win in my category, the night was a real boost to my professional self-esteem and gave me the opportunity to engage with fellow professionals (as well as having a great time). It also gave me a chance to meet the nasen team and I look forward to engaging more in the future and recommending nasen to all my fellow SEN advocates.

Assistant headteacher, Warwick

Editor: Thanks for the feedback.

We oft ften t have project cts t that require students, teachers, parents or whole school recruitment. We are so glad you have found it beneficial and that the programme was useful to your students.

If any other readers are interested in being added to our list of providers willing to be contact cted t with a view to being involved in external project cts, t please follow the link and we will add you to our database.

Shortlisted nominee

Editor: It was our pleasure to meet all the finalists and we agree that it was a fantastic night. The awards remind us how important our role is in providing role models for others. See pages eight and nine for the double spread of the evening at the new awards venue in Birmingham.

Innovation needed I really thought that following the pandemic and the experience of schools with online learning and technology, we would see a shift in thinking to be more innovative, to enable more bespoke access to learning and the integration of this learning into everyday practice. This does not appear to be the case and education has returned to the way of learning that was first brought in during the first free to access schools. The rise in school avoidance, the increased disadvantage gap, the increasing identification of SEN, all seem to be driven by this ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to curriculum and academia in general.

Retired headteacher, Rotherham

Editor: We feel your frustration and while there were a number of positives during the pandemic and school closures, including the magnificent way that schools

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showed their adaptability and resolve to support pupils, there were some large negatives. Pupils with SEN were especially disadvantaged and many struggled to access education and other provision.

We at nasen continue to advocate for access to technology for pupils within schools, as a life skill and part of the duty of preparation for adulthood. Inclusion by design, also the theme of our recent nasen Live conference, is the real key to starting to change the way we approach education and the needs of the pupils. We will continue working and pushing for change through our involvement with government and other organisations.

If you are interested in more involvement with our mission, please contact us as we redevelop our member forums.

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AWARDS

nasen Awards 2022 winners announced

Champions go above and beyond for children and young people with SEND

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he celebrated winners of our sixth annual Awards were revealed, in a sparkling event at The Grand Hotel, Birmingham on Friday 14 October. Altogether, 18 individuals, schools and organisations scooped national accolades for their remarkable work to help children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and learning differences thrive and achieve, both in the UK and across the globe.

This year’s inspiring winners included a Multi Academy Trust whose pioneering robotic project links medically ill children with their lessons, a teacher who has worked tirelessly to make her school fully accessible for pupils with SEND whilst boosting results, and an island school off the coast of Nigeria changing the way SEND is seen in the local community ty.

The ceremony was hosted by comedian and 2018 Britain’s Got Talent finalist, Robert White, and supported by headline sponsor, Scanning Pens, and media partner, Schools Week.

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THE NASEN 2022 AWARD WINNERS ARE: AWA R D

WINNER(S)

nasenʼs Award for Early Years Provision, sponsored by Nursery World

Kids Planet SEND Team SEND to Learn, Northumberland

nasenʼs Award for Primary Provision, sponsored by IDL

Westlea School, Wiltshire

nasenʼs Award for Secondary Provision, sponsored by Texthelp

Supportive Education Department – Upton-by-Chester High School, Cheshire

nasenʼs Award for 16-25 Provision, sponsored by Education and Training Foundation (ETF)

Harrison College, South Yorkshire

nasenʼs Award for Specialist Provision, sponsored by Christie & Co

Moon Hall School, Reigate, Surrey

nasenʼs Award for Co-production with Families, sponsored by The Seashell Trust

Lincolnshire Young Voices

nasenʼs Award for Young Person Aged 16 and under, sponsored by Senploy

Ashley Webber, Lincolnshire

nasenʼs Award for Young Person Aged 17-25, sponsored by Seashell Trust

Joshua Earnshaw-Potts, Essex Faizan Sheikh, Greater Manchester

nasenʼs Award for SEND Leader, sponsored by National Education Union

Pearl Barnes, Somerset

nasenʼs Award for Learning Support Staff Member, sponsored by Axcis Education

Patricia Hetherington, West Yorkshire

nasenʼs Award for Teacher of the Year, sponsored by SENDCast

Jemini Patel, London

nasenʼs Award for Technology, sponsored by Scanning Pens

ject, Skylark Partnership AV1 Project, Northamptonshire

nasen Award for Teacher Development in Digital Accessibility, sponsored by Microsoft

Oldham College, Greater Manchester

nasenʼs Award for Publication (David Ryan), sponsored by Concero

SENDcast

nasenʼs Award for International Provision, sponsored by ICEP europe

RA International School, Bonny Island, Nigeria

nasenʼs Award for Person of the Year, sponsored by Rockerbox News

Philippa Stobbs

NASEN AWARDS 2022 SPONSORS

We would like to thank all our nasen Awards 2022 sponsors who supported this year’s event.

For more information on the nasen Awards, to register your interest for 2023, and to find out more about all of this year’s winners, visit www.nasen.org.uk/awards follow #nasenAwards2022 www.nasen.org.uk

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Don’t want to wait for the next issue?

Check out https://nasen.org.uk/news

SECTOR UPDATE

Sector

A L L T H E L AT E S T NEWS FROM ACROSS SEND

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search: @nasen.org

Primary school pupils to benefit from phonics and literacy teaching thanks to new funding ore primary schhool pupils will benefit from m high quality ty phonics and expert literacy teaching as part of new funding announced on 9 October. Over £24 million is set to be invested in building children’s literacy skills as the Government

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continues to o support pupils’ recovery from the pandemic and work towards the target off 90 per cent of primar y children reaching the expected standard in literacy and numeracy.

The announcement marked the conclusion of Dyslexia Awareness Week, with targeted literacy support playing a pivotal role in

helping pupils with dyyslexia develop all-important reading and writing skills.

The investment is part of the Government’ss commitment to make sure every young person le eaves school with a strong grasp of literacy and maths and sits alongside further targeted support such as the National Tutoring Programme.

Thhen Ed duccation Secretary Kit Malthouse said: “If any child leaves schools without the ability to read and wrrite properly, we have failed the em.

It is imperativve that we support schools and d pupils follow wing the disruption of the pande emic.

This funding will help us do that, but also help to instil a love of reading in young people tha at can last througho out their education and beyond d.”

The funding will support the conntinuation and growth of the Eng glishh Hub bs Programme, enab bling eve en more schools to embed hig gh qua ality ty phonics teaching and benefit from the intensive support and acccess to litteracy specialists.

To re ead tth he ffu ull press release go to: https://bit.ly/3ekZZqN

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SECTOR UPDATE

CHECKLIST AND AUDIT TOOL FOR LOCAL AREAS The Council for Disabled Children (CDC) has designed a systems checklist and audit tool that supports local areas with a framework for assessing their progress towards effective joint working. The purpose of this tool is to support joint working between Local Authorities and health partners. It pulls together the key pieces of evidence that the local area will wish to assure themselves on and provides a high-level overview of its progress. The sections are divided into the five key areas of the role of a local area supporting children with SEND. To access the checklist: https://bit.ly/3rM8E8x

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Phonics Screening Check results for children with SEN 2022 In 2022, 14 per cent of pupils in year 1 had a special educational need (SEN). SEN pupils either have an Education, Health and Care plan or receive SEN support. In 2022, 3 per cent of pupils in year 1 had an Education, Health and Care plan and 11 per cent were on SEN support.

In 2022, 38 per cent of pupils with SEN met the expected standard in the phonics screening check in year 1. Among pupils with SEN, 44 per cent of those on SEN support and 19 per cent of those with an Education, Health and Care plan met the expected standard.

For the full report go to: https://bit.ly/3enCIUU

PERCENTAGE OF PUPILS MEETING THE EXPECTED STANDARD IN THE YEAR 1 PHONICS SCREENING CHECK BY SEN STATUS, 2019 TO 2022 (England, state-funded schools)

ALL SEN

EHC PLAN

SEN SUPPORT

2018/19

43%

19%

48%

2019/20

x

x

x

2020/21

x

x

x

2021/22

38%

19%

44%

DEAF CHILDREN REQUIRED FOR UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON STUDY Researchers at University College London (UCL) are starting a research project across England in which they will examine reading development in deaf children from when they start in Reception to Year 2. They will examine the role of visual language (speechreading & BSL) in this development.

The aim is to help resolve some unanswered questions about the trajectory of reading development in deaf children. They are looking for a wide range of deaf children to be involved – those who use BSL and those who do not.

They are looking for deaf children to participate who meet the following criteria: will be in Reception in the school year 2022/23 were diagnosed as severely or profoundly deaf before the age of three have lived in the UK for at least the last six months have no disabilities that would prevent them from completing 30 minutes of tasks on a computer

If your school is interested in supporting this with your learners, you will be given a £50 voucher as a thank you. A letter provides further information about the project for schools and there is a parent information sheet which provides further details.

The team can be contacted via email at VisualCR@ucl.ac.uk if you would like further information about the research.

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SECTOR UPDATE

The statutory guidance for schools and colleges –

Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022 Updated The statutory guidance for schools and colleges, ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022’, has been updated and came into force on 1 September 2022. The Anti-bullying Alliance has written an article outlining how this guidance relates to bullying, and how these points substantively differ from the previous 2021 guidance.

Significant changes include: Paragraphs 82-93 – added clarification to paragraphs regarding the Human Rights Act 1998, the Equality Act 2010, and the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Paragraph 93 has the addition of the line, “some pupils or students may be more at risk of harm from specific issues such as sexual violence, homophobic, biphobic or transphobic bullying or racial discrimination.”

Paragraphs 202-204 – extended the information about schools and colleges ensuring children who may be LGBT have a trusted adult who they can be open with. This includes paragraph 204 which states: “LGBT inclusion is part of the statutory ‘Relationships Education, Relationship and Sex Education and Health Education’ curriculum and there is a range of support available to help schools counter homophobic,

biphobic and transphobic bullying and abuse.”

Paragraph 465 – the addition of the bullet point: “The Anti-Bullying Alliance has developed guidance for schools about Sexual and sexist bullying.”

Paragraph 468 – added paragraph to highlight the importance of ensuring children understand the law on child-on-child abuse is there to protect them rather than criminalise them. As child-on-child abuse is likely to involve bullying, this addition is relevant for bullying.

To read the full article go to: https://bit.ly/3g249Ea

NEW RESOURCE FROM THE ANNA FREUD NATIONAL CENTRE FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES: ‘Addressing Emotionally-based School Avoidance’ The Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families has just published a brand-new resource for schools and colleges about emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA).

The resource introduces the topic, explores some of the potential risk factors, and provides strategies and tips to help education staff tackle the issue.

To download this resource, visit: https://bit.ly/3MqPoqH

SPEECH AND LANGUAGE UK PUBLISHES A NEW REPORT: ‘1.7 MILLION NEW FUTURES’ Speech and Language UK (formally ICAN) has published a new report as teachers now estimate that a shocking 1.7 million children in the UK are behind in talking and understanding words. They say that: Without the right support, children with challenges in talking and understanding words face huge hurdles in learning to read and write, as well as across the curriculum. They will also

face difficulties with making friends, staying in good mental health and in the future getting and holding down jobs.

Supporting children with speech and language challenges should be as much of a priority as literacy and numeracy. Yet while successive governments have invested in literacy and numeracy, they have continually overlooked this fundamental area and as many as 70 per cent of teachers say that the Government has not prioritised this issue.

To help prevent speech and language challenges and to identify issues as early as possible, support for early language development needs to become front and centre of the offer by the new Family Hubs.

Schools need more support to identify who is struggling. A new tracking tool should be developed and made freely available so that schools understand the speech and language challenges of their children and who needs support.

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Incentives also need to be put into the system to ensure that provision of support for children with speech and language challenges is prioritised.

This includes reviewing the Ofsted framework so that schools are judged on how they help children who are behind in their talking and understanding of words.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) needs to prioritise planning and investment in the Speech and Language Therapist workforce so that specialist support is available to children who need this.

website address: https://speechandlanguage.org.uk/ Follow them on Twitter and Facebook at @SpeechAndLangUK To read the report go to: https://bit.ly/3gcWKST

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FEATURE

TEACHING & LEARNING

Breaking Taboos by Providing Inclusive Sex Education for All Johanna Aiyathurai argues that relationships and sex education (RSE) needs to be prioritised for pupils with SEND as it provides the foundation blocks for greater independence and healthy relationships. oung people with additional needs are often put into one of two camps; either they are portrayed as ‘over-sexed’, displaying overly sexual and socially inappropriate behaviour, or their sexuality is dismissed entirely and not considered at all. It’s time to stop generalising and stereotyping and give young people with SEND an inclusive sex education at school.

While it’s a requirement to teach the new RSE curriculum to secondary school students, it is often a low priority for pupils with SEND. Not enough time is allocated to it, and it isn’t differentiated to meet their individual needs.

Other subjects can take over, and finding the time and resources creates a real barrier to effective teaching and generalisation

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of vital core skills. Having SEND does not stop the torrent of hormones and emotions that come with puberty, it doesn’t change the fears that come with menstruation, feelings of attraction and changes to their body. Young people with additional needs remain sexual beings with the same desires, frustrations and feelings as other teenagers.

What is different is their ability to process these changes. That’s why I believe teaching about relationships, behaviour, personal safety, bodies and health should be at the heart of every young person’s curriculum.

What independence will look like will be a personal journey but by teaching the underlying skills and knowledge of social rules and behaviours we are giving each young person the best foundation in life. RSE is key in teaching vital social skills that are needed beyond school as young people go

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BIO JO HANNA AIYATHURAI Johanna Aiyathurai is the CEO of Learn and Thrive, a new charity which empowers learners with Down’s syndrome and other learning needs, through digital learning tools and video resources.

friends

friends

ther Don’t look at o ey are people when th d getting change

Wear a to wel or dr essing gown wh en walkin g from the bedro om to ba throom

towel dressing gown don’t look into college, workplaces, local communities and form friendship groups and relationships.

Learn and Thrive is a charity taking action to provide free quality differentiated RSE resources for schools and parents.

The charity has launched a new teaching video and resource series called Learning for Life which covers key early skills from the current RSE curriculum. It delivers teaching alongside differentiated worksheets allowing learners to access the content at four different levels. Included in the packs are the appropriate Widget symbols for those learners that need even further differentiation.

The format is designed with pupils with SEND in mind, it consists of ten short videos (less than ten minutes each) with an

accompanying resource pack. The pace can be suited to the individual student and the videos can be revisited time and again as needed to embed the learning.

DIFFERENTIATION IS KEY The biggest challenge with the RSE curriculum is the vast and general topics it covers that require some level of basic understanding of the core concepts of the body, privacy and healthy relationships.

Being able to provide good differentiation in this subject is key to ensuring the concepts and learning get embedded.

We have worked closely with specialist teaching service, Inclusively Down, to plan and produce this video

an d people I know have met before

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Having SEND does not stop the torrent of hormones and emotions that come with puberty, it doesn’t change the fears that come with menstruation, feelings of attraction and changes to their body. series. Its founders, Lucy Clark and Julie Knight, have taught young people with special needs for over 20 years and know first-hand how these concepts need careful consideration in the classroom.

Lucy explains. “The way you differentiate a subject is always very important, but it is especially so with RSE. When we looked at the recently revised curriculum, we had to stop and consider what our children need to understand first to underpin this.

“For us, getting the foundations right in any subject means the learning can be built in the right way and good progress facilitated.

Ultimately, the goal is that the learning is retained and can then be applied and used practically in day-to-day life, impacting on all areas including future employment.

“The challenge with RSE is the complexity of some of the topics and the many nuanced and grey areas. For example, if you are to get a pupil to understand that hugging family is ok, but not someone you’ve just met at the bus stop, then you need to ensure they have understood the key concepts of what appropriate touch is and how to apply this.”

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FEATURE

TEACHING & LEARNING

USEFUL LINKS

www.learnandthrive.org.uk/learning-for-life www.facebook.com/learnandthriveuk twitter.com/_LearnAndThrive

Free Learning for Life teaching series topics Public and Private Places We All Need Privacy My Body – I Am A Girl My Body – I Am A Boy Public and Private Activities Appropriate Touch It’s My Body How Do I Know You? Touch Control Personal Space

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

THE BODY

There are three videos and resource packs in the series that cover the topic of public and private. The first deals with the concept of rooms and activities that might be public or private and how you know the difference, such as whether you are on your own and the door is shut or if there are lots of other people around.

We know that children with SEND don’t necessarily pick up on behaviours that their peers might through inference, such as how to appropriately get changed for PE around others. Therefore, it was important to clearly outline public and private behaviours when starting this teaching series.

Two of the videos focus on the body and we know that explicit teaching about private body parts is vital to keep our young people safe, as well as building the necessary social interaction skills needed to access the wider community later in life. Does the pupil have a good understanding of all body parts before we go on to teach about private body parts? Do they really understand the concept of privacy and keeping themselves safe? Have we built the foundations needed for those young people to go on and access the wider curriculum?

people I kno wa have met be nd fore

APPROPRIATE TOUCH AND BOUNDARIES Pupils can easily find themselves in hot water for a range of inappropriate behaviours; undressing inappropriately in a public place, inappropriate touch, and much more. Often they simply don’t understand the social rules and norms that their peers learn through inference.

If taught well, RSE can support our young people to avoid these situations and learn the skills that will support their

private

m i ly

SUPPORTING RESOURCES AND GOING FORWARD We have included varied resources and symbols to accompany the videos.

They provide clear and practical downloadable resources to help build on these topics, making them easy for teachers and families to access quickly and easily.

Teaming up with Widget, our resources include symbols making them easily accessible to a wide range of levels of need.

The first series covers topics from the ‘Being Safe’ area of the RSE curriculum, but the next series, already in production, looks at emotions, with further content co covering sexuality, puberty, difference a and much more planned for the future.

A All completely free to access.

W What’s Next?

trust ly fami

access to work, leisure and relationships.

Our resources focus on the concepts of public, private and the body, covering the foundations of appropriate touch and boundaries. We cover the difference in touch between activities such as hugging, comforting and playing tag. We go into detail about which areas of the body it is appropriate to touch and importantly what to do if someone is invading their personal space or privacy so that we can empower our young people to keep themselves safe.

Emotions Changing adolescent body and personal care Caring friendships

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FEATURE

TEACHING & LEARNING

LONDON BI-BOROUGH: OUR DRIVE TO BE THE NUMBER ONE SEND SERVICE IN THE COUNTRY

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster City Council, known as London’s Bi-borough, adopted a collaborative approach to drive transformation with the ambition of being the number one SEND service in the country; Julie Ely, Assistant Director of SEND, shares the journey.

he Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelse ea, and Westminster City tyy Council initially began sharing children’s servicces in 2011. At this stage,, we were part of a tri-borouugh with Hammersmith and Fulham too; a project which came to an end in 201 18 when we swiftly became a bi-borough and were able to push forward and lea ad change at scale and pace.

In recent years, the rapidly increasing g number of children needing SEND supp port, the need for earlier identification and interventions, and the rising demands and expectations placed on council SEND services, has seen local authorities havinng to retthinkk dellivery mod dells. This is whhere our bi-borough has taken a unique approach; although many councils share services, few were sharing children’s services.

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SEND SERVICES: LEARNING FROM EACH OTHER Today, our bi-borough supports more than 2,000 children and young people aged 0-25 with special education needs and/or disabilities in partnership with families, schools, health professionals, social care, and other services.

Both boroughs work from a shared office in Kensington Town Hall, with a significant part of our work undertaken remotely. Our leadership team operates as a bi-borough while the service is delivered as individual boroughs – effectively it is delivered within the framework governance of the local authority tyy where the child lives.

Through taking this approach, we are in a sttrong posiition to learn from eachh other and share best practice to serve our communities in the best way possible.

SEND SERVICES: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION To support thhe chhange and d enab ble quickk decision-making, we knew a comprehensive technology solution was needed and in

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2018 our bi-borough implemented a digital case LM M Systems. management solution, ECLIPSE from OLM Investment in the right resources, that will evolve with our service, is essential to strengthen performance, and innovative technologies play a key role as automating tasks speeds up the process for everyone.

At the beginning, we wanteed to ensure everyone knew that it was not an IT pro oject, but a digital transformation project. Buy-in from both authorities was fundamental to success and a steering group was created to see it through. Built on an ethos of truthh, trust and d teamworkk from peoplle across bothh local authorities, and from our solution provider, we delivered a strong, successful programme.

BIO We have e also created three fully integrated SEND teams made up of staff from both boroughs; one deals with new assessmentt requests; another is responsible e for deliveryy once the EHCP is in place; and a third d team manages areas such as transporrtation and mediation.

By engaging with every individual withiin the service through workshops and focus groups, we e built an understanding of the current cap pabilities of the SEND service, and where the gaps were. On reflection, thhis vitall workk infformed d thhe baselline position and defined the scope and strategy for transformation.

JULIE E LY

ON TRACK TO BE THE NUMBER ONE SEND SERVICE There were vario ous reasons why technology was needed to support ouur journey.

It was not solely the national challenges faced; internally there were challenges to tacckle too, and we knew thhat technology could transform and d simplliffy our services.

It’s not unusual for SEND teams to be using antiquated systems that are decades

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Julie Ely is assistant director for SEN at Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea Council.

Prior to joining the Bi-borough in 2018, Julie led the largest County SEN Service.

She is a Trustee of a specialist post-16 college for young people with SEMH needs.

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FEATURE

TEACHING & LEARNING EHCP. These delays cause enormous stress to families and d even led to parent protests over a lack of support in some parts of the couuntry, hig ghlighting the urgent change in proccesses ne eeded across the country.

Time e savingss of more than 10,000 hours per yearr, with a value of approx. £240,000, ha ave also been achieved; the savingss of which are reinvested to free up staff to spend more time with service users.

A CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE

old and can no lonnger fully support the e current SEND process. Equally, manually driven recording methods are still used with hard cop pies stored in floor--to-ceiling filing cabinets.

Before the programme, our own data management and reporting g were largely manuall and time intensive, which created repercuussions for staff, child dren, and their familiess. Multiple systems meant that sharing data was slow and d convoluted.

This nee eded improving to enable SEN case workerss more time with children, young people, and their families, and to improve data acccess to better suppo ort their needs.

A dig gital strategy was the erefore implemented to improve service delivery and rep place multiple legacyy systems.

Today we can record and access over one thousand d datta poiintts on a chhild or young person, enabling integrated case recording.

This includes case profile, primary need data, financial information, attendance data and progress against outcomes.

Families no longer repeat their story time and time again, as the history, plan and status of each case is visible in one place for any member of staff to access immediately.

In fact, this was one of the key drivers.

We listened to our staff and the families who expressed annoyance over the old

OUR AIM WAS FOR ONE SERVICE ACROSS TWO BOROUGHS, USING ONE SYSTEM, WITH A VISION TO BE THE NUMBER ONE SEND SERVICE IN THE COUNTRY. processes and having g to sharre the same information many times. For fa amilies it was frustrating and equally so for staff who, as a result, were spending too mucch time on adminrelated tasks rather than utilisinng their skills and expertise to support children and families.

The feedback since from staff and families has been incredible, and sta aff are more confident in their roles as they have the right tools to support them; they ca an access the right information at the right time.

For instance, now when sttaff travel to see cllientts, they can prod duce EHCPs quiickkly and d securely within the case file, tracking changes in a live record; they do not need to wait until they return to the office to update notes.

During Covid, and since the new system went live, the bi-borough has also maintained 100 per cent performance of assessment cases completed on time, compared with a rate of 70-80 per cent previously (which was still above the national average of 60 per cent). Whereas some children in England have waited more than 1,000 days for an

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Our aim was for one service across two boro oughs, usinng one system, with a vision to be the num mber one SEND service in the countrr y. It’s incredibly exciting to know w that we have already surpasssed these expectations, with the Royyal Borough of Kensington and Che elsea’s recently published Ofsted SEN ND Area inspection report improving on Westminster City Counncil’s positive report in 2020, and its pe erformancce for statutory timescales rankiing both within the top ten nationally.

Ye et to ensure that children are fully supp ported, ever greater collaboration is ne eeded. Ouur next steps are to ensure all agencies, professionals and parents have e secure, controlled access to the information the ey need.

Working as a bi-borough, and embrracing innovative technology, we can certainly provide a more agile SEND servicce and resspond quicker, and more efficiently. To help raise standards and impro ove outcom mes for children and young peop ple with SE END, we continue to share our le earnings with other local authorities.

It has been a profoundly successful collaborative trransformation journey; with a strong fuuture ahead. Our bi-borough has champione ed shared SEND services, and to improve e further we must ensure conttinuous refflective practice; today it’s about being consistently high performing.

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FEATURE

TEACHING & LEARNING

Motivation for Reading Motivation plays a crucial role when it comes to learning to read. Miriam McBreen discusses some of the methods teachers can use to boost engagement. n the path to becoming readers, children need to learn certain key skills, like blending sounds together to decode words or using strategies to understand text. However, this is only part of the picture – they must also want to invest time and effort into reading and to persist when they (inevitably) encounter challenges; in other words, they must also be motivated to read (Fox, 2009). A growing body of research suggests that when we think about how we teach reading, it is equally important for us to consider how we can foster reading motivation.

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WHY IS MOTIVATION IMPORTANT? When pupils are highly motivated to read, they tend to spend more time engaging with reading, find it more enjoyable,

use more strategies, and show better comprehension (Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000; Park, 2011). Motivation also influences how effective remedial reading interventions are (Bates, d’Agostino, Gambrell & Xu, 2016), in particular underscoring how important it is for pupils with reading difficulties.

Indeed, motivation may be especially important for these children. When learning to read, all children experience difficulties, whether they’re trying to read a new word or understand a complex text. However, these challenges are often exacerbated for pupils with dyslexia. Repeated difficulties can lead to feelings of shame, frustration or discouragement, making children less motivated to read in the future. But when children with reading difficulties are motivated, they are more willing to persist and to spend time reading, even when facing setbacks.

This creates more opportunities for them to make progress, and in doing so to foster

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BIO D R M IRIAM M CBRE E N Dr Miriam McBreen is a lecturer in Oral Language and Literacy at UCL’s IOE, Faculty of Education and Society and a member of UCL’s Centre for Inclusive Education.

Her research focuses on reading motivation and evaluating approaches to fostering motivation to read, in particular for children with reading difficulties.

their confidence and enjoyment of reading (Vollmeyer & Rheinberg, 2006).

However, for most children, motivation to read tends to decline as they progress through school. In fact, by the time they leave primary school, children are less likely ly to say they read for pleasure or that they find reading important than when they first started. How then can we make sure we’re e not just teaching key reading skills, but also o teaching to nurture motivation?

In a systematic review and meta-analysis I recently conducted with Prof. Robert Savage, examining the impact of motivational al reading interventions, we found that several approaches had positive impacts on both motivation and reading. Below are some off the key areas that emerged as important.

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FOSTER PUPILS’ CONFIDENCE

To be motivated to read, students need to believe that if they invest time and effort into reading, they will see progress.

This means they need opportunities to build confidence in their reading abilities (Guthrie, McRae & Klauda, 2007).

First of all, pupils need tasks that are at the right level for them; not so easy that they are unchallenging, but not so hard that they are

frustrating. When tasks are pitched at the right level, pupils can succeed through investing time and effort, allowing them to grow as readers while building confidence in their ability to tackle reading tasks independently.

Children also need opportunities to see that they’ve made progress. For example, helping pupils to set reading goals for themselves and to plan, monitor and evaluate how to reach these goals can help them develop better self-awareness and an understanding of both their strengths and where they need help.

Meanwhile, having a personal book library, where they can keep books they’ve read throughout the school year, can help them see how much they’ve grown as readers.

Providing immediate, specific and process-oriented feedback, succh as “It was a good strategy to try and sound this new word out, what else could you try?” also helps buuild confidence. It draws attentio on to

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children’ss strengths as readers and helps them develop a better awareness of tools they can draw upon when they get stuck.

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NURTURE PUPILS’ READING INTERESTS

Beyond feeling confident in their reading abilities, children are also more motivated to read when they see reading as interesting and relevant to them, and not just something they are being told to do.

Nurturing children’s reading interests makes it more likely they will be willing to persist when they encounter challenges, and that they’ll want to continue reading in their own time.

Adults around the child can help nurture their interest in reading in different ways.

For instance, linking reading tasks to things children are learning in other classes can help make reading relevant – if children are learning about insects in science lessons, reading a book about ants might seem

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FEATURE

TEACHING & LEARNING When tasks are pitched at the right level, pupils can succeed through investing time and effort, allowing them to grow as readers while building confidence in their ability to tackle reading tasks independently. strategic support from an adult along the way.

This can allow pupils to see they can succeed with time, effort and targeted support, helping them both grow in their reading and see they can succeed independently.

especially ll interesting. A Activating children’s h ld background knowledge before they read, by asking them to think of things they already know about a topic, can emphasise why a given book is relevant, while also anchoring their comprehension around concepts they are already familiar with.

And one of the best ways to foster interest in reading is to draw upon things children already enjoy and are interested in.

Providing lots of choices of books linked to things they are curious about, going to the library with them to pick out books, or using fun reading games, can all allow children to explore their own motivations for reading.

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ENCOURAGE AUTONOMY

Key to helping pupils build confidence in their reading skills and discover why they enjoy reading is giving them opportunities to feel in control of their

learning (Kirschhner, Swelller & Cllarkk, 2006)).

When children feel independent, this allows them to explore their interests and to become more self-directed learners.

One of the most straightforward ways to encourage autonomy is to give pupils control over aspects of the learning process by offering them choice, such as access to a range of books, enrichment activities (e.g., writing a story, painting, making a video) or type of reading work (e.g., doing a phonics game, listening to an audiobook, reading with a peer) they can choose from. This makes it more likely both that they’ll pick something they find interesting or relevant, and that they’ll stay engaged in what they’re doing.

However, when providing choices, it’s important these are at the right level of challenge for the child. For example, tasks can be broken down into chunks, with pupils guided to complete as much of the task independently as possible, combined with

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4

SUPPORTIVE RELATIONSHIPS

Finally, essential to nurturing motivation is for children to feel that they are learning in a supportive and safe environment (Patrick, Ryan & Kaplan, 2007). Compared with classrooms that are focused on performance, supportive classrooms tend to focus on students developing in line with their own personal goals, allowing them to see progress irrespective of their starting point. This is especially important for pupils with reading difficulties, who might be more likely to feel discouraged in classrooms where there is a focus on competition amongst peers.

Encouraging pupils to try more difficult tasks, make mistakes, learn from these through discussing them with their teacher and peers, and set their own personal goals can all contribute to creating a supportive environment. Children in these classrooms tend to show more self-regulation and to engage more deeply in tasks, with positive effects on both their learning and wellbeing.

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FEATUREE

LEADERSHIP

The be enefits of ‘a calm, orderly, safe an nd supportive environment’ Anticipating a classroom that needs to o be ‘calm, orderly, safe and supportive’, as proposed by Ofsted, might make some teachers throw their hand ds up in horror and ima agine a future of bored dom and sameness, but th he reallity is far from th hat, says Miriam Wallker.

‘Safe and supportive’ classrooms have always been necessary, so it is the ‘calm and orderly’ aspect of Ofsted’s phrase and the anticipation of a dumbing g down of future excitement that fills some e minds with dread. However,, if we start to o consider the meanings of the words ‘calm and orderly’ without jumping to conclusionns too quickly, we may see that through emb bracing this clear expectation, classroomss will become environments for all pupils to enjoy.

A calm environment is one without anxiety ty, y a place where there is an und derstanding of the need to just be, and where distractions are not making g it hard to eithe er focus or let go. A natural calm environme ent conjures up a woodland scene, a beautiful view, or perhaps a beach with the sound of ge ently lapping waves. It is the antithesis of a circus scene

If as adults, it is these calm environments that we seek out to clear our heads or to enable us to think through issues that need unpicking, why do we not think that creating calmness in our classrooms is necessary for children?

or fairground and yet it has often been these sorts of scenarios, with carousels of simultaneous activities,, that teachers were expected to create in classrooms. If as adults, it is these calm environments that we seek out to clear our he eads or to enable us to thinkk through issues that need unp pickking, why do we not think that creating calmness in our classrooms is necesssary for chhildren?

An orderly environm ment is one e where actions and events are e planned and anticipated. There is predictabillity tyy in the routine and visuals tha at support it, helping to avoid cognitive ove erload whe en trying to remember things that are unnece essary and enabling g sp pace for mo ore creativve thought.

The rules for the enviro onment are e fair and enforced, with clear sanctions so occupants can relax without ‘wha at if?’ anxieties.

Nothing in the phrase ‘calm and orderly’ means an avoidance of fun, or the absence of enjoyment and laughhter.

They can and should exist in tandem.

The difference is that more childrren within the ‘ccalm and orderly’ environme ent will be able to experience the positivve effects from the fun, enjoymennt and laug ghter, because they will not be clouded with

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BIO M IRIAM WALKE R Miriam is a senior lecturer at Winchester University specialising in the area of additional needs. Her doctorate focused on perspective, understanding and relationships between teachers and autistic pupils. She provides support for schools who want to deepen their understanding of the difference of autism.

Calm and orderly environments are supportive for children’s learning, and particularly so for children who are neurodiverse and are more likely to struggle with some aspects of many mainstream classrooms.

anxiety ty from unpredicta ability ty, and d stress from sensoryy and/or cognitive ovverload.

Calm and d orderly ennvironmentss are supportive fo or children’ss learning, and particularly so for childrren who arre neurodiverse e and are more likely to struggle with some asspects of many mainsstream classrooms. For examp ple, a classrroom with fewer visual distractionss around thhe white board create es a better opportunity ty for focus on the necesssary visual content off the lesson.

Limiting work displayys around the classroom walls and avvoiding the festooning g of every empty ty space e with itemss hung from m washing lines strung g about the ro oom, create es a calmer and more tra anquil visua al space. Thhis in turn enables the opporttunity ty to foccus more easily withouut visual disstraction evveryy time the child looks up from their work to think.

A quieter envvironment where noise e level considerations are partt of the worrk process and factored d into the le esson plan creates an outcome where indepe endent thoughts can travel further, and problems and challenges

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have the chancce to be unravelled and worked on. It does not mean an absence of loud noise, but rather an absence of unexpected and d unnecessary loud noise.

For autistic children who are particularly noise sensitive, being able to predict when something is going to be loud in the classroom gives thhem thhe opportunity ty to choose when to use noise-cancelling headphones ra ather than feeling the need to wear thhem all of the time.

In addition to o the creation of ‘a calm, orderly, safe annd supportive environment’, in the same doccument, Ofsted states that if a school is to achieve an outstanding grade on inspection, there must be ‘structure that enables all to thhrive’. No teacher would seek to consciously create an environment that was disturb bed, disorderly, unsafe and unsupportive, and yet to autistic children, that has been thhe way many have described mainstream classsrooms. It is accepted that there will be many hoops to jump through as educcation shifts over time with new initiatives that come and go. But this one I hope will remain as a foundational expectation. Working within an environment which is conduccive to all children being able to achieve their maximum potential is vital.

Seeking to eliminate factors that raise anxiety ty and minimise co ognitivve and sensoryy ovverload is an essential fo oundational teaching skill which has beenn under-recognised and now needs to be re-a applied to our classrooms.

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FEATURE

The identification

of SEN in Early Years Settings Mandy Wilding, Early Years leader at nasen, discusses the importance of identifying SEN, examines the role of the SENCO and key person and outlines some effective strategies and support for settings.

he key person and SENCO (whether an early years SEN NCO or scho ool SEN NCO) have different but important roles to play in the process of identifyi ying and meeting the needs of children with SEND in the Early Years and it is important that they and senior leaders are clear about their responsibilities to children with SEND. The key person is the most important person for the child and remains so, even once the SENCO is involved. It is important that children’s needs are assessed by the key person as early as possible to allow any special educational needs (SEN) to be identified and supported. They gather information about the child and get to know them well through their daily interactions with them and their parents/ carers. They also require a good level of understanding of ‘typical’ child development to identify where children may have a developmental delay or SEN. They should communicate any concerns they have about a child to the SENCO, who can advise and support them with next steps if necessary.

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The Revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Framework (2021) states: “TThe key person must help ensure that every child’s learning and care is tailored to meet their individual needs. The key person must seek to engage and support parents and/or carers in guiding their child’s development at home.

They should also help families engage with more specialist support if appropriate.”

INFORMATION GATHERING It is important for settings to find out as much as possible about all children from parents/ carers before they enter the setting. Gathering information such as their likes, dislikes, interests and friends allows them to take a person-centred approach to planning. For children with SEND, whose needss have already been identified, it is even more important. The key person must find out as muchh as possible about them and parents must share information about any outside agencies that are

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FEATURE

LEADERSHIP

BIO M AND Y WIL DIN G Mandy Wilding is an Education Officer at nasen, where she has worked for four years. She taught in primary schools for 32 years and held the roles of Assistant Head, SENCO and both Primary and Secondary School Governor. She is passionate about high quality teaching and the early identification of, and provision for, the needs of all children. Contact her at MandyW@nasen.org.uk

It is import rtant that children’s needs are assessed by the e key person as early as possible.

already involved, such as a Speech and Language Therapy (SALT), Portage or a paediatrician. Reports and recommendations from these agencies are a valuable source of information for the setting in meeting the individual needs of the child. Some children may not have had any additional needs identified, but they may become apparent as the child settles into the setting.

Assessments and observations would take place, following discussions between the key person and SENCO, to pinpoint their specific needs and take appropriate action.

OBSERVATION AND INTERACTION Throughout the day, key person and other adults will have many interactions with the child, whether during child or adult-led activities. These also give the practitioner useful information about the child in assessing their language, cognitive, social and physical needs. Practitioners may want to carry out more formal observations of the child to find out further information. These may take the form of narrative, structured,

spidergraph or incidental observations, depending on the information require ed (for details about thhese, see the nasen Earlyy Years minniguides – https://bit.ly/3LZ Z8dkL).

RECORDING THE INFORMATION There is no requirement by Ofsted for practitioners to keep notes and ‘track’ every child in the setting or class, but for children with SEND it is useful to have important information to hand. Progress towards current targets, records of any interventions and meetings with parents and outside agencies that have taken place will be important at a later date if the child requires an Education, Health and Care Needs assessment (EHC needs assessment) and the school or setting needs to demonstrate what has been put into place for them.

Many settings use a one-page profile for children with SEND, which is made

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available to all adults who work with the child.

The profile usually contains important information about them such as ‘what people admire about me’, ‘how I like to be supported’ and ‘what makes me happy’. It is important that these profiles are updated regularly; they are particularly valuable at points of transition from room to room, setting to school or class to class, and to give the child a voice in any planning and decision-making in the provision that is put into place for them.

ASSESSMENT TOOLS Once practitioners have identified an area of need for a child, they may want to find out more information about their specific difficulties in this area, and this is where assessment tools can be helpful. It is part of the SENCO’s role to ensure all practitioners are aware of the assessment tools available and understand how to use them. Some are free to access such as the ‘Universally Speaking’ booklets produced

by The Communication Trust but others, though at a cost, can be used repeatedly and are a good investment for a setting or school.

The Universally Speaking booklets show where children should be with their

Once practitioners have identified an area of need for a child, they may want to find out more information.

communication skills at any given age. You can use the booklets to find out whether the children you work with are on the right track, what helps them learn to talk and listen and what to do if you have concerns about any of their communication abilities. They cover 0-5 years, 5-11 years and 11-18 years.

The Wellcomm Early Years Toolkit (a paid-for resource, see below) enables practitioners to quickly and easily identify children aged 6 months-6 years who may benefit from speech and language support.

The ‘Big Book of Ideas’ contains play-based activities to support children’s speech, language and communication development according to their specific needs.

Another free checklist that practitioners may find useful is the Trafford Sensory Checklist, produced by Trafford Children’s Therapy Service. This checklist is intended to be used as a tool and a guide to becoming more aware and understanding of a child’s sensory needs and differences. It includes many

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of the most common sensory preferences and differences and is divided into categories based on the sensory system and how the brain and nervous system may process the input. There are approaches and strategies to use for each of the categories.

IN CONCLUSION It has been proven that the earlier a child’s special educational needs are identified and provided for through inclusive universal practice, reasonable adjustments, targeted provision, collaboration with parents and the graduated approach of ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’, the more successful the outcome for the child as they move to adulthood. This is why all leaders need to ensure that those working every day with our youngest children, are confident and highly skilled to assess and identify a child’s needs, voice any concerns F URT HE R and act upon INF O RM ATION them promptly Find d outt ab boutt nasen’’s to put support free membership: in place.

htt ttp tps://bitt.ly/3EbVV VVmZ V Discover nasen’s free Early Years training and resources: htt ttp tps://bitt.ly/3Syf yfMB9 f To find out how else nasen can support rtt you, contact mandyw@nasen.org.uk.

Universally Speaking, The Communication Trust (free to access): htt ttp tps://bit p t.ly/3Rz RzCtDM z Wellcomm Toolkit, GL Assessment: http tps://bit.lly/3e86kFE Traff fford f Sensory Checklist (free to access): htt ttp tps://bitt.ly/3C2 C2Z 2Z ZJJV3 J One page profile templates (free to access): htt ttp tps://bitt.ly/3M13yy yyA y

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SPOTLIGHT

Connection, Disconnection and Digital Wellbeing In a world of ever-increasing digital connection, it is crucial for educators to be able to ‘switch off’, says Lisa Blackett. he title of this magazine is ‘Connect’, so let’s think about how we connect, and how we disconnect.

Now that education is mostly in-person again, what is your connection like with staff, colleagues and yourself?

And what is your disconnection from work like?

These are questions for reflection and consideration when you have some time and space. Questions which may not get answered in the digital world of work.

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Digital working, which was already encroaching on our time, wellbeing and productivity, exploded exponentially during the pandemic. Back-to-back meetings, incessant emails and internal messaging probably haven’t eased much due to demands and habits. Disconnecting at the end of the day, whenever that is, has become more difficult than ever.

The impact of constantly being ‘connected’ can be damaging, both for the individual and the organisation. In order to do concentrated, deep work we need to do one thing at a time. I know that may often seem absurd but

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BIO LI S A B LA C K E T T Lisa is a wellbeing and leadership coach and trainer with an approach informed by neuroscience and positive psychology.

She has a Masters in coaching and is also a director at Potential in Me, a Scottish social enterprise which supports young people by also working with the adults who live or work with them https://potentialin.me

it is true. People don’t truly multi-task, especially cognitively. We task-switch. A very common example of task-switching is allowing notifications of any kind into our working day or checking email when we’re doing other work, such as writing a report or attending a meeting. It takes both time and cognitive resources to return to the task at hand and we can’t get into ‘flow’, which is important for our work and also our wellbeing and life satisfaction. We don’t even have to open the email or message for our attention to be diverted as we cannot not see the notification.

While we may feel productive answering emails when they come in, or responding to urgent requests, they interrupt and impact on whatever we are doing. As the late Sir Angus Grossart often said, ‘Be careful not to confuse activity with productivity’.

The more frequently we task-switch, the greater the drain on our cognitive resources, including creativity, decision making and memory. Memory requires our brain to filter for salience which becomes increasingly difficult the more external stimuli we have.

Creativity demands head space, and when our brain is overwhelmed, we are more ‘exploitative’, relying on what we know and can easily grasp, versus being ‘explorative’, using divergent, out-of-the-box thinking.

Likewise, decision making becomes less effective when task-switching, in part due to the decrease in prioritisation and salience and in part due to cognitive fatigue.

The habit of being too digitally distracted can also harm our relationships. When you are with another person, face-to-face or remotely, and you see their eyes flicker across the screen or they check their phone when it pings whilst you’re talking, it often feels disruptive. At best, they may have been waiting for something important that you’re aware of and it’s fine. Often though, you feel you’re not being listened to, or you’ve been deprioritised. I had a client do this recently, during an online coaching session. I asked him what was going on. Was he expecting something urgent? He wasn’t. Was his session a quiet space for him, blocked from other work? It was. He simply wasn’t fully engaged, was being inconsiderate of my presence and was caught up in the habit of constant email notifications. He has now switched them off. This was not only an example of the impact between two people but his relationship with himself, prioritising whoever might be in touch over himself, even when his time was protected.

Being constantly switched on can harm our wellbeing in other ways too; the impact of notifications, emails, online meetings, etc. keeps us on our toes but also makes us feel overwhelmed with a sense of so much feeling ‘urgent’. This urgency can knock the autonomic nervous system out of balance, and keep us more in sympathetic mode, ready to take action at least, if not fight or flee. When we are in sympathetic

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SPOTLIGHT

mode, cortisol is continually released, which impacts our bodies as well as our brains. This leads to further mental as well as physical fatigue. Other aspects of digital working which have a negative impact are lack of breaks, longer hours, digital procrastination and presenteeism. Physical discomfort can happen as well, with back, shoulder and hand pain, headaches and eye strain common complaints of digital working.

DISCONNECTION Whilst the UK doesn’t have ‘right to disconnect’ laws in place, there is wisdom in having a disconnection practice, both as an individual and an employer. The ‘right to disconnect’ allows employees to stay within the boundaries of their paid working day in terms of engaging with work, emails and calls. Portugal has recently taken an additional step which prohibits employers from contacting employees out of working hours. Some organisations are beginning to take this more seriously and are encouraging employees to shut down after working hours and not have work email on their personal phone or during holidays. This supports better staff wellbeing as well as productivity.

Digital technology has been beneficial in many ways and is integral to our daily work and lives, so there is no suggestion to abandon it or digitally detox. This is about recognising an over-connection to devices and habits that

don’t really serve us or the organisation we work for. Devices, software and apps are very cleverly designed to hook us, and it is worth exercising agency and control in their use.

The first step, as with all habits, is awareness. Think about your digital behaviour and the context in which you use technology. Try to a keep track of at least one or two contexts to get an idea of your usage. The more conscious you are of your behaviour, the more control you will have.

Some activities to consider as an individual: How much time are you spending on devices/apps/email, etc.?

How are you prioritising?

What are you not doing instead?

How are you feeling at the beginning/ middle/end of your day?

Some things to consider as a leader/employer: What are your expectations for communication?

As a leader, what is your own digital behaviour like?

What impact do you think digital habits have on your staff and organisation?

With more clarity about our digital habits, expectations and the impact on us individually and organisationally, we can take more control over how we work, enhancing performance and wellbeing.

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Think about your digital behaviour and the context in which you use technology.

FEATURE ➜

What does the latest SEN data and EHCP data tell us?

Zoe Mather, education officer at nasen, takes a look at the latest SEND data and considers some of the questions we need to ask, as well as what we can do as a result. s I write this article, looking back at the data issued in the summer term, we have another new Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan, our fourth in as many months.

We are also in the period of reflection for the Department for Education (DfE) on the SEND Review Green Paper consultation, which is now under the remit of Claire Coutinho MP. Looking at the annual data through this lens feels more like a baseline for change. Every year the DfE publishes a data set called ‘Special Educational Needs in England’ and the ‘Education, Health and Care Plan’ data, which is based on the information obtained from the January census of that year, i.e. the data published in June reflects the situation in January 2022. The data reflects the fact that the impact of school closures and Covid-19 are still being felt.

When reviewing the data, it is important to remember that it does not give us a complete picture of SEN across England; it relies upon accurate and up to date information being entered into the census,

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and it only reflects the ‘primary need’ category assigned to each pupil. Pupils with SEN are highly likely to have needs which cut across more than one of these categories, so the true picture will be more complex and nuanced. It also does not include pupils with SEND who are educated at home or in post-16 education.

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? As with any data, caution should be taken in drawing too many conclusions.

As mentioned above, it only reflects primary need and not necessarily the complexities of co-occurring needs. In the rest of this article I will be highlighting some of the figures around this data and posing some questions for you and your teams to contemplate: There has been another near 10 per cent increase in the number of EHC plans from 2021; now at over 470,000. What is driving this increase? Do the proposed changes in the SEND review extend far enough to make a real difference on the ground?

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SPOTLIGHT

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More than 55 per cent of pupils with EHC plans are in mainstream education; does this reflect inclusive practice flourishing in mainstream settings? If so, why are Special Schools and Pupil Referral Unit intakes increasing?

28.2 per cent of pupils in PRUs have an EHC plan, up from 24 per cent in 2021. What support are PRUs able to offer pupils with EHC plans that mainstream schools are not? Is it access to professionals or is it something more fundamental within the school’s control?

SLCN remains the highest primary need at 23 per cent of the total SEN needs.

What training is supporting staff to be effective in their support of these pupils?

What more could be done?

There has been another rise in the total number of pupils with SEN, with an extra 46,000 pupils identified, taking the total to 16.6 per cent; the highest proportion

10%

increase in the number of EHC plans from 2021

since the implementation of the Children and Families Act in 2014 and the new Code of Practice. Does the increase in SEN support and EHC plans reflect a decrease in provision at the universal support level within mainstream? Is this going to worsen with the impending financial crisis?

36.4 per cent of pupils with SEN support are also on Free School Meals (FSM), compared with 22.5 per cent for all pupils, and 40 per cent of pupils with EHC plans are also in receipt of FSM. What effect will the increase in cost of living have on those with the most needs within school? What can schools do to support pupils and families at this time?

Over 10,000 pupils with SEN support and 12,500 pupils with an EHC plan fall into the Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) category. Will the proposed supported internships support more pupils with EHC plans to avoid becoming NEET? How accessible are these across the country?

The total number of pupils with SEN varies across LAs from 8.8 per cent at the lowest to 23.1 per cent at the highest. The LAs in the top 70 per cent are in the list of Education Action Areas identified by the Government for additional investment.

Will the consultation and resulting guidance around Local Area SEND reviews improve the joint working and commissioning for

55%

of pupils with EHC plans are in mainstream education

EHCP DATA: https://bit.ly/3xdsywy SEN DATA: https://bit.ly/3D72dE6

children with SEND and their families?

With the change in Government direction, what will happen to the proposed funding for the Education Action Areas?

The number of pupils with an EHC plan and being electively home educated rose again to over 4,000. Some of this is attributed to emotionally-based school avoidance (EBSA). Should the figures for this be collected? Are the new attendance reforms more ‘stick than carrot’ and will they have the desired impact?

EHC plans completed within statutory timescale has risen to 59.9 per cent.

Will the reforms to the EHC plan timeline be implemented after consultation and will this support pupils and parents to access support in a more timely fashion?

Over 16,000 pupils with an EHC plan are educated outside of a nursery, school or college placement with just short of 5,000 awaiting provision. Will the SEND review’s plan to give a list of placements for pupils reduce the number of those awaiting appropriate provision?

With the change in Government leadership, what is the direction of travel for education and what impact will this have on the SEND review response?

Looked-after children are over four times more likely to have SEN. Now that Will Quince MP has moved into health & social care, will he continue to fight for those with SEND? As the new ministers begin to engage with their portfolios across education, let’s hope they hold true to the values within our Code of Practice and engage with authentic co-production with the SEND sector at all levels.

28.2%

of pupils in PRUs have an EHC plan

BIO Z OE M ATH E R Zoe began her career on the Graduate Teaching Programme in 2000 as a secondary maths teacher. She then furthered her practice across several secondary schools holding roles including outreach and SENCO. Her most recent post before joining nasen, was as Assessment and Achievement Lead as part of the SLT of an autism-specific allthrough special school.

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SPOTLIGHT

Medicine Optimisation in Schools Is pharmacy part of the solution to a collaborative health and education service delivery model for children and young people in special schools? Nirusha Govender discusses. he number of dispensed prescriptions for children and young people (CYP) has increased in recent years, with more children that need to take medicines during school time. This can be for a range of medical conditions including asthma, epilepsy, diabetes, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and other more complex health conditions.

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The percentage of pupils with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan attending state funded special schools has seen a year on year increase since January 2010 from 38.2 per cent to 59.9 per cent in January 2021. Approximately 2 per cent of school-age children attend a special school, and the vast majority have an EHC plan.

On 1 September 2014, a new duty came into force for governing bodies.

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Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on governing bodies of maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units (PRUs) to have in place arrangements that support pupils with medical conditions at their school.

Appropriate authorities must have regard for statutory guidance when carrying out their statutory duty to make suitable arrangements to support pupils at school with medical conditions.

WHY IS THIS AN ISSUE FOR SPECIAL SCHOOLS?

BIO NI RUS H A G OVEND E R Pharmacist Nirusha Govender is currently the associate director for Medicines Governance and Pharmacy Education at NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB). Over the past 12 years, she has worked closely with specialist children’s nursing, local authorities and special schools. Nirusha’s work with a number of special schools in Kent focuses on medicines optimisation service provision including: training, competency assessments, quality improvement and assurance reviews and a medicines information service.

Within the collaborative commissioning structure between the NHS and Local Authorities for special schools, there has never been a formal pathway to promote or support the need for a pharmacy-led medicines optimisation service in schools. The SEND reforms introduced by the Children and Families Act 2014 focus on two key themes: greater co-operation between education, health and social care and a greater focus on outcomes. The Act, along with the comprehensive guidance in the SEND Code of Practice, outlines detailed requirements for the planning and delivery of services for CYP. They also require local authorities to implement joint commissioning arrangements with their health partners for the education, health and social care of CYP. With no standardised approach to how this is achieved, great variations exist nationally on how this model is being delivered. There are vast differences even in localised areas, where some schools have full collaborative working between LAs and health partners (primarily specialist community nursing services) and other schools having little or no support at all with the need to fund their own health provisions.

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WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES IN SPECIAL SCHOOLS? CYP attending special schools can have recognised physical and/or mental health conditions, with many having complex health and care needs. This includes administration of medicines (sometimes off-label or unlicensed) with complex dosing regimens for some specific conditions. It may include managing acute episodes, and medicines administered via specialist devices such as intrathecal pumps, enteral feeding tubes, infusion pumps and syringe drivers. It is not a requirement for a special school to employ a school nurse, which means that in many special schools, teachers and teaching assistants play a significant role in medicines administration, storage and other healthcare related matters. In most cases these individuals lack medical or pharmaceutical experience. Parents can worry when sending their child to school if medicines are needed during the school day and there can also be anxiety for staff if they do not feel confident in administering them.

The growing evidence highlights an important need to get the fundamentals of medicines use right in schools. A

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SPOTLIGHT SO WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?

cross-ssectional sur vey of schools undertaken in 2017 by Bellis et al identified that there were vast differences between how individual schools managed medicines and interpreted policy guidance and also discrepancies between the views of CYP, parents, schools and healthcare professionals. The study highlighted evidence that medicines management provisions do not always meet the needs of CYP and their families, with fewer than half of parents and healthcare professionals being satisfied with how medicines are dealt with in schools. This is even more challenging for special schools, with a strong emerging evidence base highlighting the complexity of medical conditions and the nature of medicine regimens administered in schools. McCarthy et al recommended that consultation with a pharmacist may provide valuable advice on storage and accurate dispensing of medication.

A pilot study in 2018 by Kent Community Health Foundation Trust (KCHFT) showed that, with the appropriate level of specialist

pharmacy support, the schools were largely successful at supporting the safe and effective management of medicines to CYP, minimising the risk of errors. The pilot demonstrated an overall improvement of 65 per cent compliance with Royal Pharmaceutical Society medicines administration records standards, seeing a 90 per cent compliance rate for most data entries evaluated. KCHFT made appropriate clinical interventions including deprescribing recommendations to the special school. This helped the school to achieve a 60 per cent reduction of required salbutamol inhalers at school, improving patient outcomes and minimising the medicines waste burden on the wider health economy.

The quality improvements within this pilot provided the evidence base for a unique commissioning model for ten special schools in Kent, which now have the support of a health team with both nursing and pharmacy support. In 2021, the team was awarded Health Education England transformation funding, which showcased the transformation of the pharmacy technician role within this niche setting. Full details of the project, including successes, outputs and future plans have been published on the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health QI Central hub (https://bit.ly/3ViZI8h).

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Reducing health inequalities and improving health and wellbeing are major priorities for pharmacy.

Pharmacists’ and pharmacy technicians’ skills of listening, explaining, advising and questioning are all highly relevant to help identify and support the medicines optimisation needs of CYP with complex health needs in special schools.

Medicines optimisation is about helping people to get the best outcomes from their medicines. Although a specialist pharmacy service for special schools requires a review of the commissioning processes and funding mechanisms to standardise and fully meet the needs in these schools, community pharmacists can still play a pivotal role. Their work in supporting CYP, families, teachers and healthcare professionals working in special schools will help to promote a more localised approach to medicines optimisation at home and in schools.

Community pharmacists are local, accessible and ideally placed to develop close links with CYP, families and their schools and provide crucial assistance, including: To support safe and effective management of medicines to CYP in school, minimising the risk of errors, through medication reviews and the provision of Medicines Administration Record (MAR) charts if appropriate.

To effectively manage the supply of medicines for CYPs’ long term medical conditions, improving monthly repeat prescription management and minimising waste.

To help provide access to medicines information and answer questions related to individual children’s medicine needs from parents/carers.

With this in mind, it is important for special schools to work collaboratively with parents and local pharmacies/commissioned pharmacy teams to ensure medicines optimisation principles can be safely implemented at school.

In the future, there is a growing need for the Department for Education, alongside the Department for Health and Social Care, to ensure that there is a structured commissioning pathway within the SEND and mainstream health provision to enable all CYP and families to have equitable access to specialist services including medicines optimisation.

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ASK THE TEAM

Ask the

team education@nasen.org.uk

There is always a steady stream of questions arriving at nasen House and, of course, the Education Team answers them as soon as possible. But, while many of them are specific to a particular context, the answers to a number of them could be helpful to the wider nasen membership. ‘Ask the team’, provides the space to share these questions and answers.

01827 311500

@nasen_org

@nasen.org

If you have a question, and think the answer would be useful to everyone, please submit it to education@nasen.org.uk Of course, you can always give nasen House a call too.

PUPPET POWER

As there have been so many changes of ministers at the DfE since September last year, do you happen to know when the SEND review response will be published?

SENCO, Birmingham Thank you for raising this. They say a week is ce tthe he he a long time in politics but a lot has happened since t off th d AP di t t consultation finished back in July! The new director the SEND and directorate at the DfE, Alison Ismail, confirmed that they remain committed to publishing the response by the end of the calendar year.

ATTENTION SPAN

Since the pandemic we have seen an increased number of children struggling to maintain concentration and attention in lessons across all year groups. Staff have expressed frustration and we want to use our INSET day to do some planning and develop a bank of strategies to support staff with this.

Are you aware of any strategies that could help those students with SEN specifically?

Deputy p y headteacher,, Lincoln

An article on this very topic featured in the July edition of Connect. The piece features a story of a young autistic boy who effectively communicated with everyone through a puppet. It helped him to separate the voice from himself and gave him confidence to speak. You didn’t state which year group the child is in, but the only negative could be the possible impact from other pupils’ comments and reaction. This must be considered very carefully as belonging is such a crucial part of successful attendance and academic engagement. Perhaps there could be a session in which all pupils design a puppet and use this to communicate, which will introduce this as an option for your class.

It may also help other children, whose needs might not be as obvious, to develop g this yourself y their confidence. Modelling would also be a good starting point. To read the article on this topic, the right ing check the July edition on our website. https://bit.ly/3LrZBTf nasen Connect, July edition o le Als ilab e a lin av on

ISSN 2631-5696

HELPIN H HE ELLP LPIN PIN ING EVER EV ERYONE ACHIIEVE

J U LY 2 0 2 2 / I S S U E 3 4

Learning about neurodiversity

Why it’s important and the free tools and resources available to schools

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How music can play a key role in literacy support programmes for children with special needs

Puppets with a purpose

There are traditions of puppets in every culture, but how can they be used in the classroom?

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What we know is that if it is good for students with SEN it will be good for everybody.

What is vital for some is valuable for all.

Getting it right for students with SEN will automatically support more than students with SEN. At nasen we advocate inclusion by design and providing a solution for one and extending to many will support pupils, diagnosed and undiagnosed, to access the learning.

One example of how to do this can be found in CAST’s Universal Design for Learning principles (UDL). The three main guidelines are around developing multiple means of engagement, representation and action and expression.

If pupils have their needs considered at the start of the planning process, they will be more likely to engage and give the activity the attention that they seemingly lack. The guidelines are split into 27 areas for support with interactive links to support. There is a great planning tool that will help staff to consider changes to their teaching to support those pupils to engage. https://bit.ly/3Lwg4pM – CAST guidelines https://bit.ly/3DyuGD0 – planner

I have a very quiet autistic girl in my class who struggles with speaking to anyone except me and the teaching assistant. However, we observed her in the playground talking animatedly to her gloves, almost using them like puppets.

Would there be any issues, in your experience, that would cause a negative impact from her using a puppet within the classroom?

Teacher, Whitehaven

Str ik

SEND REVIEW ON WAY

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REVIEWS

Reviews ABOUT OUR SCHOOLS his is a truly magnificent piece of writing from two of the greats in education over the last 30 years.

Brighouse and Waters have extensive experience of how the education system works (and doesn’t). Through interviews with a variety of key figures in education past, present and hopefully future, they have sensitively, and with clarity, addressed the many issues surrounding how we got to this point.

I confess to being disheartened at the weight of the book, but once I opened it, I only put it down to give my wrists a well-deserved rest. The book starts from the 1976 reforms and presents the history of education in England, taking you through to how we arrived

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at the current system with its plethora of exams, accountability, and over-centralisation.

Early in the book, one of the values they extol is that achievements should be recognised in ways that are helpful to the pupil and their future, “with this being separate from the accountability arrangements for our schools”. This change alone could see inclusion skyrocket in the secondary sector. Self-regulation is discussed as being a vital aspect of growing up and how adolescence impacts this.

Our school system needs to be able to support this but anyone looking at the exclusion figures and the dramatic increase around puberty will recognise the current limitations. With insight from best practice examples from the past and present,

Authors: Tim Brighouse and Mick Waters Publisher: Crown House Publishing ISBN: 978-178583586-5 Reviewed by: Zoe Mather, education officer at nasen

insightful comments from a variety of education professionals and their own common-sense approach, I guarantee this book will have you demanding their “six foundation stones and 39 steps to success” become policy.

PARKLANDS – A SCHOOL BUILT ON LOVE

Author: Chris Dyson Publisher: Crown House Publishing ISBN: 978-1785836008 Price: £14.99 Reviewed by: Shona Randle, recently retired headteacher of an inclusive primary school

Chris Dyson was compelled to write this book when his school was inundated with visitors wanting to find out more about the school and its journey to outstanding. Chris invites you to share his journey of school improvement and this reader happily took up that invitation.

The foreword has a great story demonstrating the focus on the deep care the adults have for the children which makes the Parklands magic. Each chapter carefully unpicks all the complex elements that make a school and explains the Parklands way to do it by carefully summarising the Parklands fundamentals for each element. SEND is not a huge section nor discussed in any detail. Rightly so, as Parklands has inclusion in action, with each child valued and supported to achieve in their own way. The passion

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and love that Chris has in abundance comes shining through to the reader.

Chris succinctly describes the time when the school and a new headteacher are aligned and then the intangible magic begins to happen. This could be a handbook for new school leaders, with lists of resources, contacts and strategies interwoven throughout the narrative.

Chris guides us on how to successfully handle local/national media and social media platforms. He also explains his ways for engaging companies to improve funding streams and how that funding is used for the benefit of the children. Not all school leaders are made in the same mould as Chris, but they will enjoy reading and celebrating the dedication of the staff at Parklands in improving children’s outcomes.

PRODUCT REVIEWS

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WHAT THE SCHOOL PARTICULARLY LIKED: The ‘short and sweet’ aspect; Ten Minute Box can fit easily into busy schedules and the pupils enjoyed that the activities aren’t too long so it seems easier to get through.

Being given word lists and sentences for writing meant that I didn’t have to make them up myself; this was a great time saver.

Easy, concise record keeping system.

To find out more, www.fiveminutebox.co.uk/ product/ten-minute-box/

PRODUCT:

THE TEN MINUTE BOX Advertised age range: Y2 (6 years old) through to secondary ndary Skills/curriculum areas: literacy – reading and writing (phonics) honics) Trialled by: Karen Earl, SENCO and specialist teacher Setting: Micklefield School, Reigate ate Overview: Ten Minute Box, a multisensory phonics intervention, is a new product which helps pupils to: learn and retain 50 digraphs read and write the digraph families in isolation, words and sentences improve self-confidence by familiarising pupils with words containing digraphs across the curriculum improve pupils’ independence in learning through them being responsible for the use of the contents of the box improve attention with short, targeted lessons that follow a routine consolidate learning and transfer to long term memory through frequent repetition.

It also enables educators to track areas of need that may point to unidentified Specific Learning Difficulties.

All of the resources needed to teach are in an appealing portable case. The lesson plans are clear and concise and designed for any member of staff to implement. The simple Instruction Manual makes it easy for staff to get started using the Ten Minute Box. Additional training is available but is not essential.

The Ten Minute Box also includes pre and post assessments as well as easy to use tracking sheets, which enables monitoring of progress.

The children that used the box enjoyed doing so, particularly as the activities were time limited and the routine meant that they always knew what was coming next and so were prepared. I used Ten Minute Box with

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tw two pupils. After four weeks, one of them kknew 50 per cent of the digraphs that were uunknown before using the resource, and the o other pupil knew 70 per cent. In addition to this, both pupils began to see patterns between words and were able to think more creatively regarding how to remember certain spelling patterns.

Moving forward I will continue to use Ten Minute Box because as well as being effective, the short amount of time required means that it is an efficient intervention to use with a number of children.

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EVENTS

Events

Diary British Dyslexia Association Practical Solutions Plus – Reading Wednesday 23 November 2022, 09:30 - 15:30 Online and e-learning While aimed specifically at those working with and supporting dyslexic individuals with learning to read, the content of this programme will assist anyone who is involved in teaching reading to improve their skills and knowledge.

To book: https://bit.ly/3PGpLmN Cost: £120

nasen webinars For the full programme and for details of the Webinar Pass, please visit https://bit.ly/3zImMSA

University of East London Unmute now!: How to make sure we hear the voices of people who receive care and support.

Thursday 2 February, 11.00-12.30 Online We explore digital approaches that can be used to amplify the voice of people who receive care and support. Communication experts will share strategies and technologies that can be integrated into your existing processes, offering new ways to capture the thoughts, feelings and aspirations of people we support.

To register: https://bit.ly/3RRfzrH Cost: Free

Nursery World Show 2023 3-4 February 2023 Business Design Centre, London To register: https://bit.ly/3yy61uM Registration free. CPD sessions can be booked and paid for online.

Early Years Seminar: ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review, It’s the only way through!’

Thursday 9 February 2023, 9.30 - 12.30 Online This DfE funded seminar is FREE to attend and is aimed at Early Years and SEND practitioners, SENCOs and managers and Local Authority Teams from across England.

The conference includes a keynote from Annamarie Hassall, nasen’s CEO, and three local authority presentations. Cost: Free To book: https://bit.ly/3Tbu2At

National SEND Conference 2023 21 June 2023 Central London Hear about the latest requirements and expectations in light of COVID-19 and the SEND Review Assess how to successfully meet the standards of the SEND Code of Practice and the SEND Inspection Framework Gain insights on the role of SENCOs and SEND leaders in supporting the delivery of outstanding SEND teaching and support To register interest: https:// bit.ly/3RUlbS7

BETT Show 2023 29-30 March 2023 ExCeL, London On-time registration for Bett ends on 3 March 2023 and is FREE. Late registration (4 March 2023 onwards) tickets will incur a £25 fee. To get a free ticket, simply register on or before 3 March.

To register: https://bit.ly/3ExOh6D

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