Send magazine july 2017 digital

SEND Special Educational Needs & Disability

ISSUE 16 July 2017

DIFFERENTIATION Understanding emotional, social & behavioural difficulties

SPATIAL ABILITIES Unlocking future potential

SPIRITED ARTS

End of term art competition

IDE S N I ALSO REVIEWS, , NEWS TURES, FEA HOP, S BOOK LIER SUPP LES I PROF

MENTAL HEALTH

Adapting mental wealth journals for pupils with additional needs SEND Magazine www.sendmagazine.co.uk @sendmagazine

Essential interactive magazine for teachers, carers & parents

Nessy Fingers: Coming July 1st!

Nessy Fingers is the most fun you’ll have learning to touch type!

Our new, upgraded Nessy Fingers is online and tablet compatible, teaching typing through lessons and games on 5 brand new islands, complete with new trophies to collect!

8 reasons to learn touch typing: • Research has shown that learning to type early on, in the first few years of schooling, can benefit student’s reading, comprehension, vocabulary and spelling skills.

• Reduced need for handwriting which can be a challenging area for some people with dyslexia.

• Speed – touch typing is significantly faster than the hunt and peck method. In the future this can lead to increased employability/job prospects, but right now it can mean less time on homework!

• A recent study showed that there is no difference between those with dyslexia and those without when work is typed, but a significant difference when it is handwritten.

• You don’t have to look at the keyboard, allowing you to correct your errors in real-time as you make them, rather than looking up to check after every letter/word/sentence.

• Improved ICT skills.

• It also gives an alternate way to learn to spell, you become used to the pattern and structure of the letters and muscle memory can help you remember spellings.

• Learning to touch type is like riding a bike, once you’ve learnt you will never forget how!

SEND magaz ine exclusive!

Nessy Fingers is du e to be released th is summer but if yo pre-order now for th u e new school year yo u’ll receive 25% off your program to tal! Don’t miss out on this exclusive deal, pre-order at ww w.nessy.com now.

• Lesson 1 - Home Keys • Lesson 2 - Keys A-G • Lesson 3 - Keys H-N • Lesson 4 - Keys P-Z • Lesson 5 - Punctuation

Lessons and games are narrated and subtitled, and a keyboard is visible on screen.

After each lesson you’ll be rewarded with a rosette and directed to the games you can play to develop the skills you’ve just learnt and win trophies.

Collect nuggets for coming first, second or third!

Test yourself against the clock!

The Nessy time trial is unqiue, using full sentences and punctuation to set a personal best for words per minute and accuracy that will be displayed in Mount Glory – your trophy island. Your personal best sets the default Skillo-meter difficulty for all other games.

• Swim as Nessy to set personal speed and accuracy targets • Colour-coding to aid fast learning • Sets a personal best typing target • Skill-o-meter lets you set the difficulty level • Keys are taught alphabetically • Unique time trial test which uses full sentences to assess speed Try our FREE mini-game

Key features: • Rapid learning in just 5 short lessons • Choose from different word lists or input your own!

Visit the Nessy Fingers product page at www.nessy.com and test your typing speed in our mini-game! Compete against other Nessy characters in a 60second race to the finish and find out if you have lightning fingers!

Welcome to SEND Magazine

ThaT’S it, another school year over and time to take a little respite from what has been a very challenging but rewarding year.

We have had to deal with a general election, more Government reforms, a new education minister, and changes to assessment. The findings of the Rochford Report gave us much to think about and led to a new Government consultation which we talk about on page 8.

Within our news section on Page 6 we have a report from GL assessment who, with another recent consultation talk about the potential loss of future generations of scientists, mathematicians or physicists, who have high spatial awareness but currently lack the verbal and communication skills as youngsters.

On Page 10, Jo Egerton and Bev Cockbill talk about the use of ‘mental wealth’ journals with children and young people with special educational needs & disability. Journals written by Marilyn Tucknott and Prof. Barry Carpenter CBE have become an integral part for many teachers, parents and carers of their toolkit within SEND. On Page 14 we look at more aspects of SEND, this month focussing on behavioural, emotional and social difficulties which also links to mental health, which is a major topic in this months’ SEND Magazine.

Many schools are preparing more for those with SEND and profound disabilities by investing in sensory rooms. On Page 18 we interview Katherine Lewis, SENCO at hazel Court Community School, who have recently built a new sensory room, giving an insight to the process from start to finish and the future benefits.

On Page 22 we have an end of term art competition in conjunction with NaTRE the National association of Teachers of Religious Education, ‘Spirited arts’. With many entries coming from within the SEND setting, this competition is an excellent and fun way to focus your children.

We all love horses right? Meanwhile on Page 26, heather Stack, Managing Director of the Local Offer, visits Equine assisted Therapies and explores the wonderful therapeutic power of horses.

Giving some extra food for thought as you plan your new academic year, take a look at our Bookshop reviewing some of the latest resources available to buy on Page 32.

Enjoy your Summer break, take in every minute as we all know, it will pass in a flash and, I will see you all, refreshed and raring to go, with more challenges ahead in September.

Thank you for reading SEND Magazine. Without you we would not exist!

Nick Clarke

Publisher

SMagazine END

Publisher Director Nick Clarke BA (HONS) 07984 306 664 nick@sendmagazine.co.uk SEND Consultant Simon Carnell

Office Manager Helen Clarke info@sendmagazine.co.uk 01455 642 234

Accounts accounts@sendmagazine.co.uk

Subscriptions subscriptions@sendmagazine.co.uk

Contributors Professor Barry Carpenter CBE, Lorraine Peterson OBE, Arran Smith, Heather Stack, Jane Friswell. ©SEND Magazine is published by SEND (UK) Ltd Managing Director Nick Clarke

The views and opinions expressed in SEND Magazine are not necessarily those of the publisher. The publisher cannot be held responsible or liable for any incorrect information, opinions of any third parties or omissions.

No part of this publication can be reproduced without prior permission from the publisher.

Postal Address 42 Cumberland Way,Barwell, Leicestershire. LE9 8HX 01455 642 234

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Contents

P6 NEWS

UK risks neglecting youngsters’ hidden scientific talent, study warns.

P8 NEWS

Education Secretary Justine Greening sets out proposals and announces consultation to create a long-term, proportionate primary assessment system PLUS new launch for Crick Software.

P22 SPIRITED ARTS COMPETITION

End of term activity for children to create their own religious masterpiece.

P26 THE LOCAL OFFER

The healing Power of horses.

P10 MENTAL HEALTH

adapting mental health journals for pupils with additional needs.

P32 BOOKSHOP P14 UNDERSTANDING EMOTION

Latest book releases for SEND.

Emotional, behavioural and social difficulties.

P18 DESIGNING A SENSORY ROOM

Interview with hazel Court Community School SENCO Katherine Lewis. www.sendmagazine.co.uk

July 2017 SEND Magazine

5

NEWS

UK risks neglecting youngsters’ hidden scientific talent

TENS of thousands of highly able children are failing to get good science GCSEs because their innate talents are masked by poor verbal reasoning skills, assessment provider, GL Assessment, has warned. As a result, the country is squandering a large, untapped reserve of young scientists and engineers.

Learners with high spatial abilities, who tend to think initially in images before converting them into words, can excel in science, technology,

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SEND Magazine July 2017

engineering and maths (STEM) subjects. However, if these learners also have poor verbal reasoning skills, this can have a detrimental effect on their exam scores and subsequent careers, GL Assessment believes.

An analysis of more than 20,000 pupils, conducted by GL Assessment, has revealed that

well over four-fifths of children who had both high spatial and high verbal reasoning abilities achieved A*-B across all STEM subjects and English at GCSE last year. But children with high spatial abilities and poor verbal reasoning skills – approximately

4% of the school population or 30,000 at GCSE level – significantly underperformed. This equates to 400,000 children across primary and secondary schools.

Specialists at GL Assessment believe that this is because so much learning and testing in schools favours students with good communication skills, which high spatial, low verbal ability learners tend to find more challenging.

At English GCSE last year, for www.sendmagazine.co.uk

NEWS

instance, 81% of high spatial learners with good verbal skills achieved an A*-B. But among children with the same spatial ability but with poor verbal skills only 24% managed to achieve an A*-B and over a third (36%) scored grade D or below.

What is striking, however, is that the gap in exam performance is not confined to English or the humanities. There is also a significant, if less pronounced, divergence in maths and science subjects in which children with high spatial abilities tend to excel.

In last year’s maths GCSE, for instance, 89% of children with good spatial and verbal abilities achieved an A*-B. Conversely, only 52% of those with high spatial abilities but poor verbal skills achieved the same, a 37 percentage-point difference. 13% of students with high spatial but poor verbal skills failed to obtain a good pass in maths GCSE (A*-C) compared to only 1% of high verbal and high ability children.

In physics GCSE, 86% of children with good spatial and verbal abilities achieved an A*-B compared with 58% of their verbally challenged peers. In chemistry the respective figures were 84% and 62%, and in biology 87% versus 56%.

Children taking a single core science GCSE diverged wildly: 74% of children with good spatial and verbal abilities achieved an A*-B compared with 24% of those with poor verbal skills – a 50 percentage-point difference.

GL Assessment’s findings mirror research in the US. Professor Jonathan Wai of Duke University in North Carolina has warned that students who have high spatial but relatively low verbal scores are likely to be “missed as being talented” because traditional schools systems “value students who are good at reading, writing and doing math”.

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Professor Wai points out that as a consequence we are failing to identify those with highly spatially talents, like Elon Musk (CEO of Space-X and Tesla), who have incredible visual

imaginations and tend to excel at STEM subjects, particularly at engineering. “The question we need to ask ourselves is why we are not doing a better job of finding spatially talented kids at an earlier age and doing everything we can to engage and enhance their incredible ability to envision and engineer our future. What innovations have we already lost because of this?”

There is no intrinsic reason, GL Assessment suggests, why they shouldn’t have performed better if their spatial ability had been identified and their problems with literacy and oracy had been addressed.

“We know that students with a bias towards spatial learning should do well in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and the visual arts.

And we also know that spatial leaners tend to process information in a different way,” Sarah Haythornthwaite, Director at GL Assessment, said.

“Unfortunately, their talents often go unrecognised. Partly because most teachers are excellent communicators and tend to have strong verbal skills, partly because spatial thinkers often don’t speak up in class, and partly because so much of the curriculum and assessment regimes – particularly at primary – are predicated on verbal skills.”

Consequently, because their abilities were too often overlooked and the challenges they had with literacy and oracy not sufficiently addressed, Ms Haythornthwaite said, the country was missing out “on tens of thousands of potential scientists, mathematicians and engineers”.

“

Famous people with high spatial ability include • Elon Musk, CEO of Space-X and Tesla • James Dyson, inventor and engineer • James Watson and Francis Crick, discovers of the structures of DNA • Luiz Alvarez, Nobel prizewinner in physics • William Shockley, Nobel prizewinner in physics

The question we need to ask ourselves is why we are not doing a better job of finding spatially talented kids at an earlier age and doing everything we can to engage and enhance their incredible ability to envision and engineer our future.

What innovations have we already lost because of this?

”

July 2017 SEND Magazine

7

NEWS

Government reforms on primary assessment

Proposals to create a long-term, proportionate primary assessment system set out by Education Secretary Justine Greening.

PROPOSaLS to create a longterm, stable and proportionate system for assessing children at primary school have been announced by Education Secretary Justine Greening.

The plans are aimed at helping give children the skills and knowledge they need to succeed while reducing the burden on teachers and schools. a consultation sought the views on a number of proposals, including the best way to measure schools on the progress children make during their primary education.

The move followed an announcement made by the Education Secretary in October last year, which set out an ambition for a primary assessment system that supports each child in reaching their potential and reducing burdens 8

SEND Magazine July 2017

for teachers while continuing to hold schools to account in a fair way. The government has engaged teaching unions on the proposals, which went out for consultation for 12 weeks.

Education Secretary Justine Greening said: The government has reformed the primary school system to make sure children can master the basics of literacy and numeracy so they get the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in later life.

Now we want to build on that by developing a stable assessment system that helps children learn, while freeing up teachers to do what they do best - supporting children to fulfil their potential.

Russell hobby, general secretary of school leaders’ union NahT, said: “This consultation is the result of months of detailed talks with the

Department for Education. We appreciate the engagement of the Secretary of State with the concerns of school leaders.

The government has listened to many of the principles and recommendations contained in NahT’s independent assessment Review Group Report. There’s more to be accomplished but we’ve made good progress from where we were a year ago.”

The consultation proposal: • improvements to the early years foundation stage profile consulting on how to make improvements and reduce burdens to the existing assessments on children’s readiness to start school at the end of their early education • bringing forward the starting point for school progress measures during primary

education - through the introduction of a new teachermediated assessment in reception, developed with the profession, to ensure schools are measured on how they support every child throughout primary school • reviewing the statutory status of key stage 1 (KS1) assessment - to reduce the burden of statutory assessment for teachers and pupils, the government will consult on making assessments at the end of KS1 - both teacher assessment frameworks and national curriculum tests - in English reading, English writing, mathematics and science nonstatutory once the new www.sendmagazine.co.uk

NEWS assessment in reception is fully established. Under these proposals, schools will still be provided with test materials at KS1 to help them benchmark their pupils and inform parents. The government would continue to ensure academic standards remain high by sampling from schools that administered the tests.

• reducing the burdens of teacher assessment - reducing the burdens on teachers by removing the requirement to submit teacher assessments where the assessment is not used in the accountability of schools. The government is also considering whether there should be greater flexibility for teachers to use their judgement to assess pupils’ ability in writing.

The government has also launched a parallel consultation on the recommendations of the independent Rochford Review, to look at how the school assessment system successfully tracks the progress of children of

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all abilities.

These proposals will ensure there is a suitable level of assessment for children working below the standard of the national curriculum tests. This is a diverse group of children - a high proportion have special educational needs and disabilities

(SEND), some are from disadvantaged backgrounds and some have English as an additional language.

The consultation resulted in a solution which supports these children to progress on to the mainstream forms of assessment during primary school, if and when

they are ready. This ensures that no child is left behind. Schools will then be recognised for the progress they make with all their pupils, regardless of whether they are high, middle or low attainers, and ensuring a child’s background does not hold them back from fulfilling their potential.

July 2017 SEND Magazine

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MENTAL HEALTH

Inquiring Minds

Jo Egerton, Schools Research Consultant, and Bev Cockbill, Training Co-ordinator and Structured Teaching Practitioner in complex learning needs, Chadsgrove Teaching School, Bromsgrove, write about the use of mental wealth journals for pupils with additional needs. aLL children and young people with learning disabilities have a right to positive mental health, but they are at least four times more likely to experience mental health problems than their non-disabled peers (Carpenter et al., 2010; Dossetor, 2009; Emerson and hatton, 2007). as with typically developing children, children with physical and/or learning disabilities who are not resilient struggle to cope emotionally, socially and educationally. Research has shown that therapeutic writing interventions, including journalwriting, can lead to reductions in stress, behaviour difficulties, depression and anxiety, as well as improved coping strategies and educational outcomes (Maclean, 2013; Murray, 2008; Waters, 2010). as part of Chadsgrove Teaching School’s Positive Mental health curriculum for pupils aged 3 to 19 years, the school looked at ways that mainstream Mental Wealth journals written by Marilyn Tucknott could be effectively adapted for their pupils. The journals can be used by small groups of children or during 1:1 child:adult sessions. Each of the four journals (Key Stages (KS) 1 to 4) encourage children to explore therapeutic concepts and develop thinking patterns to support their self-esteem and resilience – described by Marilyn Tucknott as ‘mental wealth’. The developmentally sensitive journals enable children to: • Find out more about themselves and their emotions

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SEND Magazine July 2017

‘Smile box’ containing sensory materials and decorated with the pupil’s hand silhouettes.

• Feel good about themselves • Understand that there is no right or wrong way to be – just their way • Understand what they can do to change how they feel • Discover how they can be mentally healthy • Find different ways to think about themselves.

The teachers’ role was to facilitate a child-led journey towards developing ‘mental wealth’. They received training in supporting pupils through the journals from the journals’ author, Marilyn Tucknott. Eleven pupils with complex needs across the range of key stages took part in the project

between June 2015 and May 2016.

The teachers adopted an action research methodology using an assess–plan–do–review approach (Department for Education/Department of health, 2014), and were guided by a project advisory group.

Throughout the project, teachers collected a range of evidence. They periodically videoed journal sessions (if appropriate) so that levels of pupil engagement during journal activities could be assessed. Other records (e.g. from teachers’ research diaries, focus groups, interviews and pupil feedback) supported this. The project’s consent, assent and other

ethical research issues were aligned with the current British Educational Research association ethical research guidelines (BERa, 2011).

The children’s progression through the journals was not target driven or marked; the emphasis was on personalisation and child ownership and control of their own journal. as the KS2 teacher said:

“It’s the only time really when you shift the priority to the pupils not the …lesson objective… It’s the only time in the week when you say ‘This is yours…. There’s no right www.sendmagazine.co.uk

MENTAL HEALTH Table 1. KS2 ‘Understanding Me’ Journal adaptations (8 sessions) Journal Resilience journey Therapeutic messages pages/topics Introduction to Understanding…

We are all different and all enjoy journals doing different things – there is • My different feelings ‘My feelings’ no right or wrong way to keep • Why it is important to be ‘About me’ mentally healthy mentally healthy ‘Accept me’ • What I can do to be mentally Feel all of your feelings - it is healthy called being alive • The continuum of emotions and the different words to Nobody is happy all the time; it's describe them normal to experience lots of • What makes me unique and special; ways we are different different emotions at any time on the inside as well as on the Everyone is different and this is a outside good thing • What others mean to me; what I mean to others; understanding others and being a good friend

Related activities •

• • • • • • • •

Thinking how people might feel in different situations (using stories, themes, e.g. Elmer the Elephant – being different; My Many Coloured Days – different emotions) Discussing how well picture symbols represent different emotions Emotions hot seat – each pupil makes an emotional face and others have to guess what emotion it shows; take photos of the emotion faces to record in journal Thinking about when pupils might feel those emotions Thinking about things pupils enjoy and are good at Making something to remind pupils of something they love doing so they can look at it when they feel down Sorting a selection of symbols of things pupils can do to keep mentally healthy into ‘Love’, ‘Like’ and ‘Dislike’ categories (e.g. using ‘talking mats’) Visualising experiences – bringing them to mind to change their mood Personalising the colours pupils relate to ‘happy’ and ‘sad’ and creating a happy/sad colour continuum on the computer; showing where they are on the continuum at that moment

sessions were therefore carefully structured to support the pupils in making/understanding connections. They were practical activity based. The teacher created symbolled word banks with vocabulary that linked to the different sessions, and supported pupil recall and conversations.

Table 1 (above) shows how selected Journal pages, page topics, themes and connections from the KS2 journal, Understanding Me, were developed by the KS2 teacher.

KS3 and KS4 The pupil’s delight at being offered her ‘smile box’. or wrong. I won’t give you ticks. It’s yours, and if you don’t want to share, you can [make that decision].”

One pupil, recognising this, commented that it felt good that the journal sessions were all about the pupils, and not about the teachers.

Adapting the journals

adapting the journals for the Chadsgrove pupils involved the scaffolding and personalisation of themes and ideas so that they could connect with the journals’ key mental wealth messages.

Teachers kept records of the adaptations, issue-solving decisions and outcomes. www.sendmagazine.co.uk

KS1

For the KS1 pupils, personalisation related to the experiential. although they had been excited to have their name on the cover of their journal, they were not able to access the activity without the teacher due to lack of understanding or fine motor difficulties. The teacher and the teaching assistant therefore developed and mediated personalised activities related to their chosen pages within a circle time setting.

The sessions focused on ‘Smile’ – making a smile; smiling at others; activities that make me smile. One pupil was delighted by the noise and feel of hard materials.

Together with the Structured

Teaching Practitioner, the staff created and introduced a ‘smile box’ for her containing the materials that made her happy (see above. The eventual aim (not achieved during the project) was for the pupil to be able to request the box to lift her own mood when needed.

KS2

The KS2 group were quite linguistically able, but needed support to understand text, and struggled with writing. at the start of the project, they were able to discuss issues but their emotional understanding was below ageexpected levels, and they did not have the language to identify complex emotions. The journal

KS3 and KS4 pupils were able to discuss the topics in the KS3 journal, Live Out Loud. The teachers and their class teams found that the activities were appropriate but that the concepts and language needed to be adapted to the pupils’ levels of understanding. They needed to scaffold pupil discussions, demonstrating how to use skills of visualisation and reflection, and to provide them with concrete examples and reminders of key words and concept definitions (using printed or symbolled text).

The staff also checked frequently that pupils had properly understood and remembered concepts. They related issues they were discussing to visual or descriptive resources (e.g. emotions colour wheel) and ‘real life’ experiences (e.g. things that they did in the half-term holiday and how these made them feel).

The visual resources created by the pupils were secondary to the discussions, but very necessary for their full understanding.

July 2017 SEND Magazine

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MENTAL HEALTH

Figure 2. The KS3 class ‘Graffiti wall’ adapted from the Live Out Loud journal

KS3/KS4 activity example: The Graffiti Wall

a key aim for KS3-4 classes was to extend the emotional language they used beyond ‘happy’ and ‘sad’ using a Graffiti Wall (see Figure 2) so that they could begin to understand and describe the different intensities of emotion that they experienced. This page in the book was too small, with pupils’ fine motor difficulties, for them to write words in, so the graffiti wall was redrawn as a wall poster that pupils could contribute words to.

The KS3 teacher explained:

[The Graffiti Wall] stops them from saying ‘It makes [me] feel sad’; ‘It makes [me] feel happy’. I said, ‘We’re not saying “happy” or “sad”; we’re trying to think of other words,’ and that’s when [G] said, ‘It makes me feel joyful.’ [F] said his worst chore is drying the dishes, and I said ‘Why don’t you like it?’. and he said, ‘Because you’ve got to wait for the person who’s washing the dishes up and I don’t like it. I don’t like waiting.’ I said, ‘So how does that make you feel.’ and it took a while but he said that it makes him feel ‘impatient’. The Tas are on board with this, so that if [the pupils] talk about something in a different

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SEND Magazine July 2017

lesson, we’ll put [the word] on the wall.

The teachers were also keen to make links from session to session, and for pupils and staff to continue to think about journal topics in between sessions to embed understanding. For some topics, the group created wall charts they could add to during the week, and there were some ‘take home’ thinking activities.

Outcomes for pupils – engagement

Pupils’ engagement with journal sessions was monitored through video observations and teacher research diary report. Pupils’ engaged behaviours were identified and scored under the seven engagement indicators of the Engagement Profile – awareness, curiosity, investigation, discovery, anticipation, persistence and initiation (Carpenter et al., 2011, 2015; Department for Education, 2017). Pupils in KS1 and KS2 showed predominantly ‘mostly sustained engagement’ (score 3) or ‘fully sustained engagement’ (score 4) behaviours when they were directly interacting with their journals or resources linked to them. The remaining engagement scores – 0 (No focus); 1

(emerging/fleeting engagement); and 2 (Partly sustained engagement) – were not in evidence in direct relation to the journals/related resources.

Engagement outcomes were similar for one KS3 pupil. The other two KS3 pupils initially showed the full range of engagement behaviours (score 0-4) with a tendency towards low engagement. however, both pupils became increasingly engaged with journal activities, both within individual sessions and across the research period as demonstrated by the case example below. There was no engagement evidence for KS4 because the discussions were too personal to video.

Some teacher perceptions of journal impact

Three of the four teachers were very positive about the journals’ impact on pupils’ social and emotional development, but also noted that over the research period the pupils had naturally matured, settled into their classes, got to know each other better, etc., which could have affected outcomes. These teachers observed that the thinking behind the journals was different to other PShE materials, and that it was important to grasp this. The journals had given them opportunities to support pupils in a therapeutic way. One teacher commented: “I’ve been teaching for years and never known quite how to help at such an important level… Because [these issues] are written down in the journals, I know that it’s OK to talk about these issues.

The three teachers felt that the journals had lowered barriers within the class group and had given pupils opportunities to discuss issues and concerns that otherwise would not have arisen.

Pupils also became less reliant on adults to mediate interactions with their peers. all the teachers talked about how few opportunities pupils with disabilities get to relate to one another and talk about what they really feel, and how much they bottle up, with the risk of future mental health implications. They described group conversations with pupils during the journal sessions about things that upset them they had never shared before – about being teased about their disability in mainstream schools; their anger about incidents or circumstances in the past; about the loss of people close to them; the personal impact of their disability. When pupils did this, they found their peers shared parallel experiences and feelings. as the KS3 teacher asked rhetorically, ‘Without the stimulus of the journals, when would we ever have had that conversation? When else would we have talked about it?’ The three teachers felt that the journals had created an ‘environment of trust’.

Three of the four teachers also talked about the impact of the journal sessions going beyond the sessions: ‘They’ve talked a lot more about feelings and emotions through other subjects’ (KS2 teacher). Pupils also applied what they learned from the journals in different situations. One pupil, seeing two peers involved in a disagreement, commented to his teacher, ‘Do you think he’s

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MENTAL HEALTH Table showing the time attributed to Pupil G’s varying levels of engagement over three videoed journal sessions

Date 18.1.16

(Journal sessions: 18.1.16, 1.2.16 and 29.2.16) Engagement Duration score (s) 1 90 2

420

4 1 3 4 3 3 1 1

60 1200 612 75 120 105 568 360

1.2.16

1

120

29.2.16

3

90

3

470

3 4 4 4 2

1020 90 136 6840 20

135 0

Engagement score = 0 Engagement score = 1

837

Engagement score = 2 2218

420

Engagement score = 3 Engagement score = 4

Pupil G: Overall video observation engagement scores for the 18.1.16 journal session (above) and the 29.2.16 session (below). (Figures show total time in seconds attributed to each engagement score)

0

0 1580

20

Engagement score =0 Engagement score =1 Engagement score =2

7066 remembered his journals, and what we should do about friendship?’ Teachers spontaneously reflected on how they were bringing points from journal sessions through into other lessons. For example, reminding a pupil, ‘What was our strategy when faced with something we couldn’t do?’

Conclusion

Three of the four teachers involved in the project were whole hearted in their recommendation that Chadsgrove Teaching School committed itself to introducing weekly Mental Wealth journals across the school as part of the Positive Mental health curriculum, and this approach has now been implemented.

They felt that the benefits to the pupils involved and their own www.sendmagazine.co.uk

PShE teaching had been significant. however they emphasised that the benefits had come largely from training received from the journals’ author, which promoted a therapeutic rather than a target based approach, and deeply influenced the way they had approached the journal sessions with the pupils.

Acknowledgement: We would like to acknowledge with thanks the support of the parents, pupils, teachers and teaching assistants of Chadsgrove Teaching School and Professor Barry Carpenter; also South and West association of Leaders in Special Schools (SWaLSS), Marilyn Tucknott (Koa Ltd), author, and Butterfly Print Ltd, publishers of the Mental Wealth journals for funding, resources and support.

Engagement score =3 Engagement score =4

References Carpenter, B., Coughlan, B. and Fotheringham, J. (2010) Mental health and Emotional Wellbeing (Complex needs series). London: SSaT. Carpenter, B., Egerton, J., Brook, T., Cockbill, B., Fotheringham, J. and Rawson, h. (2011) Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities Research Project: Developing pathways to personalised learning (Project report). London: SSaT. Carpenter, B., Egerton, J., Cockbill, B., Bloom, T., Fotheringham, J. and Rawson, h.

(2015) Engaging Learners with Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities: a resource book for teachers and teaching assistants. abingdon: Routledge.

Department for Education (2017) The Rochford Review. London: DfE. Department for Education/Department of health (2014) Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0-25 years.

London: DfE/Dh. Dossetor, D., Caruana, J., Saleh, h. and Goltzoff, h. (2009) Leading the Way in Mental health and Intellectual Disability: a focus on the needs of Children and

adolescents in Schools for Specific Purposes in NSW. Sydney: The Children’s hospital at Westmead.

Emerson, E. and hatton, C. (2007) The Mental health of Children and adolescents with Learning Disabilities in Britain. London: Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities/ Lancaster University.

Maclean, G. (2013) Exploring Children’s Writing during a Therapeutic Storywriting Intervention: a mixed methods study (Ph.D. thesis). Southampton: University of Southampton.

Murray, C.G. (2008) ‘Co-creating scripts with young children to help them feel better’, Teaching Young Children (National association for the Education of Young Children), 2 (2), 10-13.

Tucknott, M. (n.d.) KS1-KS4 mental wealth journals are available from Butterfly Print or Koa Ltd. Waters, T. (2010). Story Links Programme Evaluation: The impact of a parent partnership intervention that uses therapeutic storywriting to support pupils at risk of exclusion. Chichester: University of Chichester.

July 2017 SEND Magazine

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MENTAL HEALTH

Emotional understanding

Teaching and caring for those with SEND can be very challenging. This issue we look at behavioural, emotional and social difficulties.

MEET GARETH: he is clever. he is a keen rugby player. he can play the guitar. he can solve maths problems. But he can‘t always manage his emotions, get on with others or behave appropriately. he has behaviour that challenges.

Facts: People‘s behaviour is a result of both their social and emotional development and their environment – physical, social and emotional. There are many reasons why a child or young person might show behaviour that challenges the adults they learn or live with.

For example they may have difficulties with learning, poor social and emotional skills, earlier experiences such as fragile attachments, going through stressful experiences, bereavement, separation and loss, difficult home circumstances, as well as conditions such as mental illness, attention hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, phobias or anxiety. all children and young people will show difficult behaviour at times but a few show concerning behaviour of such intensity, frequency or over a prolonged period that they might be considered to have behavioural, social or emotional difficulties.

What to look for Children and young people with social, emotional or behavioural difficulties: • are likely to show the behaviour of concern frequently and across a range of situations and contexts • May experience difficulties in making relationships with adults; • May find it difficult to accept

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SEND Magazine July 2017

authority and refuse to accept the direction of adults; • May find it hard to make and sustain friendships; • May experience difficulties learning and playing with other children or young people; • May find it hard to manage strong feelings such as fear, anger, frustration, anxiety or sadness or may express these feelings in ways that might be damaging to themselves or others; • May have poor motivation, give up easily and be reluctant to try new things or challenges; • May find it hard to focus, sustain or shift attention; • May find it hard to cope with change and other transitions; • May find it hard to understand and follow routines, rules and expectations; • May be disorganised and find it

hard to organise their belongings, equipment and their time; • May find it hard to empathise with others; • May find it hard to accept responsibility for their actions and their consequences and to learn from them; • May be withdrawn and reluctant to participate with their peers; • May show physical symptoms of anxiety such as avoiding situations they find stressful, physical symptoms such as headaches and nausea, engage in comfort behaviours such as rocking, nail biting and engage in rituals.

What to do • Find out about your school‘s whole-school approaches to teaching and learning, developing

social and emotional skills, PSE, bullying and behaviour issues. The adoption of approaches such as SEaL (Social and Emotional aspects of Learning) will provide a framework for effective whole school approaches to social, emotional and behavioural development.

• Observe the child in a range of activities and settings, paying attention to social interaction and communication.

• Build up a profile of strengths and areas of need.

• Consider whether unmet learning needs may be contributing to the child‘s behavioural difficulties and whether these need to be addressed.

• Consider the approaches contained in ―creating a positive classroom environment, ―building relationships and developing skills and responding to difficult behaviour given below.

• If necessary develop an IEP / IBP at School action having involved the school SENCO and / or pastoral support team.

• Consider the needs whether a risk assessment is necessary for those learners with BESD who show ― challenging behaviours.

Creating a positive classroom environment • Ensure that activities are varied, interesting and provide appropriate challenge.

• Consider the layout of the physical environment to ensure equipment is easily accessible, movement is safe and that seating is appropriate for the activity.

• Provide clarity about routines and expectations of behaviour, support children to understand and meet these expectations.

• Provide frequent, positive feedback about work and behaviour.

• Capitalise on the child or young person‘s strengths, providing activities in which they can be successful.

• Use rewards consistently and ensures that all children and young people are able to access rewards taking account that some may find that more difficult than others.

• Make consequences for inappropriate behaviour clear and match them to the abilities of the children.

• Provide opportunities to take responsibility for their learning and behaviour by setting targets and challenges.

Building relationships and developing skills • Seek out opportunities to build a

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positive relationship for example through finding out about their interests and making time to talk about them.

• Provide supported opportunities to develop social skills, play skills and to interact with their peers in a safe situation.

• Provide opportunities to learn social and emotional skills through all aspects of the life of the school within a safe environment.

Responding to difficult behaviour • Make rules and expectations clear; check that children and young people understand how to meet these.

• Make instructions or requests specific and clear, preface with the child or group‘s name and use phrases such as “I need you to....., thank you‘or “I want you to ....., thanks‘. allow time for compliance by turning away and coming back

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later to check that they have responded.

• Use least-intrusive approaches to poor behaviour first – for example proximal praise (praising others who have responded to requests), refocusing a child‘s attention on the task or restating rules and expectations to the whole class.

• Do not engage in arguments with children but use techniques such as “partial agreement‘e.g. “I understand that might be so, but I need you to sit quietly now, thank you.”

• Give a clear warning before providing a consequence and follow up on it • Rebuild relationships after giving a consequence. Look for and acknowledge more positive behaviour.

• Use “I‘messages to remind (‘I feel disappointed that...‘,) and “You‘messages to encourage (‘You

know so much about...‘“You make me laugh when...‘) • Do not take poor behaviour personally, calm yourself before responding to behaviour that challenges you.

• Seek the support of colleagues, ask for positive strategies that others have found useful.

Where to find help The school SENCo or pastoral support team Educational Psychology Service Principal Inclusion Behaviour Improvement Officer School health Nurse

Useful Websites Social, emotional and behaviour difficulties association (SEBDa) www.sebda.org Social and emotional aspects of learning (SEaL) http://nationalstrategies.standards. dcsf.gov.uk/ Behaviour 4 Learning– includes a set of materials which address the practicalities of promoting effective behaviour and learning http://www.behaviour4learning.ac. uk/

Useful Books Rogers, B (1995) Behaviour Management – a Whole School approach, Scholastic Rogers, B (2000) Cracking the hard Class - Paul Chapman Publishing Ltd

July 2017 SEND Magazine

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SENSES

Rythym is life

The Ronnie Gardner method (RGM) is a multisensory stimulation method developed by the american drummer and jazz musician Ronnie Gardner. how does this benefit in SEND? Caroline Russell explains.

"Nothing activates the brain so extensively as music," said Oliver Sacks, M.D., professor of neurology at Columbia University and author of ‘Musicophilia’. Brain imaging shows how music lights up so many different areas of the brain so it is the ideal tool to use to encourage and activate neural networks when working with children.

The Ronnie Gardiner Method (RGM) is a multisensory stimulation method driven and measured by rhythm. It aims to increase activity across the networks of the brain and the corpus callosum using music as the portal.

RGM was developed by the american drummer & jazz musician Ronnie Gardiner. It uses several specially developed

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SEND Magazine July 2017

The white matter of the brain and the extensive Corpus callosum communicating between the 2 hemispheres.

RGM aims to increase activity within the networks and across the corpus callosum using music as the portal.

symbol/sound/movement codes which are used to perform

exercises to the rhythm of music.

The method was initially developed to help children understand rhythm & improve coordination problems before it was discovered to have such a major effect as well on many neurological conditions such as Stroke and Parkinson’s. as teachers you are taking responsibility for helping to develop the most wonderful and fascinating organ of the human body - yet the part of the body that is the least understood, the brain.

So why not learn about another

tool that can help train these amazing brains to cope with daily life and all the demands we throw at them?

Music is rhythm and rhythm is structure; an aDhD child struggles without structure so we need to provide a therapy that gives structure. a child with asperger’s takes delight in structure while a child with dyslexia may have problems with phonological skills or timing deficits which relates back to the need for a therapy with structure and rhythym. also pleasurable music increases dopamine levels in the brain; this neurotransmitter is responsible for regulating attention, working memory and motivation and has been shown to be at lower levels in aDhD brains. So these children can gain focus and self-control and improve concentration and memory by using music at school or at home.

The Ronnie Gardiner Method (RGM) can provide this structure; delivering a therapy programme that encourages concentration, attention span, reducing hyperactivity and strengthening social skills.

RGM works to improve balance skills & coordination, increase concentration & memory, stimulate left / right brain communication in gross and fine

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SENSES

motor skills, promote sensory information processing, assist with space-time orientation (timing, pacing, sequencing, motor planning) encouraging fitness and social skills. The Practitioner can control energy levels through the choice and pace of music which is a great option for aDhD. The joy of this method is that there are no limits to the creativity of the Practitioner or the class or individual. There is a lot of fun & laughter which encourages social communication in a group especially when working with games. a mixture of visual instructions or memory tests can be used to challenge or give more variety depending on what is required. Body percussion provides tactile feedback which helps teach & guide levels of physical stimulation. It is an incredibly simple method that has endless possibilities which is what makes it so versatile, especially when working with children.

The focus of RGM is on having fun, encouraging laughter, enjoyment and socialisation as much as improving motor skills. It can be carried out as a full session or just to one track of music used to settle down a class and to help improve concentration. It can be used while standing, walking or in sitting position for the less mobile; in groups or for single participants. however, it is important to remember that RGM is

measureable (unlike some other therapy modalities that use music) so improvements can be recorded easily and efficiently.

Caroline delivered a seminar at the recent SEND Conference Midlands. Here’s what some had to say!

“Fun and practical, can see it being very useful in school.”

Manor High School.

“Loved it!”

Brookfield Primary.

“Found it very interesting and agree with the concept behind the method” South Leicesterhsire College.

Next Introduction course:

September 23rd &24th Central London Contact: info@ronniegardinermethod. org.uk

Caroline Russell is a Chartered Physiotherapist with many years’ experience specialising in the field of Neurology. She trained at Guy’s Hospital and has worked in the NHS and private sector before starting her own company in 2007. She started working with RGM in 2008 and took over running RGM UK in 2014. She uses RGM in classes and one-to-one sessions with adults and teenagers with a variety of diagnoses and loves the variety it gives to treatment regimes. Her goal is to see RGM being used and enjoyed by all ages in all areas of the country and, personally, wants to stay as fit as Ronnie is when she reaches his age!

Thanks to everyone who joined in so enthusiastically at the workshop at the SEND Conference at Sketchely Grange Hotel, PICTURED LEFT. An excellent conference and I look forward to seeing you all again at the next one!

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July 2017 SEND Magazine

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Sensory

Designing a Sensory Room

Interview with Katherine Lewis, a Specialist Communication Teaching Assistant from Hazel Court Community Special School.

a SENSORY Room has been named by learners as The Discovery Room, due to its ability to create an immersive environment where students can discover the wonders of the world around them.

What did you want to achieve through the Sensory Room design?

We had a Sensory Room that was brand new when hazel Court School was built 20 years ago. however, the needs of the cohort of young people that attend our school have changed since the original Sensory Room

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SEND Magazine July 2017

was built and we found that it wasn’t fit for purpose any more.

For some of our learners who have grown up with technology, the Sensory Room equipment appeared archaic and was therefore, not always motivating.

Lots of the equipment was static and items such as the fibre optic lights and bubble tubes often had to be replaced due to breakages or because they had worn out due to old age.

For learners who were full time wheelchair users, the original Sensory Room equipment was difficult to access and floor space was limited for

hoisting. This meant usable space in the room also became an issue. In short, the Sensory Room was not really working for our learners anymore.

Rather than spending money on small fixes and updates, we felt that we should look at the feasibility of redeveloping the room so that it would suit the needs of our entire diverse cohort of learners.

We felt that we needed a room of requirement - a space that could be interchangeable and flexible, whilst being user friendly and very simple to use.

Some of our young people

have extremely complex sensory needs which can result in sensory overload.

It may be the case that they struggle to cope with filtering any visual or auditory clutter. In terms of a Sensory Room, this means that they needed to have a space where the visual stimulation is set at their level — and a quiet, calming space for supporting self-regulation.

We needed products that would provide us with levels of scalability.

We also wanted to have a room that would lend itself to being an immersive environment

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Sensory so that we could use the projected technology to enrich our teaching of the curriculum.

For example, we could use the projection to create an immersive experience of The Blitz and therefore enhance their learning of World War II. We wanted to create immersive environments that allowed the learner to feel that they were in woodland, or a cornfield, or the seaside – places that we all take for granted but may be incredibly difficult to access and experience in real life for some of our young people.

The new Sensory Room had to meet the needs of everyone.

It was also important to ensure that certain elements would not be broken easily.

The room that Sensory Guru designed completely fitted the bill for what we thought we needed.

How have the different needs of people been catered for through the Sensory Room?

The room is a big clear space now, so access is no longer an issue.

When you enter the Sensory Room it is just a blank room — until you turn the different elements on. This means that you can make the space into something different every time you use the space.

You can also personalise it to the learner’s needs. If you know someone has a huge aversion to light you can cater for that, or if you need to have all the

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elements on to capture a student’s attention, you can personalise the room to meet their needs.

There really is something for everyone.

The room is such a versatile space that it has also lent itself to other opportunities that you wouldn’t immediately think of doing with a Sensory Room.

For example, we have one young man who enjoys being a leader and he has been able to run peer led yoga sessions in the Discovery Room. he chose the music and background images and we put mats down so that he could lead a nice calming yoga session.

Yet at other times he has been in there doing the funk jam on the Optibeam and making music.

That lovely space has made that happen. It would not be the same in a busy hall or classroom.

It really does provide a fantastic, ever-changing experience.

Hazel Court strives to improve independence, inclusion, equal opportunities, communication, team work and education. How has the Sensory Room helped to meet these objectives?

The school sets individual learning outcomes for all learners to ensure continuous challenge, progress and personal growth. We also set individual learning outcomes for personal targets when using the Discovery room.

Engagement, participation,

cooperation, sharing and teamwork are key behaviour for learning skills that our learners are showing constantly when using the Discovery Room.

For example, our learners practise their co-operation and turn-taking skills to decide what apps they want to play with on the Magic Carpet, Magic Mirror and on the Optibeam.

There are also lots of opportunities for the staff to take a back seat and for the learners to be the leaders, organisers, decision makers and to develop their social skills.

Our young people also learn a lot about social communication and development. at the end of each session we spend time discussing their likes and dislikes.

Many young people with a learning disability often do not have a reliable yes or no response. Some may say ‘yes’ and that they liked something, because they may think that this is what you want to hear.

They may not have had many opportunities to give their opinions or make choices.

The number and range of amazing apps available in our Discovery Room give our learners plenty of opportunity to make choices and talk about what they like and don’t like.

So, I would say that every single person has benefited from it.

Are there any success stories that stand out?

We had a newYear 7 learner who had trialled using Eye Gaze but could not successfully establish screen engagement.

This young man is very sensory and he is especially interested in experiencing things that he can physically feel and see in close proximity to his face. So, looking at activity on screen did not give him the feedback he was seeking and enjoys. however, since he has been spending time in our Discovery Room he has begun to show interest and interact with the different elements in the Sensory Room, such as the Magic Carpet and Optibeam. as a result of this, his screen engagement outside of the Discovery Room has improved, and his world is expanding beyond that close proximity boundary.

The Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapists at hazel Court School have commented that he has progressed

significantly with his physical development recently. he has become an explorer in our Discovery Room, which is great.

We might have never seen that if we didn’t have the Magic Carpet, or the Optibeam, or it could have been a longer process for him to make that progression.

For another of our learners who has severe physical difficulties, one of his targets is bilateral reaching, which he is able to work on and achieve in front of the Magic Mirror.

We also have one learner, a young man who has autism, complex needs and challenging behaviour, who did not enjoy using the old sensory room. he was also reluctant to engage with our new Discovery Room. however, he found an app he likes on Magic Carpet (the paint splatter app) which he has started to interact well with.

There are very few new things in general that he would interact with, so it is great that he has been able to do this! What we often find, and always hope for, is that skills learned in the Discovery Room are the step to generalising the skills in other places. although this can be a slow process, if the learners can interact with something in the Discovery Room they might start to interact with another activity somewhere else.

Some of our learners can be quite closed down to new experiences - new things can be scary! They don’t know if they are going to like them and they don’t know what will happen!

Our Discovery room is a safe place to try something new at their own pace as it can be personalised to accommodate and overcome any worries.

The Discovery Room has also been successful in that it has got so many staff using it to facilitate exciting and creative sessions with our learners.

There are lots of staff using it that may have described themselves as “technophobes” but they have been surprised at how easy they have found it to use.

How has the Sensory Room changed the way you work?

We have found lots of creative ways to do things.

For example, with a class of learners with very profound and multiple learning disabilities we July 2017 SEND Magazine

19

created an immersive experience that created the effect of us being in the Sahara Desert.

We had the scene projected on the surrounding walls, while the Magic Carpet gave the effect of a camp fire and a scent pot created the smell of burning wood.

For some of our learners who have physical difficulties that mean that they find it easiest to look upwards, we have held cloths above their heads so that the Magic Carpet projects onto the material. This enables the learner to see and interact with the projection taking place above them.

So if I could give advice to anyone, I would say be imaginative.

Look beyond the immediate application of the app and link it to other things. Make the immersion work for you.

Don’t just go in and play a maths quiz, make it about taking turns, saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’, make it about so many other things.

It is about how creative you can be.

For example, on Remembrance Day we projected a corn field onto the walls, while birdsong sounds were played on the Optibeam and the Poppies app was running on the Magic Carpet. Some of our learners

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SEND Magazine July 2017

spent the minute’s silence in this environment and it was amazing.

This wonderful space has provided opportunities for just going in and reading stories with soft lighting and an aura of calm.

Is the Discovery Room value for money?

Yes, it has been well worth it.

You could spend £10,000 on a traditional, static Sensory Room, but we have spent the money on something that is like hundreds of Sensory Rooms all in one. Its versatility means it can be as many rooms as we want.

Our Learners called it the Discovery Room, but I think of it as The Room of Requirement.

For those peoplewho have read harry Potter that is a good analogy. You can open the door and it can be anything!

The technology also means that you can access software updates, which can be cheaper in the long-term.

I would never recommend buying static software again that never changes or updates.

Just the other day we logged onto the Magic Carpet app Store and found there was a new app!

The updates are really exciting.

Other companies that we looked at seemed to be cobbling old products together to make something new, but this is new stuff. There was nothing like this out there.

What advice would you give to people trying to raise funds for a Sensory Room?

Schools need to be creative in this tough financial climate.

Because our school has always been used by community groups outside of school hours, it has enabled us to apply to charities that are willing to donate funds to spend on the good of the community.

If we had applied for funding just for our school we wouldn’t have ticked the right boxes. however, because we have opened our school up to other community groups, it has enabled us to have access to extra money and charities that are willing to donate funds.

Community groups now use the Discovery Room after school, during the week, on Saturdays and throughout the school holidays.

Sensory Guru also let us come to their showroom to try out different products with a small group of our learners before we finalised what elements we wanted to include in the Sensory Room.

Tony Lowry, the lead app designer at Sensory Guru, hosted a brilliant time and we took loads of photos of our learners interacting with the amazing technology, which we included in our fundraising bid.

The photos showed how the technology would enhance learning, personal growth and self-regulation, as well as how we could set learning outcomes and monitor the progress of the learners that use the technology in our school.

Can you describe your experience of working with Sensory Guru?

It has been great. I feel incredibly lucky and that we have got a good thing going for the school. It felt like a really natural, organic process and we are really happy with the results.

Hazel Court is a Community Special School for learners aged 11 to 19 who have severe learning difficulties or profound and multiple learning difficulties and associated needs in the areas of emotional and social and communication and interaction (ASD and or speech and language difficulties) and additional sensory or physical difficulties.

Elements that make up the Discovery Room include: Magic Carpet, Magic Mirror, Optibeam

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Author:

Available to purchase from:

Marilyn Tucknott M.A (Special Educational Needs)

Secondary Resources

Key Stage 3 Live Out Loud

Small and discrete enough to t in a blazer pocket, this Journal looks like a used notebook. The images are gra ti and scribble-like, as if someone had been doodling. The pages appear thumbed and ink-stained. In fact, it looks subversive which is entirely in keeping with the polarised behaviour and opinions of this age group. Neuroscience tells us that the teenage brain is going through a pruning process, reworking its pathways. This Journal allows the young person to explore those things to which they are ‘at cause’ and to which they are ‘at e ect’, asking them to take a position of empowerment as they move into being a young adult.

A5

The Journal takes the form of a journey from articulating apparently super cial preferences, to exploring sensitive hopes and fears. It sensitively explores body-image and gender issues, thoughts of death and defeat, normality and di erence. It introduces the language of emotional intelligence and the nal page invites the young person to write an instruction manual as to how to understand them- the end of the journey and a new place to start.

Key Stage 4 It’s all in the Mind

Subtitled ‘don’t sweat the small stu ’ the Journal’s starting point is that there is much to be angry about- from personal issues to worldwide concerns. It explains that this high state of arousal has an impact upon the body and upon the clarity of the mind. Aimed at 14-15 year olds, it addresses the young person who is feeling overwhelmed, thinking about things that could go wrong and who has a roller-coaster emotions.

B5

The Journal assumes that the young person has done ‘a lot of living’ which has informed his or her attitudes and expectations. The reader is invited to review the usefulness of their current thinking, to engage in a reality-check and to consider a more meaningful future. And to keep the inner-critic quiet!

Each theme begins with a quote that is in itself a challenge. Prompt questions then invite the young adult to frame their viewpoint and to back it up with life experiences or to discard pre-existing expectations.

©Koa Ltd. www.marilyntucknott.com

Butter y Print Ltd. 01706 817248

butter yprint.co.uk enquiries@butter yprint.co.uk

SPIRITED ARTS

Spirited arts & SEND

Searching for an engaging end-of-term activity that your pupils will love? Look no further!

Victory

“My art in heaven work shows myself on a journey trying to overcome cerebral palsy. The person on the hill is myself but the people on the left are like warriors or helpers that help me. The flames on the left and right represents the disability in control but the blue sky and sunshine in the middle represents my body taking back control. On the right in the middle is a whirlpool which is sucking in the demons which is part of the disability. Now I have reached the end of the journey."

Alex Frost (12)

NOW in its 14th year, the Spirited arts competition has attracted over 300,000 participants, averaging 20,000 entrants per year since 2004.

Teachers send the ten best entries from their school to NaTRE for judging; we receive over 2,000 each year. hundreds of UK schools get involved, and we get entries coming from as far afield as Cyprus, australia, Indonesia and South africa.

The annual competition starts at the beginning of every school year and runs through to 31

July, in order to enable teachers to incorporate the art competition into their RE lessons. Many schools have a ‘Spirited arts’ unit of work, or a special learning RE/arts week.

Many teachers write to share experiences of the competition: it has an impact on standards, depth, creativity and enjoyment in RE for pupils aged 4–19.

SEN pupils have produced fantastic work for this competition over the years, including video, outdoor art, photography and paint, often submitted as a group entry.

‘Spirited arts has been a wonderful opportunity for us to celebrate our pupils’ achievements in collage, pottery

Fairness Comes from the Heart

“ I have chosen this theme because I want people to be fair. The deepest thing about my work is the heart because it comes from the heart. The religion that inspired my work was all the religions.

My RE work explains that you don't need religion to be fair. Fairness comes from the heart. I think the work connects to religion because it links all the religions into one group. I have been investigating the different symbols that are linked to religions. This picture is about me not believing in religion and feeling that being fair is more important. I have tried to show my thoughts by using a heart and a thumbs down. The best thing about my work is the heart. I hope that people will notice that fairness comes from the heart. My inspiration came from my mind.”

Kieran Maloney Age 13 Brook Green Centre for Learning (SEN school)

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SEND Magazine July 2017

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SPIRITED ARTS

and dance. We love to respond to the big themes in our own spiritual way. One of our autistic pupils once entered an amazing abstract 'Box of the Revelation', which showed the moment the Prophet Muhammad [pbuh] received the Qur'an for the first time. We have a deep sense of

pride when we see our special school among the winners.’ anne Krisman, Little heath School Judging takes place over the summer break and is always a tremendous challenge, and we award 30–40 individual prizes and three prizes for group work. The winners all receive an amazon

The Elephant’s Spiritual Journey

The children were inspired in our annual spiritual arts week to create an elephant after learning about different Asian festivals. The PMLD children created the saddle and headdress and the rest of the school created the sculpture and painted it. We then used it in a special assembly and the children wrote about the elephant’s journey.

“One sunny morning a peaceful grey elephant stood happily on the African grasslands. He felt lonely so he decided to take a special journey. He started gently walking. On the way he faced many challenges including www.sendmagazine.co.uk

avoiding poachers. He even had to push down trees to have some leaves to eat. It took him ages to do this but

he did not give up.

Later it was pouring down with rain. He went into a cave to get some shelter. Then

ABOVE: Braidwoord School for Deaf LEFT: Lost Son Sculpture, Little Heath

later he dug a nice mud bath to wallow in.

After his mud bath he met a herd of friendly elephants. He was happy because for years he had lived alone. He eyes sparkled with delight. He felt happy to be part of the herd.

This herd was from a special elephant sanctuary. There were people to look after these magnificent beasts.

A month later there was a special festival and he was decorated with a special headdress and a saddle. He led the pride and was proud to lead the pride.

Pupil (13) Welcombe Hills SEN School July 2017 SEND Magazine

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SPIRITED ARTS voucher, and winning schools are also rewarded with a voucher to spend on RE Today resources or training, or NaTRE membership. all entries sent to NaTRE receive certificates of achievement.

The web gallery featuring previous years’ winners and highly commended entries gets hundreds of thousands of hits; do use it with your pupils as preparation for the competition and as good RE. This year’s themes are: • Big, big questions • Standing up for good • ‘The word of God?’ • Where is God? • Belief in action

… or anything else you and your pupils come up with!

You can find more information and details of how to enter on our website at www.natre.org.uk We look forward to seeing your pupils’ work!

NATRE is the subject association for RE teachers and professionals. It works to support those who teach and lead RE in all schools and institutions and at all stages of their career. Go to www.natre.org.uk to find out about NATRE membership, and to access hundreds of FREE resources.

BELOW: Chidi Box, Little Heath School

We welcome entries from all school types from pupils aged 4– 19 (and their teachers if you would like to join in!). Creative entries can be: • drawings • paintings • sculptures • dance • film

RE Today equip teachers with a range of inspiring, practical, easy-to-use and engaging resources for use in your classroom.

• Resources from EYFS to A level • Practical and creative classroom-ready resources and ideas • Special o ers • NEW publications

Visit: shop.retoday.org.uk Email: sales@retoday.org.uk Call: 0121 458 3313 24

SEND Magazine July 2017

NATRE membe rs

SAVE 1

0%

on all R E Today publica tions!

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Meet the Herd – the healing power of horses

The Local Offer

Heather Stack writes about her equine experience with the field of SEND

MY childhood was uneventful, but marked by hardship and a paucity of opportunity. I developed an early love of horses as there were two in the field beside my house in a small

Staffordshire village.

I reflect on the blessings in my early life, which were few in material terms. They were horses, my primary school, the visiting library van, good reading skills

and a voracious appetite for reading, acquired from heaven knows where. horses were my sanctuary and I walked for miles to discover new groups of horses out to grass. I

Case Study One: Stable Relationships Stable Relationships works in partnership with Telford Equestrian Centre, and offers on-site visits to schools in addition to work at the centre. They work with children 5 – 19 years, from mainstream or special schools, most typically those with EHC Plans.

They provide Equine Facilitated Learning, using a knowledge of the way horses and children’s brains react to stress and fear. “All of our work teaches young people about their brains. They learn the importance of being calm around the horses, to keep the horses calm and safe to work with. When children start to experience feeling calm, it opens a door to learning that may previously have been closed. This is key to all the work we do.”

“The response to our work has been overwhelmingly positive. We use measuring tools to provide evidence of our impact, but I

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SEND Magazine July 2017

would linger long over gateways, admiring their beauty.

Many years later, here I am, exploring the burgeoning world of Equine assisted Therapies in the UK. I am keen to discover how

believe one of our biggest indicators of success is that the vast majority of schools re-book with us. We have the most impact on young people when teachers replicate our methods and understanding of brain functioning within their own classrooms.”

“We provide young people with a language that helps them describe their brain states and start to take responsibility for them. This is empowering for young people. It gives them a new opportunity to be responsible, succeed and re-engage with learning.”

Debbie Woolfe, Director.

Pen Portrait: Emotional intelligence, understanding brain states, feelings and emotions, self-belief and self-worth, the importance of calmness and self-control, opening doors to learning.

www.sendmagazine.co.uk

The Local Offer

therapeutic interventions involving horses can make a difference to children experiencing SEN or disability.

What is its impact on children and where does it fit in terms of SEN Support or for those with EhC plans?

There are over 250 organisations in the UK offering some form of Equine assisted Therapy (EaT). Some are heavily subsidised based on fund-raising, at low cost or free, with others charging rates that reflect the value of the therapy. Most are centre-specific, whilst some are non-location dependent, transporting horses out to schools to deliver programmes of work with groups or classes. That model of operation has been favoured by Stable Relationships, based in Telford, West Midlands.

There are others with a branch structure than enables a specific model of working to be replicated across many centres. Riding for the Disabled association has over www.sendmagazine.co.uk

Case Study Two: Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) I was invited to observe two lessons at Lowlands Farm RDA Centre, Warwickshire and meet with parents, teachers, volunteers and Lowland’s Director, Rosanne Pudden, MBE. This visit has been deeply moving and inspiring. I met with 11-year-old Lucy (not her real name) and her mother.

Lucy is transitioning from primary to secondary specialist provision. She is non-verbal, having suffered seizures in early infancy that suspended development at around two years. Her mother feels she is the only person who can ‘read Lucy like a book’.

It was interesting to observe the rapid change in Lucy’s behaviour, from restless agitation on arrival to calm control when on horseback. Her willingness to follow commands from the instructor was remarkable.

Yet despite these indicators of pleasure, self-control and emerging skill on horseback, each visit is not without its challenge. Everything must be perfectly in place for Lucy to make the journey with her mother to the stables.

Familiarity and routine play a vital part in the session’s success as does a detailed knowledge of Lucy’s SEND. Each challenge is met with equanimity by the RDA volunteers who are skilled at interpreting and handling complex, challenging behaviours.

The arrival of a specialist school group of chattering Year 4 pupils set a different mood for lesson two. Five ponies, with two RDA volunteers each were lined up in the arena. The group lesson was purposeful, cheery and fun, stretching skills and giving confidence to even the most timid of riders. Some

beautiful, pin-drop quiet moments of concentration during the lesson belied the state of eager anticipation and excitement amongst the riders only moments before.

The pupils’ receptiveness to instruction, their concentration and listening skills were just some of the qualities the class teacher sees as key benefits of equine-assisted therapy. There was a notable and strong sense of community between these young riders. A willingness to learn, to complete tasks set, to rise to the trot, to control the horse independently, to master horsemanship in short, were evident in each rider.

Pen Portrait: The acquisition of horsemanship, team skills, cooperation, self-control, behaviour regulation, competency, strengthening muscle tone and co-ordination, enjoyment and confidence.

July 2017 SEND Magazine

27

The Local Offer 300 branches throughout England and yet more across the UK and overseas. EaGaLa (Equine assisted Growth and Learning association) also operate along similar lines, with a specific strand of therapy that is replicated through its branches.

Red horse Foundation, based in Stroud, Gloucestershire, describes itself as a Centre for Equine assisted Psychotherapy and Equine Guided Learning.

Many of its clients are children on the looked after register, or those with personal budgets, attending with their care-worker.

In exploring this theme, I have considered the work of RDa, Stable Relationships and Red horse Foundation. My thanks to all for their contributions, help setting up meetings and eagerness to share their work, its impact and outcomes. at a recent mental health conference, I was struck by one presenter’s observation that too much therapy is based around talking through difficulties and finding intellectual solutions.

With some young people, that approach is simply not helpful.

Not enough thought is given to working with emotions and feelings. Equine assisted therapies fulfil that ambition, and provide children with opportunities to regulate negative behaviours or mood states that adversely impact on health, wellbeing and mental health, as well as academic achievement.

I would suggest that we’re only at the beginnings of our understanding of the potential of EaT as a mainstream specialist intervention with children with SEND. here are some areas where benefits can be observed and tracked, often very quickly too.

• Communication skills • Social communication and interaction skills • Connection, friendship, co-

Case Study Three: Red Horse Foundation

My visit to Red Horse Foundation was on the hottest day of the year. My journey was stunningly beautiful and my destination idyllic, save the rather steep hill that had me out of breath as I made my hello’s.

Founders Lisanne and Madeleine have a wealth of experience and qualifications, including in coaching, psychotherapy and counselling. The origins of Red Horse Foundation began with the purchase of two horses specifically for equine assisted psychotherapy. They have grown to acquire a herd of therapy horses, fifteen acres of secluded land and a team of mental health professionals.

I was treated to a tour and a taster Meet the Herd session.

The location for this outdoor psychotherapy is a pastoral idyll and a health benefit in its own right. I met with six horses under the guidance of

SEND Magazine July 2017

world of attachment to emails 24/7 and the constant intrusion of information. The glow of my visit stayed with me for several days after.

Equine assisted therapy (EAT) and Equine Guided Learning (EGL) are a “powerful and effective therapeutic approach that effect direct change on individuals, young people and families. EAT and EGL have their roots in therapeutic riding and are experiential in nature. This means that participants learn about themselves by taking part in activities with the horses and then processing feelings, behaviours and patterns.”

Pen Portrait: Immersive, experiential learning, mindfulness, self-discovery, emotional intelligence, emotional journeys, selfreliance, clear communication and soulfulness

operation and team spirit • Listening skills, attention and concentration • Excitement, pleasure, enjoyment • Self-control and self-reliance • Independent learning skills, and skill mastery • Courage, confidence and independence • Increased self-esteem and improved emotional health • increased physical health, strength and co-ordination skills have you explored Equine assisted Therapy for the children in your care? Do you know where your nearest centre for EaT is? aside SEND budgets, why not use an element of your Sports Premium to fund EaT or even sponsor a horse in partnership with a riding centre offering EaT. EaT could be a tremendous asset for your school. For some children, it could also be a life changer.

Heather Stack is Founder of The Local Offer, a social enterprise striving to transform the landscape of SEND provision. She is available for contractual work with schools, specialist services and local authorities and can be contacted via heather@thelocaloffer.co.uk. The website can be found at www.thelocaloffer.co.uk 28

Madeleine, all swishing off flies in the midday sun, or grazing contentedly. It could not have been a more blissful, calminducing setting.

The session, carefully annotated to give an insight into what a child might experience, was moving and emotionally deep, surprisingly quickly. I was asked to be aware of my senses and of the sights and sounds around me as we waited for a horse to ‘present’ to me. In being asked to describe a horse I felt drawn to, I was surprised by the human parallels in my stream of consciousness. It is powerful stuff and draws out unexpected thoughts and emotions.

Elements of mindfulness suffuse the psychotherapy.

The whole experience had a surreal quality to it and I have pondered since if I have become inured to the healing power of nature and animals, in this busy

Riding for the Disabled Association – RDA http://www.rda.org.uk/ Stable Relationships - http://www.stablerelationships.com/ Red Horse Foundation http://www.redhorsefoundation.org/ www.sendmagazine.co.uk

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Crick Software launches new writing support tool for secondary schools CRICK Software’s childfriendly literacy tool, Clicker, is being used in thousands of primary schools around the world to raise reading and writing standards. Now, Crick has launched an exciting new program for struggling writers in secondary school – DocsPlus.

DocsPlus is an innovative talking word processor that gives students with high incidence special needs the support they need to independently tackle curriculum writing tasks. Teachers can:

l help students organise their ideas and plan writing tasks with the built-in mind mapping tool and audio note creator.

l Offer subject-specific writing frames and word banks to support their learners as they tackle new writing genres and try to incorporate more relevant vocabulary into their work.

l Encourage students to

actively review their own work with the speech feedback tool.

l Save time and money that would otherwise be spent on scribes and readers by using DocsPlus to support students who require additional access arrangements in exams.

“We believe that for many children, the struggle to achieve the same results as their peers stems directly from barriers to literacy,” says Crick Software CEO, John Crick. “We’ve created DocsPlus to help students overcome these barriers and make curriculum tasks much more accessible for them. It offers so much support throughout the writing process; we think that teachers will be very excited by the potential this fantastic new product has to accelerate student progress.”

For further details on DocsPlus, please visit www.cricksoft.com/DocsPlus, or get in touch via 01604 671691 or info@cricksoft.com to arrange a free staff demonstration.

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SEND Magazine May 2017

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SEND BOOKSHOP

Wenn Lawson and Beatrice Lawson - Transitioning together. One couple's journey of gender and identity discovery.

Wenn and Beatrice were born 12 years apart in different countries with different cultures. Both were born as girls. after 19 years in a previous marriage, Wenn entered a same-sex relationship with Beatrice. Little did Beatrice know that over two decades Wenn would transition from a woman to a man. Writing their story together Wenn and Beatrice who are both on the autism spectrum offer a rare insight into an older couple's experience of transition and how Beatrice really felt about the changes.

Jessica Kingsley Publishers £12.99

Joel Shaul The ASD and Me Picture Book

a visual guide to understanding the challenges and strengths for children on the autism spectrum. Packed with colour illustrations and icons this ingenious board book is very helpful for autistic young people to understand who they are.

Jessica Kingsley Publishers £14.99

Margaret Malpas Self-fulfilment with dyslexia: a blueprint for success

Discover how to reach self-fulfilment with dyslexia in this motivating step-by-step guide with case studies and interviews. Margaret through her interviews with inspiring dyslexic characters shows how you can take advantage of unique traits to unlock your full potential and realise your goals using an essential set of life skills.

Jessica Kingsley Publishers £12.99 32

SEND Magazine July 2017

www.sendmagazine.co.uk

Gavin Reid Dyslexia in the early years: a handbook for practice

Given the current focus on preschool support for children aged 3 and 4 this text is a timely addition and looks at early identification and which interventions can help to minimise the impact of dyslexia in young children.

Included are adaptable resource materials designed to target areas such as reading, numeracy language skills, spelling, social and emotional development and problem solving skills.

Jessica Kingsley Publishers £14.99

Matt Mielnick Understanding Sensory Processing Disorders in Children: a guide for parents and professionals

Everything we know about the worlds we live in starts with information we take in through our senses. Explains how the sensory system works and shows how even small inefficiencies in this complex system can impact on a child'sbehaviour. Using examples and metaphor Mielnick describes the variety of sensory processing differences that can occur in children and how to help them.

Jessica Kingsley Publishers £9.99

Charlotte Olsen Suzie goes to school

Its Suzie's first day at school, how is she feeling? Read about Suzie's day and all the things she gets up to in this new social story from Suzie's books.

Suzie Books £5.99 www.sendmagazine.co.uk

July 2017 SEND Magazine

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