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
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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,
8
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