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HELPIN H HE ELLP LPIN PIN ING EVER EV ERYO YONE ACHIEVE SEPTEMBER 2021 / ISSUE 29

Relationships, Health and Sex Education Curriculum Outlining some of the key areas for learners with SEND and those who support them

www.nasen.org.uk

Nurturing schools

Helping to manage behaviours and maximise relationship

Sensory support

The use of sensory toys and their role

EMAIL US: nasenconnect@nasen.org.uk

START

#29

Welcome By Amrit Singh, Chief Operating Officer, nasen

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elcome to the September 2021 issue of nasen Connect September brings the start of the new academic year and another opportunity to positively affect the lives of our future generations. I hope you have had a restful summer break and are returning refreshed.

The last academic year was extremely challenging for everyone, especially for those supporting children and young people with SEND. I’d like to extend my sincere gratitude for your unwavering commitment towards supporting and preparing our adults of the future. I am sure there will be further challenges for us to face as we enter the new year with the pandemic still at the forefront of our daily lives. nasen exists to support you in creating an equitable education system for all learners. This includes keeping you updated with developments across the SEND sector and through the development of new resources. nasen Live returns this month as a face-to-face event and I am excited about meeting many of you at the Vox in Birmingham for the best CPD event of the year. We have a packed agenda with inspirational speakers from across the sector in our ‘Inclusion Beyond Covid’ themed event. We are being joined by Apple Education who will showcase ‘Accessibility with Apple’ and there will be technical experts on hand to support delegates with their devices on the day. Please visit https://nasen.org.uk/nasenlive for more details. Our free membership continues to grow, and I am delighted to say we have surpassed 35,000 members that actively engaged with their account this year. There is growing demand for our subscription SEND services and we continue to innovate our products to best serve the sector.

nasen exists to support you in creating an equitable education system for all learners.

Please share the benefits of joining nasen with your friends, family, and colleagues. You, our members, are the lifeblood of all that we do. Thank you.

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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. Registered Charity No. 1007023 Registered Company, limited by guarantee, No. 2674379 (England and Wales)

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INSIDE

Contents SEPTEMBER 2021 / ISSUE 29 REGULARS

7 / Membership Focus

10/ nasen Live

8 / Have your say

47 / Ask the team

9 / nasen Awards

48 / Book reviews 50 / Events Diary

FEATURES

16 / Breaking the cycle of

32 / Diary of a SENCO –

SENCO Joel Beeden shares how active learning can be a game changer to managing behaviour in class.

Pippa McLean examines the role of relationships with families, from a SENCO’s point of view.

18 / The new RHSE

34 / Satellite model

nasen’s Zoe Mather examines the new RHSE curriculum and the key areas for learners with SEND.

Leigh Edser, principal at Dysart School in Surbiton, explains the impact of pursuing a special school-led satellite model of education.

challenging behaviour

curriculum

21 / Support with sensory toys

Jo Grace examines the use of sensory toys and their role in reflective practice.

25 / Severe learning

difﬁculties – what should we know?

A look at severe learning difficulties and the lack of research available to help practitioners meet the needs of pupils.

29/ Nurturing schools

How nurture groups can help manage behaviour and optimise relationships.

be a companion

of education

37 / Supporting learners

with SEND during COVID-19

A look at overcoming barriers to learning following the coronavirus pandemic.

40/ Dogs@School – helping learners with SEND Vicky Cutting outlines the Kingsmead School approach to using canine companions to help learners.

44/ The numeracy and literacy crisis

What impact has lockdown had on literacy and numeracy for learners with SEND? Ryan Stevenson, SEND tutoring consultant, explores.

nasen connect

19 21

Our free membership continues to grow, and I am delighted to say we have surpassed 35,000 members that actively engaged with their account this year.

AMRIT SINGH, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

www.nasen.org.uk

SECTOR UPDATE

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Welcome to September’s Membership Focus e’re delighted to welcome you back to a fresh academic year. We’d like to extend a particularly special welcome to all our new members, who have been signing up to our free membership over this holiday period. It’s a pleasure to welcome you to nasen! This month the nasen team is hard at work preparing for the return of the SEND events. nasen Live 2021 marks the return of face-to-face CPD for SEND and we can’t wait to see you all on 24 September. The much-anticipated event, themed ‘Inclusion beyond COVID,’ is returning to The Vox Conference Centre in Birmingham. We hope you can join us for an amazing range of seminars and workshops from the leading figures in education and SEND.

If you haven’t purchased your ticket yet, we have our final few remaining! Secure yours today at: https://www.nasen.org.uk/nasenlive

If you’re in need of more immediate access to a range of essential SEND resources, why not look at our exclusive members’ resource bank? Access the most up-to-date knowledge and support which is rooted in research and evidenceinformed best practice via our range of tools, top-tips, and FAQs: https://www.nasen.org.uk/resources We greatly value the feedback of all our members and would especially like to hear any suggestions you may have for improving our service. Your opinion counts and we’d love to hear it. Please contact us directly at membership@nasen.org.uk Kind Regards,

The Membership Team

www.nasen.org.uk

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HAVE YOUR SAY

e avsay... Hyour nasenconnect@nasen.org.uk

We would love to hear from you, so please send any comments or letters to nasenconnect@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

search: @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.

SEMH support I recently attended the live session on social, emotional, and mental health (SEMH) hosted by nasen. It was great to have the opportunity to hear the practice of other teachers alongside expert opinion and current research. I hope that there are more planned for the autumn term. Year 4 teacher, Staffordshire

Editor: Great to hear that you enjoyed these sessions. As we refine our CPDL online offer, we are developing ways to integrate asynchronous and synchronous training from the feedback we have had from attendees. Keep an eye on our website for future sessions.

Ambitious for Autism

Thank you for publishing the article about careers for students with autism. As an adult with diagnosed autism, my careers education at school was totally disheartening, to put it politely. It is great to hear that there are dedicated careers people who can support other people like me with realistic and ambitious routes to employment. Trainee teacher, Barking

Editor: Thank you for your feedback, and for the glimpse into your lived experience. Let’s hope that more schools observe this excellent practice and move to ensuring the careers programmes are fully inclusive. To support this, our Whole School SEND partners have a toolkit (https://bit.ly/38sCYvm), as do Ambitious for Autism (https://bit.ly/3kLoigu), that supports schools and employers in inclusive practice. In your trainee teacher role, it would be great if you can spread the word for autism inclusion that also includes employing autistic staff.

nasen connect

SENCO positivity I wanted to thank Pippa McLean for her piece in the May issue of nasen Connect. This has been such a difficult year for me, both personally and professionally. There have been times when I feel that I have been letting everyone down on all sides, despite the positive feedback I receive. It really helped me to seek the support I needed, and I feel much more positive about my role in September and my capabilities. SENCO, Grimsby

Editor: Thank you for the feedback, we will make sure your full response is passed onto Pippa personally. Being a SENCO throughout the most challenging of academic years will have taken a toll on everyone, in their own unique way. Hopefully, the summer break gave many of you time to reflect and recharge.

AWARDS

nasen Awards 2021

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After celebrating last year’s awards online, we are looking forward to being able to celebrate the 2021 nasen Awards at the Waldorf Hilton Hotel in London on 15 October.

he nominations have now closed and so we would like to offer our thanks to those of you that took the time to submit nominations. The judges now have the task of reviewing all the entries to create the shortlist of runners-up and winners. All those that have made the shortlist will be contacted to invite them to the awards and the winner will be announced at the event. We wish all the nominees the best of luck and look forward to seeing you at the event. As we eagerly await the results, here is a reminder of the categories and the sponsors for the award.

If you are interested in sponsoring a category, there are still opportunities available to support this prestigious event. Please contact Alistair Gilbert for more information: AlistairG@nasen.org.uk.

AWA R D

SPONSOR

The nasen Award for Early Years Provision

sponsored by Nursery World www.nurseryworld.co.uk

The nasen Award for Primary Provision

sponsored by GL Assessment www.gl-assessment.co.uk

The nasen Award for Secondary Provision The nasen Award for Post 16-25 Provision

sponsored by Brain in Hand https://braininhand.co.uk

Provision of the Year

sponsored by NEU https://neu.org.uk

Learning Support Staff of the Year Award

sponsored by Axcis https://www.axcis.co.uk

The David Ryan Publication Award International Award

www.nasen.org.uk

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NASEN LIVE

nasen

Live 2021

is just around the corner!

24 September, The Vox Conference Centre, Birmingham 9.30am – 4.30pm

For many education professionals, the prestigious nasen Live 2021 conference will be the first opportunity they have to come together with like-minded professionals following easing of Covid restrictions. eturning on September 24 2021, at the Vox Conference Centre, Birmingham, nasen Live promises to bring together an amazing range of seminars and workshops from leading figures in education and SEND. We look forward to having you join us for a fascinating day of sector-leading CPD to help improve support for children and young people with SEND and learning differences. Delegates will also be able to enjoy access to a full exhibition comprised of award-winning suppliers. Explore the latest products, resources, and special offers from some of the sector’s leading SEND organisations. Take a look at our amazing line-up of exhibitors below.

OUR AWARD-WINNING EXHIBITORS INCLUDE: SEN Books: www.senbooks.co.uk

nasen Live is proudly sponsored by: Axcis: www.axcis.co.uk GL Assessment: www.gl-assessment.co.uk Scanning Pens: www.scanningpens.co.uk

Texthelp: www.texthelp.com/en-gb Speechlink: https://speechandlanguage.info Nessy Learning: www.nessy.com/uk Picture News: www.picture-news.co.uk University of Buckingham: www.buckingham.ac.uk Phonic Books: www.phonicbooks.co.uk Mighty Writer: www.mightywriter.co.uk CPOMS: www.cpoms.co.uk ICS Funding: www.ics-funding.co.uk ADHD Foundation: https://adhdfoundation.org.uk Mable Therapy: https://mabletherapy.com GCSE Pod: www.gcsepod.com Targeted Provision: https://targetedprovision.com School Improvement Liverpool: www.schoolimprovementliverpool.co.uk/ HCSA: www.hcsa.com Thrive Approach: www.thriveapproach.com TTS: www.tts-group.co.uk The Dyslexia Shop: www.thedyslexiashop.co.uk IDL Literacy and Numeracy: https://idlsgroup.com Primary Inclusion Team: www.pitreferrals.org Medpac: www.medpac.co.uk WESC Foundation: www.wescfoundation.ac.uk

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Edgehill University: www.edgehill.ac.uk Ruskin Mill Trust: www.rmt.org Brain in Hand: https://braininhand.co.uk uTalk: https://utalk.com/en Equals: https://equals.co.uk West Kirby School and College: www.wkrs.co.uk Five Minute Box: www.fiveminutebox.co.uk Insight to Impact Consulting Ltd: www.insighttoimpactconsulting.co.uk SYNC: www.wearesync.co.uk Century: www.century.tech ORCAM: www.orcam.com/en I Want A Standing Desk: https://iwantastandingdesk.com ABA Horizons: https://abahorizons.co.uk Matchware: www.matchware.com SEND Resources: www.sendgroup.co.uk Invision 360: www.invision360.com RNIB: www.rnib.org.uk The Edwin Group: www.visionforeducation.co.uk Mindview: www.matchware.com

GET YOUR TICKET!

nasen Live 2021 is fast approaching! If you haven’t purchased a ticket yet, you can do so online at www.nasen.org.uk/nasenlive. Tickets are priced at just £99 and prov ide unlimited access to all seminars and the exhibition floor. Delegates can also enjoy free lunc h, regular refreshments, and a complimentary gift bag full of nasen resources and goodies. We look forward to seeing you for the return of the SEND events!

36. 36.Speech Speechand andLanguage LanguageLink Link 37. 37.ABA ABAHorizons Horizons 38. 38.Texthelp Texthelp 39. 39.MindView MindView 40. 40.Primary PrimaryInclusion InclusionTeam Team(SEMH) (SEMH) 41. 41.Neurodiversity NeurodiversityNetworks NetworksCIC CIC 42. 42.Education EducationTraining TrainingFoundation Foundation 45. 45.NAHT NAHT 46. 46.The TheEdwin EdwinGroup Group 47. 47.Shaping ShapingGovernance Governance 57. 57.Dyslexia DyslexiaGold Gold 59. 59.Mighty MightyWriter Writer 60. 60.HCSA HCSA 62. 62.University UniversityofofBuckingham Buckingham

Orange Orange

5.5. Brain BrainininHand Hand 6.6. OrCam OrCam 7.7. ICS ICS 8.8. Mable MableTherapy Therapy 9.9. West WestKirby KirbySchool School&&College College 10. 10.SEND SENDResources Resources 11. 11.School SchoolImprovement ImprovementLiverpool Liverpool 12. 12.Targeted TargetedProvision Provision 13. 13.CENTURY CENTURY 14. 14.CPOMS CPOMS 15. 15.GCSE GCSEPod Pod 18. 18.Invision Invision360 360 19. 19.ADHD ADHDFoundation Foundation 20. 20.RNIB RNIB 21. 21.TTS TTS 26. 26.Axcis Axcis 27. 27.Thrive ThriveApproach Approach 28. 28.National NationalEducation EducationUnion Union 29. 29.IDLS IDLSGroup GroupLtd Ltd 30. 30.Scanning ScanningPens Pens 31. 31.GL GLAssessment Assessment 32. 32.The TheFive FiveMinute MinuteBox Box 33. 33.Sync Sync 34. 34.I IWant WantAAStanding StandingDesk Desk 35. 35.Edgehill EdgehillUniversity University

Red Red

1.1. The TheDyslexia DyslexiaShop Shop 2.2. Nessy Nessy 3.3. WESC WESCFoundation Foundation 4.4. SEN SENBooks Books 16. 16.Phonic PhonicBooks Books 17. 17.uTalk UtalkChatterbox Chatterbox 22. 22.Equals Equals 23. 23.Picture PictureNews News 24. 24.Ruskin RuskinMill MillTrust Trust 25. 25.Medpac Medpac

Green Green

Exhibitors Exhibitors

Point

Catering

Exhibition Area

rin ate

oin

Entrance

Sync

30 31

SENCO Support Service

Speaker Lounge Lounger 46

38 37

Exhibition Area

42 41

24 September 24th Sep 2021 The TheVox VoxConference ConferenceCentre Centre Birmingham Birmingham

nasen nasen LIVE LIVE2021 2021

Seminar Room 1

Seminar Room 2

Research Posters

Main Room

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SECTOR UPDATE

Sector

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

Update nasenconnect@nasen.org.uk

01827 311500

@nasen_org

search: @nasen.org

FINDINGS PUBLISHED FROM REVIEW OF THE NATIONAL AUTISM STRATEGY

Transition support for children with SEND In 2019, a SEND task and finish group was formed to explore how best to support children with SEND within London’s early years sector. This group was an extension of the work of the Mayor’s Early Years Hubs Programme, which ended in December 2020. It included members of education and health teams from the four participating boroughs: Barnet, Newham, Wandsworth, and Merton. One of its key functions was to respond to the London Assembly’s report into SEND provision in London, which recommended that the Mayor’s Early Years Hubs should trial a best-practice template for transition from early years to primary school, exploring the need for a more consistent approach across the capital. The group produced and piloted two key documents, which are available now to download and use: A collection of best practice principles for transition reports in the

early years – the group recommends that all London boroughs review the format, content, and use of their current transition reports against these principles. Go to: https://bit.ly/3eQzWof A transition report template – this can be downloaded and used by all London boroughs to support successful transition of children moving between early years settings, or from an early years setting to school. Download the template here: https://bit.ly/3xVeJ3k The group also explored other identified priority areas, including integrated reviews, inclusion funding and strategic and operational joint working to identify and support children with SEND. For more information about this work, contact Education.Programme@london.gov.uk

nasen connect

The Government has added a summary of findings from its review of the National Autism Strategy Think Autism: call for evidence. Two surveys were carried out to understand autistic respondents’, carer respondents’ and organisations’ experiences and views in four areas: Being Part of the Community, Getting the Right Support at the Right Time, Developing Skills and Independence to the Best of Your Ability and Progress and Priorities for Future Action. Ambitious about Autism and the National Autistic Society were also commissioned to hold focus groups to find out more about the experiences of autistic children, young people and adults, their families, and unpaid carers, across different areas of their lives. In addition, these focus groups were an opportunity to explore people’s views about where progress had been made since Think Autism, and what needed to be done to improve support for autistic people across England in the future. Read the summary here: https://bit.ly/2VcNenW

Don’t want to wait for the next issue? Check out https://nasen.org.uk/news

New report highlights impact of COVID-19 on children’s speaking The I CAN Speaking Up for the Covid Generation report has been released, highlighting the impact that COVID-19 has had on children’s speaking and understanding. Key findings showed that 1.5 million children are at risk of not being able to speak or understand language at an ageappropriate level. In addition, primary and secondary school teachers are concerned that without further support, children at risk will be unable to catch up. The report revealed that 63 per cent of teachers surveyed think children moving to secondary school in September 2021 will struggle more with their speaking and understanding than those who moved before the pandemic. Sixty-three per cent of teachers surveyed think the UK Government is not providing enough support for children to help with their speaking and understanding. The report set out recommendations for the Government, which include: To specify that any new providers for Initial Teacher Training (ITT) will deliver training in speaking and understanding. To include training on speech and language in the Early Career

Framework – including how to identify when a child is having difficulties and where to gain support to help them. In ongoing CPD, to encourage all schools to give all teaching staff opportunities to update their knowledge and skills on children’s speaking and understanding. Recommendations were also set out for schools, which include: Tracking children’s progress in speaking and understanding so that children can get help early. Working in partnership with the local authority, health partners and other providers to ensure that provision is available to support children with spoken language. Putting more focus on supporting children who are struggling with speaking and understanding through the transition between primary and secondary, and put in interventions so that children have the skills in speaking and understanding that they need for secondary school. Access the full report here: https://bit.ly/2UDsrKo

Research highlights Covid experiences of special schools and colleges A new briefing from ASK Research has highlighted the impact of Covid-related disruption on special school pupils’ progress and wider development. The Government stated that all pupils with an EHCP would be offered a place during educational lockdowns. However, this was not possible for special schools and colleges to provide as all their pupils have EHCPs, and some families chose not to send their children in over these periods. These specialist settings are therefore only now beginning the ‘return to normal’ and this study, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, captures their experiences and thoughts on what needs to happen next to support them and their pupils. It is based on a survey of a representative sample of 192 special education providers in England, in-depth interviews with senior leaders from 40 of those settings and in-depth interviews with the parents/carers of 40 pupils who would normally attend them. To access the full briefing go to: https://bit.ly/3BC7wIj

www.nasen.org.uk

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SECTOR UPDATE

All cards are colour-coded in nto sect cti tions i for each health th h topic. Go to: www.ldne.org.uk

LD: NORTH EAST INTRODUCES NEW HEALTH CARDS LD: North East, a local charity tyy supp porting people across North Tyneside who have lived experience of learning disabilities, learning difficulties and autism, has introduce ed new Health Cards to easily exp plain what hap ppens during g a me edical or health ap ppointment. The Health Cards use easy-to-read text and pictures and can be

used in various settings to help reduce fears and anxieties and to help p ask and answer questions. All cards are colour-coded into sections for each health topic. Find out more at: https://bit.ly/3mbBptI

On 20 July 2021, the Department for Education confirmed the continuation of extended powers given to the SEND Tribunal to hear appeals and make nonbinding recommendations about health and social care aspects of education and EHC plans, provided those appeals also included education elements. These extended powers were tested under a national trial, which ran between April 2018 and August 2021. The overarching aims of this evaluation in relation to the two-year national trial were to: assess whether the extended powers were implemented as intended assess user satisfaction; provide indicative evidence of the impacts on children and young people with SEND and on commissioners and services assess any wider implications for the health and social care sectors and the broader SEND system review whether there were lessons for improving the SEND system to prevent and resolve disagreements.

Extended powers of SEND Tribunal made permanent

Read the document here: https://bit.ly/2WdClTD

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Don’t want to wait for the next issue? Check out https://nasen.org.uk/news

nasen announces new CEO Later this month, Annamarie Hassall MBE took up her role as the new nasen CEO this month after being appointed by nasen’s Board of Trustees in August. Formerly the Strategic Director of the National Children’s Bureau (NCB), Annamarie’s four decades of experience in children’s services began with her work in children’s residential and social care before she moved into early years, providing specialist support via the local government. Her advisory role for the Department for Education (DfE) was followed by work within the private sector, where she delivered national programmes on behalf of the governmentt. In her role with the NCB B, she spearheaded d transformational change e, working closely with ministers, DfE, Departme ent for Work and d Pensions (DWP), Public Health England and wider stakeholders. In 2011, she received an MBE E for her dedication to worrking with child dren and families, including her wo ork with children and d young people with SEND D. Speaking about her new w role, Annam marie said: “I am excited to have the opportunity tyy to play a key role within this leading cha arity tyy in the educationn and SEND sector, driving the orrganisation fo or ward, and building on the successs of outgoing CEO, Professor Adam Boddison. I am deeply passionnate about tackling the barriers to o accessing g highquality education, and comm mitted to ensuring tha at teachers, educators, and pra actitioners have the skills and resources they requuire to ena able inclusion, providing specialist support where needed. “We are at a pivotal mome ent in education and SEND. The sector is acute elyy awa are of the disproportionate impact of panndemic-related disruptions to education, and thhe resulting impact on our ability to intervene earlyy, meetting the needs of children and young pe eople. Joining nasen to lead on the devvelopment of the next long-term strategy, esp peciially as the organisation begins markiing its 30th anniversary, presents a wellltimed opportunity to engage stafff, trustees, members and partners, along with system leaders across education, health and social care.”

Elaine Simpson, nasen’s Chair of Trustees, added: “On behalf of the Trustees and the wider team at nasen, I congratulate Annamarie on her appointment as nasen’s new CEO. Annamarie was an outstanding candidate, and we are really excited to work with her as she brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and expertise to nasen’s work at this crucial time. “I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Professor Adam Boddison for his incredible contribution as CEO over the past six years. His work leaves a lasting legacy in the sector as we continue to see sig gnificantt growth in memb bershhip numb bers and impact. In Annnamarie we have fo ound an exce eptional successor who will ensure our work continue es to go from strenngth to strength.””

SEND: old issues, new issues, next steps Published in June this year, Ofsted’s report ‘SEND: old issues, new issues, next steps’ covers the experiences of children and young people with SEND and their families during the pandemic, in the context of the past decade of SEND reforms. The last 10 years have seen reform to the way in which the needs of children and young people with SEND are identified, assessed, and met. This report reflects on these reforms and their impact. It also considers what has been working well in the SEND system over time and areas where the reforms have not had the desired impact. The report focuses on SEND at the start of 2020, when the pandemic began, the number of children and young people who are part of the SEND system, their outcomes and experiences at different ages, and their experiences of receiving services. This sets the context for the findings from Ofsted’s visits to local areas to examine the experiences of children and young people through the pandemic. Read the report here: https://bit.ly/3y10cnF

www.nasen.org.uk

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FEATURE

TEACHING & LEARNING G

Breaking g the cyycle of challeng ging g behaviour Joel Beeden, SENCO at Duckmanton Primary School in Derbyshire, believes that active learning can be a game changer when it comes to managing behaviour in class. t is apparent throughout my school that children who have recently returned are undergoing a period of readjustment. Settling into the new routine has been a bit of a shock to the system. Some students are experiencing grief for lost loved ones. Many have had their home life affected by financial worries as a result of the pandemic. These challenges are particularly exacerbated in my area, which is a small, remote ex-mining village with high unemployment and deprivation levels. At my school, over half of the children receive free school meals and more than a third have special educational needs.

There is no doubt that the changes are having an impact on emotional and behavioural difficulties. This was also borne out in a recent study by researchers at the Universities of Essex, Surrey and Birmingham.

LACK OF ACTIVITY More than two thirds of UK parents have said that their children became less active during the pandemic. Hundreds of hours spent sitting in front of screens during lockdown and the general lack of physical activity are known to be key contributors to challenging behaviour. For children with SEND, this has been compounded by the lack of routine and regular support they had before Covid struck.

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As a SENCO and a sports lead in our school, I see a direct link between physical activity and SEND pupils’ improved wellbeing and behaviour. As a result, we will be incorporating more physical activity into our school day to help children adjust as we creep back to normality after all the disruption.

A PHYSICALLY ACTIVE CURRICULUM A physically active curriculum has been the cornerstone to improving behaviour at our school for some time now. This is not about doing more sport – although that is also important. Instead, it means getting all children up and moving about during their lessons most days of the week. We decided on this approach as we began to notice the positive impact that PE lessons were having on many students. Some of our pupils with SEND who were disengaged and disruptive in the classroom became model students during PE. They

BIO JO E L B E E D E N Joel is a SENCO, sport, mental health, wellbeing lead and promoter of active learning at Duckmanton Primary School in Derbyshire.

Alternatively, we could set up a number hunt, encouraging children to use a map to navigate the playground to find hidden fraction cards with a problem they need to solve. They are asked to calculate the responses as quickly as they can before the stopwatch beeps, adding a sense of urgency and fun to the task. An element of competition can be added to the learning experience too. In an English lesson, teams can race against one another to find the correct answer to a comprehension question or play charades in the classroom to act out the meanings of new words. Children don’t necessarily realise they are learning when you encourage them to become dictionary detectives and spot misspelt words dotted around the room, but the results have shown us the learning is definitely sticking.

THE IMPACT

Some of our pupils with SEND who were disengaged and disruptive in the classroom became model students during PE.

After using active teaching throughout the school, we have seen an improvement in behaviour as well as more enjoyment in class. This is particularly the case for children with SEND and learning differences, who find the active lessons inclusive and accessible. Confidence in maths and English has grown, as has independence within lessons, as pupils relish the opportunity to learn through active sessions that they can confidently engage with.

There is no doubt that the changes are having an impact on emotional and behavioural difficulties.

The best measure of progress was a 98 per cent pass rate in the SPAG test in the year before the pandemic struck. This let us know we are on the right track, and now active learning will be central to our approach to improving behaviour and filling any gaps in learning as a result of the lockdowns. We have seen so much success in managing challenging behaviour thanks to physically active learning that we decided to set up an annual active learning day for the cluster of schools in the local area. We used all available space and committed to spend at least half of the day doing active lessons outside. Each year, this initiative has continued to grow, and it now includes all schools in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, with hundreds of children of all abilities taking part. The initiative sees outdoor class areas be set up so students can jump, hop, and skip their way through active lessons. Going by previous years, there’s no disruption or challenging behaviour to be seen anywhere.

loved taking part in the sports activities and were focused and well-behaved. So, we thought, why not take the element of physical activity, and apply it to other lessons, like maths and English? We started to incorporate activities into lessons with ready-made active lesson plans from Teach Active, which made it far quicker to adapt to the new style of teaching. With this approach, instead of teaching fractions in class, we can take pupils out to the football field where they run around sorting groups of objects into halves, thirds, quarters, or fifths and placing them in hoops.

www.nasen.org.uk

Teachers can download free active lesson plans from www.teachactive.org

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TEACHING & LEARNING

The vital importance of the new Relationships, Health and Sex Education Curriculum

BIO Z O E M AT HE R Zoe is an Education Officer at nasen and as part of the Education Team develops nasen resources and training. Zoe is on hand to provide valuable advice to our members.

nasen’s Zoe Mather examines the new RHSE curriculum, outlining some of the key areas for learners with SEND and those who support them. he new Relationships, Health and Sex Education (RHSE) curriculum, with sex education added for secondary schools, covers many of the same topics as personal, social and health education (PSHE), but there are new statutory requirements for coverage by the end of primary and secondary phases that we should all be aware of. For learners with SEND, this presents issues around stage not age, and schools will be approaching this with a careful eye on ensuring that pupils are supported at the appropriate stage. We must accept that, due to their SEND, our children and young people are more vulnerable. This vulnerability can be quite evident to the outside world and the new statutory nature of this curriculum will ensure that it will be a focus for schools too. Crucially, it also fits well with the Preparation for Adulthood needs, as identified in the Code of Practice.

ADDRESSING RECENT CHALLENGES The launch of the new statutory curriculum could not have come at a more opportune time. The pandemic has seen education move from within the school walls to remote education via laptops and tablets, and then back again. Our young people have been isolated from friends, families and the opportunities for social interaction outside of the home. Additionally, the move to online socialisation has raised other concerns around safety and safeguarding for parents and school staff. As the NSPCC has reported, “because more young people are starting relationships online, and communicating with friends and partners through social media or video apps, the need for the RSE curriculum has never been more important”. The new curriculum also comes as the website ‘Everyone’s Invited’ and Ofsted’s review into sexual abuse in schools and colleges highlight increasingly oversexualised behaviour in many settings. The

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return to settings following lockdown therefore brings its own challenges. For our learners with SEND, the skills required to negotiate relationships, including friendships and more intimate relationships, do not necessarily develop naturally. Time needs to be given to explicitly model, instruct and support them to engage with others in ways that are appropriate. Turn-taking, tolerance and consideration for others are given so many opportunities in the Early Years through play-based, continuous provision, daily opportunities for circle time activities and adults focused on observation and guidance rather than direct instruction. Within this environment, learners with SEND must also be accommodated with direct instruction as they often do not pick up these skills, as their peers do. Many schools are considering continuous provision that extends beyond the Early Years to enable more opportunities for learners to develop these skills.

ForfurtherinformationtheDepartmentforEducation(DfE)haspublishedguidance,CPDmaterialsandvideostosupportdelivery:Teachingaboutrelationships,sexandhealth-GOV.UK(www.gov.uk) ThePSHEAssociationhasaframeworkforteachingforSEND:PSHEEducationPlanningFrameworkforPupilswithSEND(keyStages1–4)|www.pshe-association.org.uk

CONSENT AND AGENCY One of the key issues within the new curriculum is that of consent. When the word is mentioned, it raises the issue of sexual consent, which is important as our young people reach adolescence, but consent goes much deeper than this. From the earliest age, it’s about empowering pupils to assent or not, and it’s about adults respecting this. Establishing personal space and boundaries, showing respect and understanding the differences between appropriate and inappropriate or unsafe physical (and other) contact is fundamental, especially for vulnerable learners. For adults who work around children and young people, the use of appropriate language to request consent is also critical. One of the main recommendations from Ofsted’s review was high-quality training of staff in the delivery of RSHE, and this is important. Having all staff trained in the principles helps them understand the reasons for the use of language and helps ensure this is not just the provision of the RSHE lesson but that it is embedded within the culture and ethos of your setting.

WELLBEING AND LIFE ONLINE The guidance includes particular reference to the distinction between the online world and the real world, although many young people today do not see this distinction; they have grown up in the digital universe and it is simply a part of their life. This brings its own challenges, especially for learners with SEND, as a friend made online is as real and valid to them as a friend in the classroom.

Having permission to devote time to the promotion of good mental health alongside the roll out of the mental health leads will emphasise to pupils how important this part of their health education is to their overall wellbeing. There is evidence that children with learning disabilities are four and a half times more likely to have mental health problems than those without a learning disability. Ensuring that self-regulation is part of the curriculum and developing strategies to keep their mental wellbeing at the forefront There is evidence that children of their holistic development with learning disabilities are can only be celebrated.

To us adults, their online ‘friend’ is a stranger, and we can often assume that, because four and a half times more we have taught them about likely to have mental health CLEAR WITH PARENTS stranger danger, they will problems than those without a One of the most important employ those rules. This altered learning disability. aspects of the whole curriculum perspective is potentially putting is being clear with parents about a large number of pupils at risk. the methods, language and content Rather than simply expecting them to of the lessons that you are delivering within see our point of view, we must enter their your setting. This will help them to engage world and understand that, for them, there is and support their child’s learning outside of no difference. Tailoring schemes of work to the school environment. A recent survey by interweave the online/offline discussions will YouGov found that 85 per cent of British help support our young people to stay safe, in parents feel confident supporting their every situation. It therefore should be woven school-aged children with the facts about into relationships teaching, and there is no sex and relationships. However, only 43 harm in revisiting it during e-safety modules. The health education section includes per cent said that they receive support from guidance on mental wellbeing, and this their children’s schools. has been an area of increasing awareness, For some parents, especially if their especially in secondary schools with the rise child has SEND, knowing when to begin of the importance of high-stakes assessments. these conversations and pitching them As I stated at the beginning, this curriculum at the right level can be challenging. could not have been more opportune, with Knowing that school has already initiated several studies into the negative affect of the these conversations, being aware of the pandemic on young people’s mental health language that they have used and exactly providing us more insight into these issues. what has been mentioned so far, can give parents a starting point and increase their confidence. For learners with SEND, it offers the added advantage of parents being able to address this in a context that many schools do not have access to. For example, we teach road safety in the classroom, but it is parents who will be teaching it in context, so ensuring they have the correct information, language and strategies will support the child. It could be that this is included in your published RSHE policy, or that each year group hosts information sessions termly to inform parents – whichever way suits your context. Just remember that this is a team effort, and the most influential part of the team is outside of your setting.

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TEACHING & LEARNING

Support with sensory toys The second in Jo Grace’s series of articles on sensory needs examines the use of sensory toys, and their role in reflective practice. ou may feel that investing in sensory toys is a good way of supporting your students who are struggling with sensory differences. But, for it to be effective, we must understand what it is for, how it is used, who it might be appropriate for and how to support its use. What works for one child will not be appropriate for another. The important thing is the reflective practice. Question why, and who it is for. Think about the child you plan to use the resource with; is it right for them? What does it do? How should it be supported? What about the environment around that activity? What would the progression be?

UNREFLECTIVE VERSUS REFLECTIVE PRACTICE When using a settle jar, we can see it’s useful for calming students down.

The child is momentarily captured by the beauty of the swirling particles and watches them settle. The child appears calm. You conclude the resource has worked. Ongoing, would you expect to see change? At a point in time when that child was heightened, anxious, angry, upset, crying, would you expect handing over the jar to have an effect? It is also possible that you hand over the jar, the child shakes it, and the swirling glittering particles stimulate their vision and excite them. They shake it again and again holding it up to access more stimulation. Although the activity is focused it heightens them rather than calms them. Due to the many different ways of using a simple resource like this to support children with differing needs, I cannot cover them all and still fit on the page, so let’s focus on two big ones: calming and emotional regulation.

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SE TT LE JAR 1 Fill a clear container with water

2 Spoon in a few teaspoons of glycerine or a few tablespoons of clear glue and mix

3 Add glitter or some other small particulate matter

4 Secure the lid, shake and place on a flat surface

The particles will settle to the bottom, and the glycerine or glue act as a thickening agent slowing the fall of the glitter through the water. An easy short cut when making a settle jar is to use glitter glue pens, these contain a mixture of clear glue and glitter, one pen squeezed out into a container will give you both the thickening agent and the glitter for your settle jar. Get children involved: it is a fun activity. Alternatively, settle jars can be purchased from various sensory suppliers.

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TEACHING & LEARNING

A settle jar is useful for calming students down

CALMING Our aim for the settle jar is to use it to support children to feel calm. We will talk about feelings of agitation and feelings of calm and link each to a state of the jar: agitation upset with the agitated swirling particles, and calm with the gradually settling still particles. We will help the children identify what these differing sensations feel like within their own body. For support with this, look up the work of wellbeing specialist Katie White, who uses a playful approach to supporting children in being aware of their embodied self. All too often, children are directed to calm down without being supported to understand what calm is. We are

essentially asking them to do a not-doing. The instruction may be understood as “do not feel what you are currently feeling, instead feel this other intangible thing!” The risk of the instruction “calm down” being misunderstood is that it may come across as a request to suppress emotion rather than regulate it. We want to give children the ability to calm down as a tool they can use for their own wellbeing, not as a punishment. Give children experiences of feeling calm, label the feeling as they experience it, and link it to the visual representation of that feeling in the jar. These experiences could be created through meditation, or listening to calming music, or they could be noticed and seized on as teaching points as they spontaneously occur during a school day. We will also teach children how to calm themselves; guiding them in simple breathing techniques that lengthen the breath cycle and instructing them to relax their limbs. It is a two-pronged approach: teaching the children to recognise how their body feels when they feel calm and teaching the children how to get to a calm state.

All too often, children are directed to calm down without being supported to understand what calm is.

As we do these things, we use the settle jar as a visual reference point. We can use it to help children focus their attention on the particles as they complete breathing exercises. If we are thinking of the jar as a support to meditation, then we must also think of the framing of that experience. Suppose you decided to meditate at home, and you were going to do this by sitting calmly and focusing your attention on a candle flame, or a settle jar, or indeed any other beautiful visual stimulus. Would you want your children running around in the background, music playing or the TV on or would you find a calm spot? An overstimulated child in a busy classroom environment handed a settle jar and told to calm down can no more calm down than you can meditate in a busy shopping centre. So, as we use settle jars to enable children to calm, we will also aim to provide them with an environment that supports this.

EMOTIONAL REGULATION As I begin this section, I’m thinking of a comment made by an autistic girl in response to a settle jar: “Huh, so that’s why they say calm down.” It took me a moment, and then I realised her remark was in relation to the direction in the instruction. Why is calm downwards? If we are asking neurotypical children to emotionally regulate and offering a settle jar as a support for this then the practice described in the section above is ideal. However, with neurodivergent children, it is important to recognise how different their experience may be. It is easy to assume that because people with hidden differences look the same on the outside and show responses that line up with typically developing children, that their internal workings are the same. But what an autistic child may need to know can be very different from what a neurotypical child needs to know.

INTEROCEPTION Interoception is the ability to sense your own emotional landscape, the sensory system that informs you of how your body is feeling. For example, if your interoception tells you that your stomach is churning then you know you are feeling anxious. If your interoception

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How can they calm down if they do not know how they are feeling, and would not recognise calm even if they reached it?

BIO JO AN N A GRA CE Joanna Grace is a Sensory Engagement Specialist, trainer, author and founder of ‘The Sensory Projects’. More information can be found via https://bit.ly/3qDStHA or www.TheSensoryProjects.co.uk

tells you that your cheeks have flushed, then you know you are feeling embarrassed. But what if your interoception doesn’t work; how do you know how you are feeling? You are, of course, still feeling, you may still be angry, frightened, excited, embarrassed, happy, you just do not know it. This is so often overlooked with neurodivergent children. How can they calm down if they do not know how they are feeling, and would not recognise calm even if they reached it? Yes, their external emotional response might read the same as a neurotypical child, but to presume that their needs are the same is, to some extent, denying their diagnosis. One of the biggest dangers with hidden conditions is people disregarding them. Here is the key difference in your approach for this example: you know how they are feeling! You have noticed their agitation and that they need to calm down. What did you see, hear, and observe? In the same way that you taught the neurotypical child to recognise how they feel when they feel calm, can you teach the neurodivergent child how to recognise when they are calm? Here are some examples of what that might entail:

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You notice that they are frowning and invite them to place their hand on their forehead to feel their own frown. You notice that they seem tense and ask them to think about whether their shoulders are up or down, helping them to identify that when their shoulders are up this indicates that they are tense. You notice that they are calm, and invite them to notice how little their body is moving: that their feet and hands are still etc. You offer them a hand mirror and explore their expression with them, perhaps using your own face as a reference, e.g. “When my eyebrows go down like this it means I am angry, what are your eyebrows doing?” It can seem very counterintuitive to spend time telling someone else how they feel, but to neurodivergent people like myself it can be such a game changer. Once you’ve found ways to identify emotional states, link each to the visual representation of the settle jar and teach methods of moving between the two. As someone who is neurodivergent, this sort of support is a game changer for me, so how much more of an impact would it have on someone with higher support needs?

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LEADERSHIP

What should we know about severe learning difﬁculties? The second in the series of articles from Peter Imray examines severe learning difficulties (SLD) and notes the issues with a lack of specific research to help practitioners meet the needs of these pupils. t is important that the term SLD is not confused with Specific Learning Difficulty tyy (such as dyslexia or dyscalculia) which is properly referred to in Department for Education (DfE) publications as SpLD. Specific Learning Difficulties are exactly that, specific to one area of learning whereas Severe Learning Difficulties affect every area of learning. The numbers of children and young people with SLD in England is unclear, mainly because the DfE asks schools to indicate the primary (main) area of need. Around 30,000 pupils were identified as having a primary need of SLD (an increase of 17 per cent from 2010) with a further 8,000 having SLD as a secondary need (Public Health England, 2020). This total of nearly 38,000 is likely to be a considerable underestimation, since over 140,000 pupils have autism named as their primary need (DfE, 2019) and many of these are likely to also have SLD. Most research suggests around 70 per cent with an autism diagnosis also have an additional significant learning difficulty tyy (Fombonne, 2005; Pagnamenta et al, 2011). Although what constitutes ‘significant’ is not always

clear, it is evident that the existence of a learning difficulty tyy and the severity tyy of that learning difficulty tyy will have a significant impact on what we teach. And, crucially, the existence of autism will affect how we teach while the existence of SLD (with or without additional autism) will affect what we teach. In any event, the numbers of those with SLD are still relatively small, fewer than one per cent of the whole school population, with just fewer than half of such pupils being educated in mainstream, predominantly primary, schools. This number has been declining in recent years as more parents have chosen special(ist) schools, though given that the pressure on special(ist) school rolls seems to be increasing (BBC, 2020 in Cumbria for example), the numbers in primary mainstream may increase.

DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING The DfE used to have a (2012) definition of SLD, though it has now taken that off its website. We might turn instead to Imray and Colley’s (2017) view of an SLD spectrum, covering those who are consistently working betw tween w P4 and the starting levels of the national curriculum.

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EY AR GU E TH AT IM RAY AN D CO LL D W ILL HAVE , SL AL L TH OS E W IT H LE SS ER DE GR EE : OR ER AT RE G A TO

ulties * Communication diffic stract concepts * Difficulties with ab tration and attention * Difficulties in concen erm memory h short term and long-t * Difficulties with bot uential memory * Difficulties with seq rking memory * Difficulties with wo information * Inefficient and slow processing speed wledge * Insecure general kno d learning ategies for thinking an * Poorly developed str m solving neralisation and proble * Difficulties with ge 8). p3 17, (Imray and Colley, 20

It is notable that, while Alloway and Alloway (2015) go into considerable detail with case studies on specific strategies that might be suitable for particular learning difficulties, SLD does not feature.

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These are not isolated difficulties but work together to make learning extremely problematic. Further, they present holistically, so that the solution lies in adopting a holistic, rather than compartmentalised, approach to learning. For example, educationalists might consider the difficulties with working memory as resolvable, and there have been a number of studies which seem to affirm this (Cowan and Alloway, 2008; Alloway et al 2009; Klingberg, 2009; Alloway and Alloway, 2015). However, such strategies may be problematic for those on the SLD spectrum since they all rely on a solid base of language (spoken or written) and/or an understanding of abstracts, such as recalling a series of unrelated and de-contextualised pictures in increasingly complex patterns. Researchers further note the relationship betw tween w difficulties with working memory, short-term, long-term, and sequential memory, poor concentration, and attention and poorly developed problem-solving skills. It is notable that, while Alloway and Alloway (2015) go into considerable detail with case studies on specific strategies that might be suitable for particular learning difficulties, SLD does not feature. Davies (2015) argues that working memory is extremely fragile, has a limited capacity ty, y can lead to memory failure if pressed too hard, and is heavily reliant on the ability tyy to maintain concentration on the task in hand. Such overload or distraction leads to information being irretrievably

My Physical Well-being

My Outdoor School

My Music

My Communication

My Play and Leisure

My Dance

Learner

My Citizenship

lost from the working memory (Gathercole and Alloway, 2008), yet a sound working memory seems to be necessary for the control of attention; the two tw w capacities can be seen to be inseparable (Klingberg, 2009). Swanson and Jerman (2006) note a correlation betw tween w memory deficits and difficulties in both maths and reading. Performance depends on speedy and efficient retrieval from the long-term memory, and good temporary storage is crucial when working out mathematical problems and word de-coding. Further, they argue that poor recall of facts from memory increases the cognitive demands of a task, as it then must be calculated, putting additional pressure on problem-solving strategies.

Thinking and Problem Solving

My Independence

The World About Me

My Art

My Drama

WHAT WORKS? In SLD, the problem is the low numbers of research studies done with this group specifically in mind. There is research relating to learners with Down’s Syndrome (DS) but not all are on the SLD spectrum, since most are working at Moderate Learning Difficulties (MLD) levels (Chapman, 2003). This article is therefore partly a plea for researchers to be more specific and to think about the learning characteristics of the children they’re researching, not just the syndrome. This is not a lone UK issue; in their exhaustive, meta-analysis What Really Works in Special and Inclusive Education, Mitchell and Sutherland (2020) reference 352 world-wide, school-aged studies, but only 17 actually mention SLD, and none mention PMLD. As noted by Pring (2004), Porter (2005), Norwich (2013), Ware (2014) and Imray and Colley (2017), there are insufficient academic studies to form an evidence-based opinion on anything related to SLD. Recognising this, Equals (a not-for-profit UK based charity ty) y has written a complete semi-formal curriculum, which they believe is the first of its kind in the world. A practical

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If they learn differently, we ought to be teaching them differently, and teaching them different things (non-academic) curriculum, unrelated to any national curriculum, it is written by experienced and skilled specialist SLD teachers specifically for those with SLD. Equals argues that it makes much more sense to use a curriculum that learners with SLD can access and complete. The Equals curriculum is built on the belief that young people and adults with SLD learn differently from neuro-ty typical, y conventionally developing children. If they learn differently, we ought to be teaching them differently, and teaching them different things (Imray and Hinchcliffe, 2014). However, it is not easy to teach, because it operates on very different pedagogical principles; time spent by teacher and TAs looking over the detailed schemes of work noted in the curriculum is central to success.

FEATURE ➜

BIO DAV I D C OLLEY David has taught children with special needs in primary, secondary and specialist settings. He joined the DfE steering group for Mental Health and Behaviour in Schools and is currently researching the impact of whole school nurturing practices on the wellbeing of children and staff in primary schools. David is an Associate to the School of Education at Oxford Brookes University and a tutor on SEBDA (Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties Association) Masters level Post Graduate Certificates at Brookes. For more information on the courses, visit https://bit.ly/3Bbn99H.

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LEADERSHIP

Nurturing Schools:

how school leaders can optimise relationships David Colley examines the advantages of nurture groups in managing behaviour, and sounds a note of caution for the Department for Education’s new guidance. n a nurturing school, the main motivation and focus is the care and protection of the children as they grow and develop. A nurturing school will use staff training to embed nurturing practices across the school and the development of positive, trusting relationships will inform classroom practice, whole school behaviour policies and decision making at the highest level. Nurture as a whole school approach is developing strategically in key cities such as Glasgow, Scotland, but the philosophy underpinning the nurturing school owes much to the nurture group initiative developed by Marjorie Boxall in London, England during 1970s.

BACKGROUND OF NURTURE GROUPS Nurture groups originated in the 1970s as a response to the growing number of young children being labelled ‘maladjusted’ who were referred to alternative provision shortly after arrival in their mainstream school. Research informing nurture groups indicated that secure relationships and a sense of safety tyy hold the key to positive social and emotional growth. This research concluded that young children exhibiting disruptive behaviour simply needed time to

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FEATURE

LEADERSHIP

catch up with ‘missed early experiences’. Nurture group intervention sought to offer small groups of learners the opportunity tyy to work with two tw w trained adults in a discrete, well-resourced classroom on the mainstream site. Nurture groups were intended to offer a compassionate response to supporting children whose behaviour was often perceived to be disruptive, and children would attend regular sessions each week but maintain connection with their mainstream classroom. Skills such as listening to the teacher, accommodating others in the classroom, or accepting disappointments were actively taught within the nurture group sessions, and then assessed through the Boxall Profile to ensure that each learner worked towards specific socioemotional targets that aligned with their learning needs. When these targets were achieved, the learner would return to full time mainstream education. The success of Boxall’s nurture group initiative in supporting the behaviour, emotional development and the learning of children is well supported by research. Ofsted reported that: “When the nurture groups were working well, they made a

Research informing nurt rture t groups indicated that secure relationships and a sense of safety hold the key to positive social and emotional growt wth. t considerable difference to the behaviour and the social skills of the pupils who attended them. Through intensive, wellstructured teaching and support, pupils learnt to manage their own behaviour, to build positive relationships with adults and with other pupils and to develop strategies to help them cope with their emotions.” Nurture groups now feature in secondary school settings. Student access to a safe base in the school, coupled with the development of trusting relationships within the nurture group, have led to socio-emotional improvements for learners. For example, in a case study cited by Cooke et al (2008), a nurture group attendee in Key Stage 3 saw her reading attainment increase by more than three years within a 14-month period.

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Nurturing approaches offer a direct alternative to current government policy in England, which has reiterated its commitment to ‘improving pupil behaviour’ by founding its latest Behaviour Hub Programme on the guidance offered by Tom Bennett’s publication ‘Creating a Culture: how school leaders can optimise behaviour’.

OPTIMISING RELATIONSHIPS TO HELP BEHAVIOUR While Bennett’s Creating a Culture is not fixated on infraction, punishment, and power in the way that ‘Behaviour and Discipline in Schools’ continues to be, the two tw w documents share a philosophical and pedagogical position around the relationships betw tween w children, young people and adults in schools. In Behaviour and Discipline in Schools, the Department for Education (DfE) provides advice to heads and school staff on the powers that adults have to discipline pupils. A range of punishments include weeding the school grounds, writing lines, running around a playing field and weekend detentions. The term punishment features on 11 occasions in the document and school staff are reminded that they have the power to “confiscate, retain or dispose of property tyy that belongs to pupils” so long as this is

Student access to a safe base in the school, coupled with the development of trusting relationships within the nurt rture t group, have led to socio-emotional improvements for learners. “reasonable in the circumstances”. It could be argued that such punishments contravene the Equality tyy Act 2010, which states that “schools must not victimise a pupil... by subjecting them to any (other) detriment”. The Creating a Culture document offers a clear set of features that maintain the

Gove-Gibb-Bennett trajectory of behaviour guidance to schools that has held sway since 2010. It is apparent in the guidance that the term ‘behaviour’ refers only to the behaviour of the children and there is little emphasis on the effect of the behaviour of the adults in school, which many believe is an essential part of reflection. Creating a Culture includes some laudable themes that emphasise the need for school leaders to be visible; to pay attention to detail and to promote consistent practices across the school. The sharing of best practice betw tween w schools is advocated, along with investment in staff training and a belief that all students matter equally. In the case study examples, Passmore Academy is celebrated for developing a Relationship Charter over a Behaviour policy, and relationships are again alluded to in the ITT TTT Training content referenced in the guidance. But a focus on trusting relationships in school should be driving this guidance and its omission from the list of ‘common features of the most successful schools’ demonstrates where the emphasis lies; on rules, routines and the threat of sanctions.

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SHOULD WE SANCTION BEHAVIOUR? Sanctions such as Internal Inclusion Units are supported by the Creating a Culture guidance and the parameters for their use are set out clearly. Unfortunately, this formal recommendation has opened the door to some schools developing ‘supervised isolation rooms’ that ignore the supportive context and provisos built into Bennett’s original guidance. While Bennett maintains that Internal Inclusion Units can be a “positive outcome” for students and should offer “appropriate, fair and targeted support to help students improve their behaviour”, the BBC has found that some schools have been isolating individual students for up to five days consecutively, including those with special educational needs. Is punishing children with “distressing and degrading” sanctions, as the Children’s Commissioner put it, any way to build the trusting relationships upon which high quality tyy learning is based? The current call to action, led by the National Association of Virtual School Heads and the Attachment Research Community ty, y argues that Government guidance to schools in England should take account of whole school attachment needs, as communicated by all members of the school community ty. y There is a need to nurture wellbeing across the school and value trusting relationships as the foundation for learning and wellbeing. If the Bennett document was revised with the new title ‘Creating a Culture: how school leaders can optimise relationships’ rather than behaviour, this could lead to positive changes. The current themes around visible leaders, staff engagement and attention to detail could remain but the guidance would do more to avoid adult responses that distress or embarrass children. As children and young people have returned to fulltime learning in schools following an extraordinary period of disruption and fear caused by the international pandemic, now is the time to consider nurturing approaches as whole school initiative based on safety ty, y trust, care, and protection.

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The Diary of a SENCO

Be a companion

BIO PIPPA M CL EA N Pippa McLean is a teacher and has been a SENCO for over 12 years. She has taught in the London Borough of Newham, Thurrock and Essex, and is currently a SENCO in a mainstream infant and nursery school.

Pippa McLean examines the role of relationships with families, from a SENCO’s point of view. like September. It’s always a shock to the system after the summer break. The keenly awaited holidays seem so long at the start, stretching out into the distance… so how do we always get back here so fast? Yet here we are, and our bodies and minds have no time to adjust. We just go from zero to 100 in a matter of nanoseconds. But it’s a new season, a new start, a new opportunity, and we have a spring in our step! When you’re a SENCO you embark on a journey with children and parents. You know there’ll be highs and lows along the way, that goes without saying, but you walk alongside them as companions on the journey, seeking to navigate the educational route together with your teams.

With the SEN Code of Practice (2014) came the celebration of person-centred thinking and planning, with everyone working towards the best outcomes for each child and family. Hopefully, good SENCOs and school teams were doing that anyway.

So, September marks another start. On your marks, get set, go! Recharged and with our feet in the starting blocks, we get ready. Ready for people. Any good teacher or teaching assistant knows that at the end of the day it’s all about relationship. Yes, there’s all the other stuff that goes with the job, but it’s the quality of relationship that provides a secure base for learning, trust, belonging and community. These are the foundations on which we build, and we hope parents will see this commitment from the very first interaction with our schools. From having the courtesy to return a phone call when a message has been left by an enquiring parent and the friendly greeting by office staff, to an opportunity for a walkabout tour or time given to support transition planning; all these little things count. They matter because they help to build the bigger picture. Each of our schools will have a reputation in the local community and one of the key questions parents are asking when they’re

considering settings is ‘can I trust this school?’ and ‘can I trust these people?’. And then there are our documents, our policies, and websites. How do these communicate who we are? As SENCOs there’s our shop window; our SEN Information Report on our websites. The one-stop-shop that gives parents a flavour of what our schools are like. Alongside it’s vital that our language also communicates something of relationship, conveying our aspirations, values, and ethos. People need to know they are welcome. Both children and parents. Not a pretend welcome with a loaded ‘and have you looked at other schools in the area?’, or a hesitancy and a visible step backwards when a parent says their child is still in nappies. Yes, there may be different provisions that are better, whether in mainstream or specialist settings but, shamefully, I have heard of some SENCOs downplaying their SEN Information Report content or style, so that they ‘don’t get so many’. Don’t get so many what, exactly? People?

We’re all people. We’re all unique. We all have areas of strengths and areas to develop. In schools, we are people in roles where being person-centred is central. The clue is in the language. Not where people are off-centre, to the side, or in the background, but central, right there in the middle. It’s about relationship. And yes, there’s a cost to walking alongside and journeying with people, but we have to be up for the journey. So, September sees the start of many journeys, but for each child and family the journeys are individual. They’re personal. For many, and the first steps are gentle, tentative, where trust needs to be built – just like at the start of any relationship. And slowly, trust grows with effort, consistent responses, and with time. Day in, day out, week in, week out, people want to know that they’re being invested in. That they matter, that their children matter, that they are not just a name on a new register, but that they are ‘known’, and they are valued. Yes, we’d often like trust to be fasttracked, but that’s not how it works. It comes

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with the daily checking-in, the step-bystep walking. It comes with the journey. So maybe a change of footwear is needed. Maybe it’s less running shoes, with feet in the starting blocks, but more walking boots, ready for the terrain ahead. Ready for the change in season, ready for all kinds of weather. But let’s get them on and make a start.

Be a companion.

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FEATURE ➜

SPOTLIGHT

SATELLITE MODEL OF EDUCATION: Thinking differently at Dysart School

Leigh Edser, principal at Dysart School in Surbiton, led the opening of the school’s first satellite provision two years ago. Here, she explains the impact of pursuing a special school-led satellite model of education. ysart School is an Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ special school in Surbiton, south-western Greater London, for pupils with severe and complex learning disabilities, aged 4 – 19. We have retained our ‘Outstanding’ award for more than a decade, and have implemented a number of significant developments, including adopting a satellite model of education to meet the needs in our local area. We aim to provide pupils with a warm learning environment, supported by a team with a wealth of key experience and high expectations. We feel it is vital to evolve, adapt and see beyond the diagnosis. As such, we recognised that there was a cohort of pupils who needed a different offering from our main school, and here began our decision to expand the school onto an additional site. Part of our values and aims are that pupils are entitled to learn in an environment that evolves with them, and adopting a satellite model of education supports this ethos, as does working in partnership with families and other agencies.

EXPANDING PROVISION We had strong links with one of the local mainstream schools and saw an immediate demand for additional places to support an increasing number of children with SEND in the local community.

To meet this need, we expanded the number of SEND school places in the borough with the opening of our first new satellite provision in 2019. Named Apollo, the provision has a group room, quiet space, two classroom areas and an outside learning environment. Integrating with a nearby former community centre has enabled more inclusion links, facilitating access to mainstream sessions, and opening fantastic life-skill opportunities. Reciprocally it provides additional, and more specialist SEND expertise for Tolworth Infant and Junior Schools with some pupils from these settings joining our Apollo sessions. In addition, the mainstream pupils have greater experience and understanding of people with different needs, which serves to ensure our next generation are more accepting of differences.

WORKING TOGETHER Rachel Nye, headteacher at Tolworth School, said: “With rising demand for specialist school places across the area, addressing the gap in specialist provision is crucial so that children can learn in their communities and in an environment that is right for them. The opening of Apollo next to our mainstream school was an exciting addition to the educational landscape. Strengthening partnerships in this way, between mainstream and special schools across the country, will continue to shape developments in the future to help create more inclusive cultures, increase local

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With rising demand for specialist school places across the area, addressing the gap in specialist provision is crucial so that children can learn in their communities and in an environment that is right for them.

provision, and provide the most effective support for children with SEND.” Staff and pupils are very much part of the Dysart community and access to the main school continues to enable use of specialist facilities such as swimming or soft play as well as theme weeks or celebration assemblies, while staff attend regular whole school meetings, training and social events at the school.

Greater local provision has reduced the need for longer journeys and helps children and young people play a more active role in their home community. It also means that we have the skills and capacity to offer more places to pupils with special educational needs without it having a negative impact on our existing pupils, helping them remain in local outstanding provision. We are effectively maximising choice for parents and pupils.

Adopting a satellite model of education has been successful, there has been good progress and we see children benefit from the work. Speaking personally, the children have astounded me, both educationally and socially; they have flourished and grown so much in a short space of time. They have developed skills in various areas and have benefitted from experiencing opportunities alongside their mainstream

BIO LEIGH EDSER Leigh is principal of Dysart School in Surbiton. Leigh has worked as an SEN teacher for more than 15 years and began her career as an SEN TA in a special school environment.

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FEATURE ➜

SPOTLIGHT We feel it is vital to evolve, adapt and see beyond the diagnosis.

peers, but with the help of a safe secure environment they can retreat to when things become more difficult or overwhelming. Building on this, we are now pushing forward with Dysart’s second satellite provision for KS2, Apollo 2, which we plan to open this year in a former children’s centre next to Latchmere Primary School. The additional site will cater for up to a total of 16 Key Stage 2 places to ensure that children with additional needs

can be educated in the community in which they live. Ian Dodds, director of children’s services for the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, said: “There is a clear need for more high-quality school places for children with special educational needs in the borough [to enable] children to receive outstanding specialist teaching and learning as well as fantastic mainstream inclusion opportunities, all within their local community.”

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BREAKING WITH THE NORM Often, satellite provision is led by mainstream schools, but we believe there is a place for special school-led satellite provision, and there is much to be gained from adopting this position more frequently; not replacing a mainstream-led approach but instead bringing a different perspective to the process. One parent, Zeinab Malas, sums it up perfectly: Zeinab Malas said: “My son was much happier, interested to learn, started to play more with his toys and with his siblings. He started to tell me about something that happened in the school and from that time until now he has improved a lot; there is a noticeable change in his behaviours and his personality. Even those who knew him before were telling us how much he has changed since he joined this school. As a parent of a SEND child, I know there is a lifetime of worries and stress but at least for now I have no worries – he is in safe hands and I’m very grateful for the opportunity that the school provides.” We, like so many, believe there is a need to think differently, to provide different pathways for children with SEND that help them thrive and flourish. Our school aspires to support children to be accepting and inclusive. The satellite model of education focuses on what children can do, rather than what they can’t do, and this will always be important to us.

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SPOTLIGHT

Supporting learners with SEND during COVID-19 Debbie Craig, parent to a child with ASD, and founder of an online learning and wellbeing platform for children with SEND, examines ways to overcome barriers to learning. he education sector has experienced a turbulent time, and the unrelenting pressure of COVID-19 has stretched teachers, students and parents to the limits. As a result of school closures during lockdown, COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on children with SEND. During the first wave, many schools experienced challenges in providing virtual support for SEND children and differentiated learning online. This resulted in children disengaging from learning and a wider gap. The change in teaching conditions and the contexts in which children learnt during the pandemic also impacted mental health and wellbeing. For some children, stress and anxiety are outcomes of dealing with

major disruption to routine, coping with home-schooling, and the lack of interaction with friends and teachers. Many have not coped well with unexpected changes, and this has affected mental health and wellbeing, as well as performance. Equally, teachers were working in uniquely challenging environments. Specifically, in respect of educating children with SEND, trying to support learning needs with sub-optimal levels of interaction, reduced individual attention, and little one-to-one support; and while technology was deployed in an attempt to provide some sort of educational continuity, it was, unfortunately, not an unqualified success.

LOOKING FORWARD An unsettling time, then, but now, as the pressures have begun to ease, an effective

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recovery strategy is essential. Having the right support in place to ensure children with SEND thrive is a critical success factor. Intuitive and empowering remote learning tools are part of the solution for supporting neurodiverse children going forward, with those that are bespoke to a child’s individual needs offering real value. They must improve outcomes and so provide opportunities to close the gap widened by the pandemic. It is well established that being able to harness children’s specific interests as part of a bespoke learning programme can make a huge difference. There are many examples. An autistic child motivated by making films had an entire learning programme designed by his teachers to be delivered through this medium. Another, fascinated by machinery such as lifts, was

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FEATURE ➜

SPOTLIGHT

The change in teaching conditions and the contexts in which children learnt during the pandemic also impacted mental health and wellbeing.

able to develop his literacy, numeracy, and other skills through studying their design specifications and manuals. These examples show that if technology solutions can exploit such interests, children with SEND can make outstanding progress quickly. Learning, communication, and collaboration can all be improved through innovative technologies. It can be the key to helping neurodiverse students to develop independence and complete tasks without needing additional support, which is hugely important in the development of confidence and a sense of achievement. Enabling consistency and providing structure to routine can also remove barriers to learning. Technologies designed to overcome specific issues through, for example, the creation of schedules to reduce the impact of unexpected changes, the ability to scaffold learning with custom visual resources, and providing all the information learners need in one place, can be key features. While in school, a richer learning environment is important. For example, providing an intuitive, easy-to-use interface to resources and activities that help students achieve tasks independently, and provide the means to track achievements, are hugely beneficial. Supporting children with SEND requires input from all the key people involved in their care and development; parents, teachers, healthcare professionals and the children themselves. Technology has the ability to

BIO D E BBIE CRAIG

open communication and collaboration channels, bringing everyone together regardless of where the child is learning. Recent research undertaken by the University of York examined how COVID-19 has affected the mental health of children with SEND and their families, reporting experiences of loss, worry and changes in mood and behaviour as a result of the rapid social changes that occurred. This indicates that developments in technologies must encompass the mental health and wellbeing of children with SEND, as they are known to be at greater risk than their peers; so, mood measurement to monitor emotions is beneficial here.

IN SU M M AR Y, AN Y IN TE CH NO LO GY US ED US T: A SE ND CO NT EX T M xity complexxity • Take into account the ; of neurodiverse students tion • Encourage; communica and collaboration;

• Increase accessibility; e; turre; tu uctu d struc • Facilitate consistency an ity;; bilility b ab f r round the clock avail ffe • Off • Be easy-to-use; and nt.t. en m me t e environm rtiv • Create a support

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Debbie is parent to a child with ASD. Using her software development background, Debbie created a solution that enables children with SEND to close the learning gap between mainstream learning and additional needs by improving collaboration between those involved in the education of children with SEND. Connect with her via www.limejar.co.uk, @boop_app or www.facebook.com// limejar.boop

Although no technology is likely to address all the elements of such a varied, interconnected set of challenges, solutions developed by those who really understand the distinct, core needs arising from neurodiversity will be the most effective. Supporting children with SEND will be a key priority for the sector going forwards to help remove barriers to learning and reduce the disproportionate impact of the pandemic. As the Government has pledged over £42 million to extend projects for children with SEND, I hope we can start to do better; and find ways to bring long-term, sustainable change to unlock each child’s potential and deliver real inclusion.

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FEATURE ➜

SPOTLIGHT GHT

BIO VICKI C UT T I NG Vicki is Emotional Health Worker and SEND Personalised Programme Mentor from The Kingsmead School. She is a qualified CYP IAPT (Children and Young People’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies) worker and part of the Additional Support Team, receiving clinical supervision through CAMHS. She also has a Counselling Diploma and is an Advanced Drawing and Talking Practitioner. Additionally, she has Animal Assisted Therapy qualifications from The Society for Companion Animal Studies and Animal Assisted Play Therapy and has completed the Autism Family Dog workshops from Dogs for Good.

Can Dogs@School help learn nerrs with SEN ND? Vicky Cutting outllines the Kiingsmead School approach to using canine com mpanions to help p learners. he Kingsmead School is a collective name for a range of educational provisions within the City of Derby for pupils aged 11- 16. Larger than most schools with a similar provision, it includes a Pupil Referral Unit, Special School for pupils with social, emotional and mental health difficulties and a hospital and medical provision delivered at the Royal Derby Hospital and at our Castle site. Our children and young people have all had a challenging experience within the education system before being with us. For our pupils, school life has proved itself to be a difficult and often extremely uncomfortable place. The majority of our pupils arrive with a range of challenging behaviours and many pupils have EHCPs. Others arrive after being permanently excluded, often with literacy and/ or numeracy difficulties as a result of a previously turbulent, or even minimal, education experience. So, how do you transform school into a place that doesn’t merely stop being difficult and uncomfortable, but instead offers comfort and recovery? That’s where Dogs@School comes in as part of our unique offer. There is a considerable body of evidence that suggests that simply being with animals has a therapeutic effect, and an increasing number of organisations are using dogs to work with their clients to enhance wellbeing.

We have been working with dogs for more than 10 years, and we have seen remarkable results with our young people who had struggled to engage with any teaching and learning begin to feel safe and able to attend classes through the support of their relationship with the dog.

SUPPORTING EMOTIONS AND CONFIDENCE Working with dogs has many benefits for pupils, including building confidence and self-esteem. Dogs are used to provide consolation, comfort and can help provide breathing space. Pupils (accompanied by the dog’s handler) can take the dog for a walk within the school grounds or sit with the dog for a few minutes in a quiet space, as well as take part in emotional support sessions. Pupils cannot fail in their relationship with the dog; the dog does not judge or condemn and offers unconditional affection. Pupils learn the principles of good pet ownership and are given a sense of responsibility, and the freedom to express kindness through their contact with the dog. Our new young dog, Wilf (18 months), has Kennel Club Puppy Foundation and Bronze qualifications, and has continued his training throughout lockdown, including having online lessons. Wilf is being trained towards an Assistance Dog qualification as a facility dog through a charity that is a member of Assistance Dogs International. This will give him full rights of access to all locations when he is fully qualified.

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Wilf (with his handler) will then be able to accompany and support pupils outside of the school environment. He has passed the first stage of this process already and we will resume his qualifications when restrictions ease.

ENSURING WELLBEING FOR ALL There are many routes to having a school dog, including private businesses that can advise and set up Canine Assisted Learning within schools. Whatever the route, Animal Welfare is paramount for the success and longevity of working with dogs, and we are involved in developing policies and risk assessments that can inform national guidance to help others seeking to work with dogs in school.

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Wilf is on Instagram as @kingsmeadwilf

FEATURE ➜

SPOTLIGHT

“Wilf is a great listener and makes no judgement over stumbled words or mispronunciation.” Working in a school can be very tiring for the dogs and we are mindful to monitor the welfare of the animals. Wilf has a dedicated place to rest, away from the pupils, and is not in school full-time, and will not be even when fully qualified. This means that we carefully select pupils who might benefit most from working with him so that we can maximise the impact of his working time. Pupils are referred for individual sessions and Wilf mostly works with those who find it hard to engage with agencies to help them towards the next tier of support such as arts or drama therapy, School Health or CAMHS. With this approach, we have seen pupils develop the confidence to verbalise and discuss their emotions. A recent piece of work for Wilf linked us with a pupil in the hospital school. After working with Wilf and speech language therapists during rehabilitation, the pupil was supported to return to mainstream education. We have worked to ensure a link from our support in classrooms to individual targets in EHCPs. For instance, we have developed a literacy box with animal-themed books, magazines, and colouring books that staff can use when Wilf isn’t in school. This has

been particularly effective with KS3 pupils, who love to read to Wilf when he is in and share books with him. Wilf is a great listener and makes no judgement over stumbled words or mispronunciation. We are also lucky that he looks identical to CBeebies Waffle Dog! A Pawpals project has been developed, where our pupils can write to other school dogs, creating links and promoting a sense of community. We have displays where Wilf shares his weekly thoughts and ideas – such as his favourite websites and challenges, and his Word and Joke of the Week. Wilf has his own social media channel, which we can use to send out messages, whether on topics such as snow days, or mental health issues recommendations from Wilf. We have found that pupils feel safe to write to Wilf and this can then be followed up by staff members, informing and tailoring the approach that we take in supporting our pupils.

one child has struggled to engage with PE lessons, but will run happily round the playground with Wilf and the staff. Wilf also attends a lunchtime club once a week, encouraging the children to engage in activities, or take some quiet time and rest. He is especially effective in supporting transitions – meeting and taking pupils to taxis, or between lessons, helping them in new Key Stages and buildings. They feel a sense of pride being able to walk alongside him to class and he can go in and settle them at the start of the sessions. We work with children in care and visit the pupils at the children’s homes. Wilf and his predecessor, Jess (who is now happily retired), have been able to build relationships which encourage playfulness and games in children who might not have had positive play experiences. We can then build on this to engage the pupils and develop a route into more formal education.

KS3 pupils on Wilf Why is it nice to have Wilf in school? Because he is a lovely dog, and he makes me feel happy. He always helps me to learn especially with my reading and I help to teach him tricks. My favourite thing to do with Wilf is hide the ball and catch the ball. Is there anything that you’d like people in different schools to know about Wilf l? That he is a lovely dog, and he cheers people up and that he likes cuddles!

Year 11 pupils on Wilf Why is it nice to have Wilf in school? It is nice to have Wilf in school because he is nice, loving, caring and enthusiastic. What is your favourite thing to do with Wilf? Playing.

PHYSICAL HEALTH Wilf supports physical as well as mental wellbeing. We have focused on supporting physical activity within school;

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Is there anything that you’d like people in different schools to know about Wilf l? He is a therapy dog and when you come to school, he makes you feel welcome. He is beautiful and friendly.

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FEATURE ➜

SPOTLIGHT

The numeracy and literacy crisis – insights from the front line

What impact has lockdown had on literacy and numeracy for pupils with SEND? Ryan Stevenson, SEND tutoring consultant, summarises available data to help paint a national picture. s children start a new year with excitement and trepidation, we now have a better sense of perspective on the last academic year. It was a trying time to teach, while managing class bubbles and quarantine. This has presented its own challenges, with students and tutors spending time in isolation. Emerging through these clouds, we have a better sense of the lost time students have experienced, but are less clear regarding the impact of this, and we don’t yet know how much learning children have retained. The emotional impact of

this period must also be acknowledged, especially on those with SEND. Studies were conducted by McKinsey on the effectiveness of remote learning during the pandemic, with data provided by teachers around the globe. While schools, parents and tutoring agencies adapted innovatively, the study gave the UK a score of 4.9 out of 10 for online effectiveness of remote learning, with 2.8 learning months lost. By comparison, Germany, a top performer, still suffered a loss of 1.7 months of learning. In June this year, Renaissance Learning and the Education and Policy Institute (EPI) released a report tracking 375,000

BIO D R RYA N S T E V E N S O N Ryan is passionate about improving tuition and education for students with SEND. He is a director and co-founder of Bright Heart Education www.brightheart.co.uk. He still actively tutors and has also previously taught A-level Chemistry in a London school.

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students in England in the first half of the autumn term, and 185,000 students in the second half. The study indicated that primary students lagged by 1.7 months in literacy and by 3.7 months in mathematics. For students from disadvantaged backgrounds (receiving free school meals), these figures were 2.2 and 4.5 months respectively. While there was some catchup in the second half of the autumn term (an average of 0.6 months for literacy and one month for maths), this still resulted in an unfortunate net learning loss. Overall, catch-up was lower for students with SEN. In general, conceptual understanding in maths has suffered greatly, and it is clear there is no

easy substitute for a teacher building the foundations in person. The extra attention that students with SEN require for literacy has also come at a cost. So now that there is a better idea of what is lost, how do children catch up?

NEXT STEPS One option is to raise the In general, lesson tempo and volume of conceptual understanding homework. However, as in maths has suffered Harris, one of our maths greatly, and it is clear tutors on the front line, challenges prior to the there is no easy substitute noted: “Many students pandemic. We need for a teacher building the have become overwhelmed to be careful not to let foundations in person. with the workload from our attitudes towards school. Students during the learning veer towards lockdown/online teaching phase the negative as increasing found it difficult to cope and would not pressure is shifted on to students. pay much attention in lessons. When The Government has proposed longer coming back to school there seems to be school days and shorter holidays. However, an influx of work which has raised anxiety as pointed out by some professionals and for many students as the pressure and families already, longer durations can overload of work rises. I think students have a negative impact on attention and are still transitioning in this period and focus, and over-tired primary students tend I have to say I do feel for them.” to create low-level classroom disruption. Shorter holidays may sound attractive to While there is pressure on teachers, parents, but UK teachers currently have caution should be advised against tackling one of the highest workloads in the world. a large problem with a larger hammer. Workload is often cited as the chief cause Many students with special needs already for schools struggling with staff retention. struggled with social and emotional The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) was launched to address the loss in learning time, with a particular emphasis on disadvantaged students. The idea is admirable in principle; however, the allocation of resources has been a challenge and seeking larger budgets for school recovery programmes has taken its toll; as is evidenced by the departure of Sir Kevan Collins. The effectiveness of one-to-one and small group tuition is clear to many; it is hoped the Government sees the importance of this avenue of delivery. As a tutoring agency, we, like many, set out to help where possible, providing free tutoring at a school for small groups of disadvantaged students.

Shorter holidays may sound attractive to parents, but UK teachers currently have one of the highest workloads in the world.

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Many of these students had learning challenges and English as a second language. With many of the students having had no access to remote learning or the right support during lockdown, it took time to put them at ease and for them to then re-engage with learning. However, with patience, encouragement and appropriate support, the students have made good progress. Another solution seen in action, which worked effectively and at low cost, was a school paying its own senior students to tutor those younger and falling behind. While not in the same league as professional tutors, there was a gain by the senior students (if you want to master something, teach it – Feynman), a noticeable gain by the tutees and it all fell within the school budget. This may not be the specialised help that some students need, but would go some way towards alleviating the current crisis. The last 18 months cannot be quickly overcome, nor glibly dismissed. But, along with planned teaching, creative and collaborative approaches can really help children catch up lost learning.

ASK THE TEAM

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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’, formerly ‘Connect with Us’, provides the space to share these questions and answers.

tea m nasenconnect@nasen.org.uk

01827 311500

@nasen_org

search: @nasen.org

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

OVERCOMING PANDEMIC ANXIETY We have a growing number of pupils that are refusing to come to school after the end of lockdown. We have tried a number of strategies that we are able to within school and have also started CAMHS referrals. How can we support them and their families? SENCO, Ipswich This is an increasing problem across all sectors for learners both with and without additional needs. The anxiety created by the pandemic is one issue that we have never had to confront

before. b f For F some pupils, l the h llockdown kd caused d a separation anxiety from the lack of routine and stability. For other pupils, they valued the opportunity to learn in a way that suited them, be that the environment, asynchronous learning opportunities and the decrease in interactions

DEVELOPING SEND AWARENESS As the new academic year starts, I have dedicated training time each term to allocate to an area of SEND of my choosing. I want to support staff with developing their awareness of conditions and their experience of school through the eyes of a child. Are there any resources that would help? Primary SENCO, Lancaster

that they endured within the school setting, such as break times and lunch times. Emotionally Based School Avoidance was reported to be more prevalent around transition between school phases. If we consider that the pandemic has been a huge transition period for young people, then the rise you are seeing is directly as a result of this. The key barriers are the difficulties that the young people have in articulating their distress, which make supporting young people with EBSA (Emotionally Based School Avoidance) challenging. A number of local authorities have toolkits that can help you with strategies and information gathering to support referrals. This is one example: https://bit.ly/38rK4jT

UNDERSTANDING DME

be experienced in the ‘ordinary’ world we live in (https://bit.ly/3DzFIW4). There are also videos and support on different needs via need-specific websites that can be woven into your training to give a fully immersive experience for staff. It would be best to focus on the needs that you have in school and tailor training to meet those first. Think carefully about practice that you may have seen and wish to address in a subtle way.

What an excellent idea for CPD. Getting a truly representative experience of how it feels to have a condition from a child’s perspective can be challenging. There are several videos produced by the National Autistic Society on YouTube that have a child’s and young person’s view of the world and offer insight into the overwhelming sensations that can

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We have a young person starting with us in September that has a diagnosis of DME from his primary school. How do I prepare staff for this? SENCO, Hertfordshire Dual and Multiple Exceptionality (DME) is a term used to describe those who have high learning potential and, in addition to this, have a special educational need or disability. It is very much beginning to get more recognition and Professor Adam Boddison, former CEO of nasen, worked to raise awareness of the need for more support and understanding in this area. There is an excellent paper written by nasen examining the basics of understanding, assessing and the next steps for pupils identified as DME (https://bit.ly/2YhpOzy). There is also a webinar that looks specifically at the support for DME within schools, and how schools can support families. You can access this here: https://bit.ly/38xmFh0.

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REVIEWS

Reviews

MARK. PLAN. TEACH. 2.0 ark. Plan. Teach. 2.0’ is a revised edition of Ross Morrison McGill’s 2017 bestseller, with the addition of a compact illustrated ‘Visual Guide’ booklet. For me, this is its unique selling point. The author rightly recognises that teachers, with their increased workloads, have little time to read a lengthy text and I can see many simply referring to the paperback when they want additional explanations. The writer is clearly an expert and the research is commendable. Each of the three sections in the paperback ends with the evidence for what he has suggested and a summary of the content. In each section, after an introduction, the author includes

10 ideas. In section one, he begins with ‘A secure overview’ and concludes with ‘Verbal feedback is not good enough’. In the second section, he starts with ‘A cognitive process’ and ends with ’Reality Check’. Finally, section three talks about ‘Direct instruction’ before finishing with ‘What improves teachers?’. This book will be useful to all teachers; the author gives multiple practical tips in each category and clearly demonstrates the need for clarity and consistency, crucial for our learners with SEND. As well as suggesting new strategies, I found it reassuring when I could tick things I had put into practice and, for example, congratulate myself on giving my lessons ’A Flying Start’.

Author: Ross Morrison McGill of Teacher Toolkit Publisher: Bloomsbury Education ISBN: 10 1472978625 and 13 1472978622 Guide Illustrator: Oliver Caviglioli Reviewed by: Julia Rowlandson, SEND Consultant and Trainer, Understanding and Supporting Learning (www.us-l.co.uk)

THE KINDNESS PRINCIPLE: MAKING RELATIONAL BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT WORK IN SCHOOLS

Author: Dave Whitaker Publisher: Crown House Publishing ISBN: 978-178135385-1 Reviewed by: Rebecca Hadley, Head of Service at North Star Inclusion Advisory Team.

‘The Kindness Principle’ is an insightful and engaging read which captures the author’s experience, integrity and humour. Concluding with the idea that professionals should learn from those they admire, Dave’s principles, values and relationship-led ethos will ensure his name is placed on many readers’ admiration lists. Dave provides an invaluable insight for educational professionals, irrespective of what stage they are at in their own career. He skillfully integrates personal experiences, theory, and practical approaches, ensuring the reader gains the knowledge to reflect upon their own practice. The text becomes a guide for practitioners to reconsider the systems and zero tolerance leadership styles that continue to shape so many behaviour policies and educational experiences of our young people.

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Setting the tone for change, Dave outlines the importance of developing authentic relationships via unconditional positive regard. Incorporating top tips to help practitioners implement change, the text explores developing self-regulation verses extrinsic reward; punishment not leading to behavioural changes; restorative practice; flexible consistency following personalisation and reasonable adjustments; the role of the SENCO to help shape policy; conflict resolution and debrief using restorative conversation; and theoretical influences and exclusions. I would highly recommend this book for any educational professional. It is thought provoking and outlines a set of principles for every practitioner to create their own legacy of change.

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EVENTS

Events

Diaryy nasen Live 2021 Friday 24 September 9.30am – 4.30pm Vox Conference Centre, Birmingham To book: https://bit.ly/3wvsd5F

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

The Inclusive Secondary Classroom 19 October 3.45pm – 5.15pm 9 November, 3.45pm – 5.15pm 23 November, 3:45pm – 5.15pm

The Engagement Model Tuesday 14 September 3.45pm – 4.30pm To book: https://bit.ly/2X2fkDD

To book: https://bit.ly/36Uwu7F

To book: https://bit.ly/2UwjLWq

To book: https://bit.ly/2UU2vdo

The Inclusive Primary Classroom 7 October, 2pm – 3.30pm 2 November 2pm – 3.30pm 25 November, 2pm – 3.30pm

New to the SENCO Role Thursday 30 September 2pm – 3.30pm Three-part series (first part in autumn, parts two and threein spring):

To book: https://bit.ly/3x2uchv

To book your free place, visit: https://bit.ly/3zt7WiA

https://bit.ly/3yyi7l3

To book: https://bit.ly/3ByLCFN

Assessment & Progress Monitoring of Children with SEND in Mainstream Thursday, 30 September

Positive Dyslexia Ltd Thursday 11 November 10am – 4pm

Autism online conference – a hands on approach Tuesday 9 November 2021 18th National Conference

Preparation for Adulthood 22 September, 4pm – 5pm 20 October, 4pm – 6pm 15 November, 2pm – 4pm

Getting to Grips with Great SEND Governance 14 October, 4pm – 5.30pm 4 November, 4pm – 5.30pm 25 November, 4pm – 5.30pm

Tes SEN Show 2021 Friday 8 October 9am – 5pm Saturday 9 October 2021 10am – 4pm

To book: https://bit.ly/3x0d3VB

To book: https://bit.ly/2STocJu

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Development of TAs with a SEND Focus Friday, 8 October To book: https://bit.ly/3hRiUbD