SEND Magazine WINTER 2019 EDITION issue 24 by SEND Magazine

ISSUE 24 WINTER 2018/9

SEND Special Educational Needs & Disability

Magazine for teachers, parents and carers

UNDERTSaNDING

REVISITING ENGaGEMENT

FINDING FRIENDS

autism

Emotional and social behaviour

Networking for young people with SEND

DySlExIa

The hidden facts of dyslaexia

by Professor Barry Carpenter CBE

Diï¬&#x192;culties attending school FaNT WINTE aSTIC R OFFE FROM R WORD S SEE Pa HaRK GE 12

an ESSENTIal part of the teaching toolkit

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Phone: Fax: Email: Online:

01604 671691 01604 671692 info@cricksoft.com www.cricksoft.com

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• ^ĂǀĞ Ɵ ŵĞ ĂŶĚ ŵŽŶĞǇ ƚŚĂƚ ǁŽƵůĚ otherwise be spent on scribes and readers by using DocsPlus to support ƐƚƵĚĞŶƚƐ ǁŚŽ ƌĞƋƵŝƌĞ ĂĚĚŝƟ ŽŶĂů access arrangements in exams.

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5IF *ODMVTJPO 2VBMJUZ .BSLAT *ODMVTJWF 4DIPPM "XBSE What is the Inclusive School Award?

Building Inclusion can never be a finite undertaking or destination. It is the continuum of growing a central belief system that then inevitably guides and directs practice and action. How many times have schools heard the comments:

l “What a wonderful atmosphere!” you so successful?!” l “What is it that makes l “You just know… as soon as you come in …” l “The feeling is tangible!”

IQM constructs a process of accountability and evidence of where these positive, tangible, successful atmospheres come from. In the educational climate of targets, goals and numbers, the autonomy the IQM process gives schools of rigorous accountability of their own philosophy and pedagogy. Inclusion hears and listens and gives voice to all members of our school organisations. A community building and and self-determining society. growing together is a strong

An all too frequently heard statement in many of our schools is “I don’t feel valued”. Valuing is a fundamental need of all of us. Without that, all effort and contribution is negated. This so often can feed into a sense of being irrelevant and of fading into a persona of camouflaged ‘school wallpaper’… the person who disappears and goes unnoticed. Gathering the strengths, energies and enthusiasms of ALL members of our communities, builds the unified ‘I CAN’ that makes difficulties assailable and successes tangible. Schools can then move forward with the strengths of unified action, enrolment and understanding. The process of IQM gives schools the tools of rigorous self-evaluation that ensures a 360-degree review and analysis. It provides clear set categories and then within each category, there are significant definitions and descriptors. These provide the school with a clear framework from which to work. It is a strategic exponential method that enables schools: l to take an in-depth look at their organisations; l to proactively identify voices and practice needing to be both heard and addressed; l to provide comparative data with other schools; l to build developmental, structured pathways and l gives access to an Inclusion Journey that travels across the country!

What are the costs?

Costs are school size dependent and involve access to strategic documentation; online support during processes; onsite assessments and reviews and provision of evaluations, analyses and feedback.

The Inclusion Journey is one of discovery and offers, with humility, the opportunities for celebration and recognition of practice at its very inclusive best.

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For more information on the IQM Inclusive School Award email: info@iqmaward.com | Tel: 028 7127 7857 or visit: www.iqmaward.com

Welcome to SEND Magazine

SMagazine END

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

YES, I know, where on earth did that Summer go? Some of you have just returned to school and some have already been back a week or two. With holidays annoyingly staggered across the UK, I’mHappy sure many already ahead to the October half‐term. what’s in store neware year to alllooking our readers! I hope you had a great So, festive break andover nowthe next few months? Well it’s hard to tell, with the ever changing landscape of educa4on, par4cularly ready for the second half of this academic year. when in comes to Special Educa4onal Needs and Disability.

Now celebrating our 4th year anniversary, this edition of SEND Magazine is packed

Recently I was fortunate enough to a5end the launch of ‘Going to Church’, at Lambeth Palace in full ofThe news and‘book features to assist through 2019 and a challenging ahead. by latest without words’you published by Books Beyond Words, wasyear co‐authored London. the wonderful Ka4e Carpenter, a young lady with Down’s syndrome. More informa4on about this Starting news8.section and the announcement of a pioneering new approach can bewith read our on Page book

to assessing pupils with complex needs. Following the Rochford review and its ﬁndings P scales doesedi4on not best pupils in our today, This month,that we have a packed withserve vital informa4on andeducation updates tosystem help you through the Schools Standards Nick Gibb has announced a new will be set up coming months. LeadingMinister SEND consultant Lorraine Petersen OBE talks approach about the latest SEND updates on Page willpage also be and rolled out10. forLorraine 2020 see 7.speaking at this years’ Special Needs London in October.

Also speaking at the Business Design Centre will be another two contributors to SEND Magazine, theTeachers wonderful Barry Carpenter and the powerful ﬁgure formerinvestment NASEN CEO Jane inProfessor Wales should be a littleCBE happier with the news ofof a £23m by Friswell. the Welsh Assembly to fund wage increases across the Principality see page 9.

Professor Barry Carpenter CBE this month talks about behavioural management in his ar4cle Understanding emotional and social behaviour is very challenging, we publish an en4tled ‘Disengaged to Engaged’ on Page 16, and Jane opens a poten4al can of worms as she article on page 14 which helps with identification and differentiation strategies discusses the points of Moderate Learning Difficul4es and “are they really a thing of the past?” on written by Simon Carnell, former special school head in Chepstow. Page 18.

Barry Carpenter CBEofwrites about the development the engagement OnProfessor Page 14 we publish the winners the 2017 Shine A Light Awards byof Pearson Assessment; this framework for learning on page 16. years’ event was hosted by singer and musical theatre performer Gareth Gates. The Shine A Light Awards highlight achievements of those working with Children and Young People with Special On pageNeeds 18 weand talkDisability. about the ongoing struggle autistic children following Educa4onal Next years’ date is alsoofannounced within the ar4cle. a report that says the current system is failing their needs. 74% of parents say it has not been

One Page Smith talks about Microso$s’ innova4on technology Dyslexia, and on easy to22, getArran the educational support their child needs.with Supported by and another article Page we look at diﬀeren4a4on for those with severe learning diﬃcul4es and Downs on 24 page 20 which talks aboutstrategies the anxiety of autistic children attending school. syndrome.

SEND regular writer and managing director of The Local Oﬀer Heather Stack,

Heather Stack writes about the importance of social connec4ons with children and young celebrates their 5th anniversary and writes about building social networks and people with SEND on Page 26 and we ﬁnish this edi4on with a list of some of the latest books available to friendships for young people with special educational needs and disability on page add to your teaching toolkit on Pages 32‐34. 26. Heather also writes about the joy of reading for please on page 28. Finally, I just want to draw your a5en4on to the next SEND Conference in May 2018. This years’ event at the Sketchley Grange Hotel was a big success so we will be running another event with We have to more news and articles issue to help you and hope you enjoy this edition informa4on follow in the November of SEND Magazine. If you would likeWinter to register of SEND Magazine. interest in a5ending and get an early bird 4cket discount email me on nick@sendmagazine.co.uk Thank you once again for reading and suppor4ng SEND Magazine.

Clarke NickNickClarke

SEND Consultant Simon Carnell

Office Manager Helen Clarke info@sendmagazine.co.uk

Accounts accounts@sendmagazine.co.uk

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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

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Download the Zappar app to your smartphone or tablet device from the App Store or Google play. Open the app and view the page through your device wherever you see the icon, poin1ng toward it. Wait a few seconds and see the page come alive!

Watch your issue of SEND Magazine come alive where you see this symbol.

Specialist Occupational Therapy (OT) and Sensory Integration (SI) Centre providing independent assessments, treatment, and training to parents, carers and other professionals. Through a wealth of experience and post graduate qualification we are able to offer specialist children and young people’s occupational therapy services to children and young people. Currently working across the community in homes, schools, clinics we now also have the facility to provide group and individual work across a wide range of needs including Ayres Sensory Integration Therapy as well as Sensory Play sessions in the school holidays. There is no criteria for referral, assessments and interventions are bespoke for individual need, aiming to provide specialist services for all children / young people including: • Sensory Processing Disorders (Sensory Integration) • ASD and other non-pervasive developmental disorders • Developmental Coordination Disorders (including dyspraxia and sensory based motor disorders) • Hemiplegia, and other neurological conditions • Developmental Delay

For more information, costs and bookings please see our website www.childrenschoicetherapy.co.uk or contact us by email: childrenschoicetherapy@gmail.com Alison Hart, Sarah Sheffield, Samantha Armitage, Jessica Quinn, Sandra Town, Mel Homan, Kiki Matemba-Belli

Understanding Sensory Processing in the Classroom: 5th May 2017 9am – 3pm This course is for education and other professionals and gives practical and interactive learning around understanding how sensory processing works, the impacts on behaviours and learning, and strategies and approaches for the classroom. Cost: £120 - Lunch provided

Understanding Sensory Processing in the Classroom (2): 23rd May 2017 9am – 3pm This course is for those who would like to build on learning from the first course we offer considering further applying sensory processing understanding in to practical application. Cost: £150 - Lunch provided Both courses are held at Children’s Choice Therapy and SI centre at Lancaster Park, Needwood, Staffordshire. DE13 9PD. Please note: there are stairs access to the training room, please notify course organisers of relevant difficulties.

CONTENTS P7 NEWS

Assessing pupils with complex needs.

P9 NEWS

Ofsted report on the state of education in English schools.

P12 WORDSHaRK

Great tools and special oﬀers for new users of WORDSHARK..

P14 UNDERSTaNDING Emotional and social behaviour.

P16 REVISITING ENGaGEMENT

Professor Barry Carpenter CBE

P18 aUTISM

Uphill battle for autistic children.

P20 THE I’S HaVE IT

Professor Barry Carpenter CBE looks at the 5 i’s in special needs.

P23 aNxIETy

8 out of 10 children experience anxiety

attending school.

P24 THE lOCal OFFER

Heather Stack writes about ﬁnding friendships and networking for children with SEND.

P26 DySlExIa

Arran Smith writes about the hidden facts of dyslexia.

P28 REaDING

Embracing the joy of reading by Heather Stack.

WINTER 2019 SEND MAGAZINE

www.sendmagazine.co.uk

NEWS

Pioneering new approach to assessing pupils with complex disabilities to be introduced

Pupils with multiple and complex needs will be assessed using a new ‘aspects of engagement’ approach.

A NEW approach that will enable primary schools to better assess pupils with the most complex needs will be rolled out across the country from 2020.

The statutory assessment will replace P scales 1 to 4 and will be based on the ‘7 aspects of engagement’, an assessment approach that focuses on pupils abilities in speciﬁc areas like awareness, curiosity and anticipation.

This assessment approach will – for the first time – enable every kind of progress made by these pupils to be identified. This addresses a key issue with P scales, which focused on linear progress, which is not always how children with the most complex needs progress. This will help teachers to best tailor their teaching and provision to meet the pupils’ specific needs and to allow them to achieve the best possible outcomes. School Standards Minister Nick Gibb said: This is a significant milestone in our drive to make sure every child – even those with the most complex needs – receives the highest standard of education and care.

We have already introduced education health and care plans that are tailored to children. This new approach to assessment will make sure that individual focused approach is replicated in the classroom. Around 7,000 pupils in primary schools have such complex needs that it would be inappropriate to measure their attainment in school according to the national curriculum tests.

An in-depth review, led by Diane Rochford, concluded that P scales did not best serve these pupils and recommended an assessment approach that instead focuses on engagement. This was backed by the findings of a pilot that the DfE ran earlier this year. An expert group, led by Diane Rochford, will now refine the approach based on the findings of the pilot, ready for it to be introduced in all state-funded schools which have pupils not in subject-specific study from 2020.

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Diane Rochford said: As the executive head of a special school in the Learning in Harmony Trust, I am passionate that we have high aspirations for all of our pupils, regardless of their background.

The new aspects of engagement approach will enable a more ﬂexible and personalised assessment to take place for pupils with the most complex needs, allowing all of their achievements and progress to be recognised. It will also help teachers to best tailor their teaching and provision to meet the pupils’ speciﬁc need, allowing them to achieve the best possible outcomes. We will now make sure that schools and other stakeholders have the support they need to familiarise

themselves with the new assessment approach.

A detailed guidance and training package will be developed and provided for stakeholders, including schools, local authorities, Ofsted and parents. This will equip them with the skills and conﬁdence to conduct and understand the assessment in a way that will minimise additional workload burdens, building upon the best practice of schools who are doing it well.

The 7 Aspects of Engagement approach was originally developed through a DfE funded project led by Professor Barry Carpenter in 2011. SEND MAGAZINE WINTER 2019

NEWS

Ofsted Chief Inspector launches her second Annual Report on state of education and children’s care in England

This year's annual report ﬁnds the overall quality of education and care in England is improving, but more action is needed to support the children being left behind. Speaking to an audience of education and social care professionals, local authority representatives and policy experts in Westminster, Ms Spielman said that there has been real progress, but there is still much more to do:

There are still children who lag behind. Children, for whom it seems the die is cast, even before entering nursery, and who never catch up in 12 years of schooling. Wealth remains a predictor, albeit a weaker one, of educational performance. And despite promises from policy makers, FE is too often seen as a poor relation to schools, somewhere for ‘other people’s children’, while the outlook for too many children in contact with the care system remains bleak.

New problems have emerged as well. A child in Hackney is more likely to fulfil their potential than ever before, but in some of our coastal towns and white working class communities, attainment, progress and aspiration are too low. Sink schools may have disappeared, but some schools that haven’t improved for more than a decade remain. Our colleges look less financially secure than in the past. Across the whole education sector a mentality of ‘what’s measured is what gets done’ trumps the true purpose of education, and curriculum thinking– the consideration of what needs to be taught and learned for a full education–has been eroded. The counterpart in social care is that while statutory services have largely been protected from funding cuts, early help and prevention have indeed been cut back. And schools have become another front in the new culture wars, expected to tackle an ever growing list of societal issues. The Annual Report provides a summary of Ofsted’s findings from inspections, visits and research over the past year. It presents a ‘state of the nation’ commentary on the quality of education, training and care services in England. This year’s report is clear that, across the sectors Ofsted inspects, people are working incredibly hard to deliver for young people. However, the Chief Inspector said today that underneath the headline success, deep

WINTER 2019 SEND MAGAZINE

inequities remain.

Ms Spielman continued: There is a group of young people who seem to have the deck stacked against them. I often liken the path through education to a slope. For aﬄuent and high ability children the slope is, in general, fairly shallow, and the path to reaching their potential only moderately challenging. For others from poorer backgrounds, who face challenges in the home, or who struggle with learning, the gradient is steeper and the path is harder. Our job as education and care professionals is to reduce that gradient, to make that path shallower. And perhaps the most important thing we can do to reduce that gradient is to get the basics right.

The Chief Inspector urged policy makers to avoid searching for the latest gimmicks from the tech world to tackle these problems, saying: Some policy makers and practitioners are constantly looking for the next magic potion that will infallibly raise standards or reduce the numbers of children in care. Indeed, despite the history of snake oil, white elephants and fashionable gimmicks that have in the main been debunked, there remains a curious optimism that the elixir of education is just around the corner. But the truth is, we don’t

need an elixir to help raise standards, because we already have the tried and tested ingredients we need.

Instead, to put all children on the path to success, the most important thing is to get the basics right, which begins with early literacy. But the Annual Report ﬁnds that getting the basics right for one group of children is not always translating to getting it right for another.

The phonics screening check has had a major impact on the standard of early reading, with year-on-year increases in the proportion of children reaching the expected standard on the check. However, the percentage of children on free school meals (FSM) who reach the expected standard on the check is 12 percentage points lower than their more aﬄuent peers. There should be no reason for this, because the check is one of reading mechanics. Schools that focus on early reading make a major diﬀerence. Others need to do more. To support them, Ofsted will propose changes in the new education inspection framework that strengthen the focus on early reading.

There is also stark regional variation here, but not the usual pattern of advantage versus disadvantage. Areas such as Newham and Newcastle, which educate high proportions of disadvantaged children, excel in making sure

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that pupils eligible for FSM perform well on the phonics check. At the same time, more aﬄuent areas like West Berkshire lag behind.

The Annual Report also highlights concerns raised by Ofsted’s local area SEND inspections. These have shown that provision for young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is too disjointed and inconsistent. Diagnoses are taking too long and are often inaccurate. Mental health needs are not supported sufficiently. The quality of education, health and care (EHC) plans is far too variable. Critically, the gap in performance and outcomes for children with SEND is widening between the best and worst local areas. Crucial to delivering a good service is having the right resources, a qualified workforce and strong leadership in order to be good or better. However, the Annual Report finds that in too many cases, the capacity for improvement does not exist.

There are almost 500 ‘stuck’ schools across England that have been judged inadequate or requires improvement at every inspection since 2005. This means that some children may have been in a failing school for their entire time at secondary school. More outstanding schools and school leaders are needed to help these schools improve.

Across the country, turnaround rates for underperforming schools remain too slow. A lack of sponsor capacity means some schools have been left in limbo for over 18 months before joining a multi-academy trust (MAT). The Annual Report argues that the current halfwayhouse approach to academisation is not working and calls for incentives to be reinstated to encourage the best schools to become academies and to use their expertise to sponsor.

Ms Spielman continued: As long as children are attending schools that are perpetually less than good, we have a problem. What makes the inequity even starker

is that many of these schools are concentrated in particular parts of the country, serving the same demographic groups – often the white working class.

I make no apology for not giving these schools an easier judgement; I’d never want us to be saying that this education wouldn’t do for Chelsea children, but it’s good enough for Grimsby. The moment we allow for a diﬀerent quality of education based on demographics is the moment we concede defeat in the battle for equality of opportunity. It would be the moment we wrote oﬀ the Einsteins, Mozarts and Brontes of the future who don’t happen to grow up on the right side of the tracks.

Instead, we need a real focus on improving standards in areas and schools that lag behind. We need to inject capacity.

Other areas of concern highlighted in the Annual Report Between 2016 and 2017, 19,000 pupils dropped off school rolls between Years 10 and 11 and around half did not reappear on the roll of another state-funded school. This is a huge cause for concern. Ofsted’s new education inspection framework will empower schools to always put the child first, and it will allow inspectors to report on those schools that offroll young people who might achieve less well. In the FE sector, there is potential for a dilution in the quality of apprenticeships. There are common issues around poor governance, lowquality teaching and not enough off-the-job training. Ofsted is also concerned about access to apprenticeships for students who leave school without a full level 2 qualification. Spending per student in an FE or sixth form college is now 11% lower than for pupils at secondary school. Ofsted is concerned about the college sector’s financial sustainability and the impact that funding cuts can have on provision. In children’s social care, funding for statutory services has largely been protected locally. However, reductions in funding for other areas,

such as youth services, mean demand has been pushed downstream because LAs are less able to intervene early when young people need help.

In some early years settings, children’s physical development is being hindered by undue concerns about health and safety requirements; some level of risk is essential in childhood. Without it, children are denied opportunities to build muscular strength and dexterity. In January, Ofsted will consult on the new education inspection framework and handbooks. This will give the sector a real opportunity to shape the future of inspection. The framework is being piloted throughout the autumn term until July 2019, with information and training sessions for schools running in parallel. Subject to the consultation, the new framework will take eﬀect from September 2019.

Research programme Over the next year, Ofsted’s research programme will explore many of the themes discussed in the Annual Report. This will include projects looking at: - teacher workload and well-being managing the most challenging behaviour in schools - how faith schools successfully navigate potential conﬂicts between their religious beliefs and equality legislation - physical development in the early years curriculum - the 16 to 19 curriculum - curriculum knowledge and pedagogy in initial teacher education - factors leading to good decisions for children in care - creating the environments for great social work practice to thrive - SEND in mainstream schools

In addition, Ofsted will be working with the Department for Education to look at ‘stuck schools’ and what they can do to improve.

UK Government announces £23.5m to fund teachers’ pay increases in Wales

ThE UK Government has announced that the Welsh Government will receive additional funding of £23.5m as a result of the Department for Education’s decision to increase pay for teachers in England and Wales.

Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns today conﬁrmed that the Welsh Government will receive £8.7m in 2018/19 and £14.8m in 2019/20, representing the cost of the pay award for teachers in Wales.

This is in recognition of the unique devolution circumstances for teacher’s pay in Wales, where setting pay is a www.sendmagazine.co.uk

reserved matter whilst meeting of the costs of the award is devolved.

Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns said: I am delighted to conﬁrm today that teachers in Wales will soon be seeing an increase to their pay packets with the additional funding we are delivering for the Welsh Government.

Today’s announcement underlines the UK Government’s commitment to the fair application of the rules underpinning the Welsh Government’s funding. I hope that this will go some way in providing the Welsh Government with the additional

levers to be able to attract and retain the teachers Wales needs to educate its young people. The Welsh Government will take responsibility for setting teachers’ pay in Wales from October 2018 when they will have the power to determine the future pay and conditions of teachers in Wales for academic years 2019/20 onwards.

Today’s announcement follows the multibillion NhS staﬀ pay deal announced in by the UK Government in March which is expected to deliver more than £1.3bn a year for the Welsh Government by 2022/23. SEND MAGAZINE WINTER 2019 9

NEWS

More pupils in England reach expected standard at key stage 2 Primary school standards continue to rise nationally.

MORE children across the country met the expected standard at the end of primary school last summer in English and mathematics, amid rising education standards in England, Minister for School Standards Nick Gibb announced today.

Figures published today show: - 64% of pupils met the expected standard in all of reading, writing and mathematics at key stage 2 nationally - this ﬁgure was 61% in 2017 - 75% met the expected standard in reading, up 4 percentage points on last year - 78% met the expected standard in writing this ﬁgure was 76% in 2017 - 76% met the expected standard in mathematics, up on 1 percentage point on last year - 78% met the expected standard in grammar, punctuation and spelling, up 1 percentage point on last year The new national curriculum and assessments have set a higher standard in schools and today’s rising results show more pupils are meeting that standard, thanks to the hard work of teachers and pupils, and government reforms.

Results for 2019 are the third to be released following the introduction of a more rigorous national curriculum assessments in summer 2016, bringing primary education in line with the best in the world.

Standards are rising in primary schools. There are now 154,000 more six-year-olds on track to become ﬂuent readers today than in 2012, in 2017 the attainment gap between disadvantaged primary pupils and their more aﬄuent peers had narrowed by 10.5% since 2011, and England’s rise up the international PIRLS rankings for literacy put the success of the government’s reforms on a global scale. School Standards Minister Nick Gibb said: A good primary education lays the foundations for success at secondary school and beyond. That’s why we introduced a more rigorous, knowledge-rich primary

WINTER 2019 SEND MAGAZINE

school curriculum – with an emphasis on reading and ﬂuency in arithmetic – to ensure every child is helped to reach their potential from the moment they start school. Today’s results and the rising standards we are seeing in our primary schools are the fruit of our reforms and a tribute to the hard work and dedication of teachers across the country. These reforms promise even more success in the years to come and will help to improve education for every child, no matter their background.

The government has invested in programmes to help raise standards in our primary schools, including a £26 million network of specialist English Hubs around the country to improve pupils’ literacy and £41 million to follow the same approach to teaching maths

as world leading countries through the Shanghai Mastery for Maths programme. This is on top of wider changes to the primary assessment system which will reduce unnecessary workload for teachers so they can focus on what really matters in the classroom.

Today’s ﬁgures build on the record 1.9 million more children now in ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ schools than in 2010. The government is continuing to ensure all parents have a good school place on their doorstep, with the recent announcement of £680 million to create 40,000 more ‘good’ school places in primary and secondary schools. Since 2010, 825,000 new school places have been created, with recent analysis showing 91% of those in 2016 to 2017 were in ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ schools.

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NEW BOOK LAUNCHED ‘Going to Church’ ORDER NOW www.booksbeyondwords.co.uk

Our books all tell a story, but they also let the reader tell their own story – the one they see in the pictures. This can tell you a lot about a person’s inner world and their understanding of situations. There is plenty to talk about and each story explores feelings and relationships as well as giving information.

Visit our website to see our full range of books for children and young people with SEND

“Developed by a commi5ed and dedicated team, Books Beyond Words publish books without words, engaging in the reader and provide a valuable resource for children and young adults with special educa4onal needs & disability (SEND).” Nick Clarke, Publisher SEND Magazine

To order or for further information call

020 7492 2559

REVISION INDIVIDUAL NEEDS

I can teach specific patterns and relevant words and then use Wordshark to consolidate and revise these…In addition I can build my own work programs by setting work for students based on the gaps in their phonological knowledge.

Wordshark can be adapted so many ways to suit each individual child. It allows you to set up group or individual lists for each child. Jo Smith, Teacher, Bridge and Patrixbourne School, Canterbury.

Fiona Phillips, SENCO, Ripplevale School, Deal

PHONICS

EAL I find that Wordshark offers a good way to extend vocabulary for children coming in with no English.

Wordshark is used as part of our phonics courses in key stages 2 & 3. …it allows reinforcement of the pupils’ work at their own pace.

Claire Gaston, Support Staff, Barrow Hill Junior School, North London.

Martin Nance, Teaching assistant, Clarendon School, Hampton.

Helping children succeed with their reading and spelling • Making learning to read and spell enjoyable • More than 60 motivating games • Suitable for students of all abilities • Ranging from simple 3-letter words to challenging sets for very able spellers • Dedicated games to support synthetic phonics

• Easy to add your own words, pictures and sound recordings • Student records allow progress to be tracked • ‘Search’ facility finds words/letter patterns/spelling rules

EASY TO USE

MOTIVATION

Wordshark is in a user friendly format – useful list of spelling patterns sorted by intervention program (e.g. National Curriculum spellings/Alpha to Omega etc.)

Active participation is essential which is admirably covered by both Wordshark and Numbershark. Boys literally ‘fight’ for the opportunity and competitions are organised with the ‘games’.

Fiona Phillips, SENCO, Ripplevale School, Deal.

Caroline Webb, Literacy Co-ordinator, Grange Therapeutic School, Nr Melton.

CONFIDENCE We focus on the middle ability groups who need reassuring, and a confidence boost. Zoe Ward, HLTA and computer support, Whale Hill Primary School, Eston.

TRIED AND TESTED Fantastic resource – of all the resources our deaf children have used, this has been by far the most effective for teaching phonics and spelling. Age range from 5-13 year olds. Kenny Fraser, Teacher of deaf students, South Ayrshire.

PROGRESSION I particularly like the way in which I can control when a child needs consolidation and practice or when to move them on to a new spelling pattern. Kathy Tuck, Private Tutor, Hants.

RECORD KEEPING Our network version enables me to programme for each student... a brilliant resource! Amina Humayun Khan, Literacy & Dyslexia Specialist Primary, GEMS Wellington International, UAE.

WINTER 2019 SEND MAGAZINE

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CLEAR RECORDS

EASY TO USE

The records are really useful. They can show you in detail what the children are struggling with, and what they are succeeding at.

Numbershark is a great, child friendly piece of software. Its layout is easy to use.

Lisa Nicholson, Teacher Livingstone Primary and Nursery School, Barnet.

TRIED AND TESTED I have used Numbershark to help them achieve a better understanding of relative number size and place value. Through Numbershark, they can get the over learning they need to be able to deepen their understanding. Mary Grashoff, Teacher, Brackley.

Summera Zafar, Home User, London Colney.

INDIVIDUAL/CLASS USE Numbershark and Wordshark can be used in a highly personalised way for children with SEN (including dyslexia and dyscalculia) but just as well could be used with whole classes. Jan Levi, Advisory teacher in SEN, Wortly.

Making numeracy meaningful PROGRESS Numbershark is loved by all my pupils and I find it significantly improves their numeracy and confidence in using numbers.

• Over 50 games, giving meaning to numbers & number operations • Includes addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, with recognition of numbers to 7 digits, negative numbers, common percentages, fractions and decimals, also 2000+ worded problems and the necessary maths vocabulary • Mental maths strategies well addressed at all levels • Rods, number line, scale, digits, words, abacus, number pad and 100 square show numbers in their many different formats

Mrs Ann Clark, Dyslexia Consultant, Home tutor, Hemel Hempstead.

INDEPENDENT LEARNING HIGH MOTIVATION Students who can’t interact in ICT are completely glued to Numbershark. Brilliant software. Wendy Foslet, ICT teacher, Brown’s School, Chelsfield.

Because of the simple interface, these children learn to work independently on the computer and this enables them to progress without extra teaching assistant support... The program moves them on in their learning because it gives them exercises at their level. Gemma Mcdowell, Teacher, Stroud.

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SEND MAGAZINE WINTER 2019

Understanding emotional and social behavior

People‘s behaviour is a result of their social and emotional development and their environment - physical, social and emotional. Here we look at the identification and signs and help within your daily practice. 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. Children and young people within the SEND spectrum cannot always manage their emotions, get on with others or behave appropriately. Here are some of the signs and what to look for; • 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 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

WINTER 2019 SEND MAGAZINE

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. www.sendmagazine.co.uk

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

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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 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.standar ds.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

SEND MAGAZINE WINTER 2019

Revisiting Engagement Professor Barry Carpenter OBE, looks at the development of the Engagement Framework for Learning.

TO appreciate the development of the Engagement Profile and Scale (EPS) we must return to its genesis. In 2009 the Department for Education commissioned the Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities Research Project, in direct response to Teachers observations that there was a changing pattern of SEND amongst children; their profile and learning patterns were often different to those previously seen, and the term ‘Complex Needs’ was often used, but without clarity and definition.

Research processes finding the evidence Evidence from this study confirmed that indeed we had a significant population of children with CLDD - 2 or more co-existing, interlocking, compounding learning difficulties/disabilities. There was a ‘new generation‘ of children with LDD, for reasons such as prematurity of birth, rare syndromes, road traffic accidents (RTA), societal causes such as drugs, smoking, alcohol (eg Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders). These children presented with patterns of learning that were a challenge to differentiation alone, and hence approaches that combined Personalised Learning (Hargreaves, 2008) were included to evolve a responsive, proactive pedagogy. A prominent example would be children born prematurely, particularly, in very recent years, those who survive birth at 24-27 weeks gestation; there are some 90,000 such births in the UK every year. These children are often ‘wired differently’; when they are expelled into this world their brain structure is white matter, not grey matter; the cortical folding has not begun. Having survived in an incubator with intensive support, their brain continues to grow and develop, but the scaffolding may be different; it is an external brain, influenced and nurtured differently. Once in the classroom the key questions for the educators have to be, ‘if this child’s brain is wired differently, in what ways do they

learn diﬀerently? And, when I do know something about their unique pattern of learning, in what ways will I teach diﬀerently?’ (Carpenter, Egerton and Cockbill 2014)

In recognising this the Project also acknowledged that the learning patterns of these children were erratic and inconsistent, often presenting as a ‘spikey‘ profile of learning, which influenced the stability and efficacy of their learning outcomes and attainments.

How was this evidence to be garnered from the actual classroom teachers reporting their concerns and observations? The Project rooted its‘ research processes in qualitative paradigms, and building upon the long history in Education of Action Research, evolved an Inquiry Framework, (Carpenter, Egerton et al, 2011, 2015) that enabled Teachers to be co-investigators throughout the project - exploring, searching, discovering. As one Headteacher said: “It is building a ‘finding out culture‘“, which empowered teachers to critically reflect and analyse their observations. Data from each school was then taken by the small central research team, and further analysed for trends and significant outcomes. These were then fed back into every phase of the research trials over the two-and-a-half-year duration of the project. Hence every major outcome of the CLDD Project, the EPS particularly, is the result of multiple trials, in multiple classrooms, by multiple teachers. It is important to stress the types of schools involved. These were carefully selected through application, by the core research team, and then approved before invitation by the DfE. At times HMI/Ofsted were consulted in this process. 12 schools acted as the original Development Schools where the materials such as the CLDD Briefing Sheets, and EPS were first compiled. These schools represented every

WINTER 2019 SEND MAGAZINE

type of designated Special School against the 4 domains of SEND, (Cognition and Learning, Communication and Interaction etc.). From here there were three further Trial phases: - Special Schools from across England (again selected through open application, verified by external scrutiny) - Mainstream Schools - Early Years settings, (Bromley and Wolverhampton) Primary Schools and Secondary Schools, including Academies. - International Trial, involving Mainstream and Special schools in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This process deepened knowledge around who were the children with CLDD, how did they learn, what teaching approaches the evidence showed were most successful, and how we could design a curriculum to ‘wrap around’ the child? All of this was recorded in the final report, (http://complexld.ssatrust.org.uk). The model of research, (subsequently used in other studies and reported in the literature (Jones et al 2012, 2016.) can be described as a Research Spiral (Figure 1). Using schools as centres of Professional Learning, and embedding rigorous processes of Inquiry, then from daily classroom practice evidence was generated that gave us inquiryfocussed data, which enabled research analysis to confirm trends, outcomes and outputs. The Engagement Profile and Scale was one such major output - teacher developed, teacher validated in line with the children with CLDD they were directly working with, and whose learning they were shaping, systematically and deductively, by employing new generation pedagogy.

Why Engagement? For students with disabilities, research has suggested that engaged behaviour is the single best predictor

of successful learning (Iovannone, Dunlap, Huber, and Kincaid, 2003). Keen (2008, 2009)describes engagement as ‘a gateway to learning and... one of the best predictors for positive student outcomes.’ She also states: ‘the study of engagement has the potential to assist educators and therapists to maximise learning outcomes.’ Many times throughout the CLDD Research Project, teachers endorsed the statement of Newmann, (2006): ”Engagement is difficult to define operationally, but we know it when we see it, and we know when it is missing”. The iterative process of teacher-toteacher discovering, generating, testing and validating new and innovative approaches to teaching and learning is also validated in the literature - “student engagement represents both the time and energy students invest in educationally purposeful activities, and the effort institutions devote to using effective educational practices.” (Kuh et al., 2008,)

A focus on engagement can underpin a process of personalised inquiry through which the educator can develop eﬀective learning experiences. Using evidence-based knowledge of a child’s successful learning pathways, strategies can be identiﬁed, high expectations set, and incremental progress recorded on their journey towards optimal engagement in learning. Their engagement will be the benchmark

“Engagement is diﬃcult to deﬁne operationally, but we know it when we see it, and we know when it is missing”

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for assessing whether we have achieved this goal. (Carpenter, 2010.)

Engagement is the connection between the student and their learning outcome. Students cannot create that connection for themselves; it is educators, families and other professional colleagues who must construct it with and for them. Engagement is key to this. (Carpenter et al , 2011)

The Development of the Engagement Proﬁle and Scale The Engagement Proﬁle and Scale is a classroom resource which enables educators to observe and document the engagement in learning of a student with CLDD towards a personalised learning target and their progress. It allows them to focus on the child’s engagement as a learner and create personalised learning pathways. It prompts

student-centred reﬂection on how to increase engagement leading to deep learning.

Engagement is multi-dimensional, and encompasses: - Awareness - Curiosity - Investigation - Discovery - Anticipation - Persistence, and Initiation.

These seven engagement indicators form the basis of the Engagement Proﬁle and Scale.

The Engagement Proﬁle and Scale As its name suggests, this resource consists of two interdependent parts – a proﬁle and guidance which is used to record descriptions of how a student engages during a highinterest activity against each of the seven engagement indicators listed

Further information

above; and a scale template which educators can use to record engagement scores and related descriptive observations against the same seven engagement indicators for an initially low-engagement activity.

By focusing on these seven indicators of engagement, educators can ask themselves questions such as: ‘How can I change the learning activity to stimulate Robert’s curiosity?’ ‘What can I change about this experience to encourage Nina to persist?’ They enable educators to focus on achievable dimensions of engagement so that each area is considered and addressed for the student. Over time, it is possible to record the success or otherwise of interventions, the adjustments made, and the eﬀect this has had on

the student’s engagement score. The outcomes can be plotted as a graph with accompanying explanatory commentary, and successful interventions generalised to other settings. The Engagement Profile and Scale encourages student-centred reflection, supporting educators to develop learning experiences and activities around students’ strengths and interests. It gives the student a ‘voice’ as a learner in terms of their interests, strengths and how they like to learn. It is important to recognise the contribution that the student themselves can make to the profile and scale; families also will be able to offer unique insights into what can engage their son/daughter; colleagues from other professions who are working with the student can also contribute valuable perspectives.

DfE – The SEND Code of Practice 2015 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25 DfE - What maintained schools must publish online and What academies, free schools and colleges should publish online https://www.gov.uk/guidance/what-maintained-schools-must-publish-online https://www.gov.uk/guidance/what-academies-free-schools-and-colleges-should-publish-online Nasen – Reviewing your SEN Information Report https://www.nelincs.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/SEN-Information-Report-Review-Nasen.pdf Special Educational Needs Information Report Sample/Proforma http://www.snip-newsletter.co.uk/pdfs/downloads/SEND_Information_Report_proforma.pdf www.sendmagazine.co.uk

SEND MAGAZINE WINTER 2019

Uphill battle for autistic children?

Parents and carers face long and stressful battles for children with special needs as report finds new education system failing to meet needs of autistic children. FAR too many parents of children on the autism spectrum are facing long and often exhausting battles to get the right education and support, according to a new report from the National Autistic Society. The ﬁndings come two years after the Government introduced a new special educational needs and disability (SEND) system in England, promising to make it easier for children to get support, and less adversarial for families. But parents say that they are having to ﬁght just as hard and often not getting the right support from local authorities and the NHS.

According to surveys by the National Autistic Society of around 1,000 parents, carers and children and young people on the autism spectrum: • 74% of parents say it has not been easy to get the educational support their child needs

• 69% say their child waited more than a year after parents or teachers first raised concerns, and 16% waited more than three years to get support • While 50% of parents say they’re satisfied with their child’s SEND provision, just 33% are satisfied with health care and 30% with social care

• 61% of parents say their child is in their preferred type of school, although many parents face an uphill battle to get to this point • 17% of parents say they appealed to the SEND Tribunal

Autumn 2018

against their local authority’s decision on their child’s education.

The report includes a series of recommendations to Government and local authorities aimed at reducing delays in getting support and making sure every area has the

SEND MAGAZINE

right mix of schools and other educational provision. This includes calling on the Government to review how councils are implementing the new SEND system and, based on this, to decide whether additional resources are needed to complete the reforms by their 2018 deadline or whether more

time is needed.

There are around 120,000 school-aged children on the autism spectrum in England, the vast majority in mainstream schools, and many of them rely on the SEND system to get the support they need to thrive and make progress. For some

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children this will mean minor adjustments, like having time out from a busy classroom or a teaching assistant to help them process their thoughts. Others, who perhaps have an extreme sensitivity to light or sound or who are unable to communicate verbally, may need a much higher level of support at a specialist school.

The Government introduced major reforms to the system two years ago, expanding support to cover a child’s life from birth to 25 and replacing SEN statements with Education Health and Care (EHC) plans so they covered health and care needs as well as education. They said the changes would make things simpler for parents and give them greater control over the support their child receives. But this latest report suggests parents are having to ﬁght just as hard and that education, health and care services still aren’t working together as predicted. For instance, while 50% of parents the charity spoke to say they’re satisﬁed with their child’s education support, just

33% are satisﬁed with health care provision and 30% with social care.

Although the majority of parents surveyed by the National Autistic Society say their child is in their preferred type of school, many parents face an uphill battle to get to this point. 17% of parents who completed the survey say they took their local authority to an SEND Tribunal to get the right support. Appeals should be a last resort but these figures suggest it is often necessary. The most common reasons reported for appealing were the local authority’s refusal to issue a statement or EHC plan, or to change the school named in the statement/plan. Ministry of Justice figures (www.gov.uk/government/statis tics/tribunals-and-genderrecognition-certificate-statisticsquarterly-july-to-september-201 5) show that autism is the most common type of need identified in SEND Tribunal cases, making up 35% of all Tribunal appeals in 2014-15. The same figures show that three-quarters of appeals

were subsequently withdrawn or conceded by local authorities, and of those that proceeded to a decision, 86% found in favour of the parent. The National Autistic Society say this suggests that too many wrong decisions are being made by local authorities, and parents are right to believe that the system does not always work in their child’s interests.

Mark Lever, Chief Executive of the National Autistic Society, said: "Parents should not be facing long, stressful and exhausting battles, just to get the right education for their children. This is putting an unnecessary strain on often already vulnerable families and risking the long-term prospects of the 1 in 100 autistic children in England, who have so much to contribute to our society. “The Government tried to ﬁx the education system for children with special educational needs by introducing welcome reforms two years ago, and then announcing more funding to help in January this year. But many of the same problems

remain. Too many parents are having to take legal action to get basic support for their children, and education, health and care services still aren’t working together as the Government says they should. “With the right education and support, children on the autism spectrum can achieve great things and their families can live full and happy lives. Without it, families are left to struggle alone and children can miss out on years of education, putting them and our society at a huge disadvantage. “The Government must take responsibility for its reforms and review how local councils are using the extra funding and what diﬀerence the reforms are making. The Government must then act, whether that’s increasing resources to complete the reforms by the 2018 deadline or delaying implementation until local authorities can fulﬁl their legal responsibilities properly. The most important thing is to make sure that the speed of the reforms doesn’t compromise the support children need.”

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WINTER 2019

The i’s have it

Professor Barry Carpenter OBE looks at ‘The 5 ‘i’s’ in Special Needs: from Issue to Impact through Inquiry’ WHEN Ofsted call they are looking for 3 ‘i’s - ‘issue’, ‘intervention’ and ‘impact’: What was the issue in learning for the child? What intervention was selected to respond to that issue? And how eﬀective was the intervention in meeting individual needs, and enabling the child to make progress?

This is all fairly logical, except when the child has special educational needs, and a process as straightforward as this does not resolve what may be a complex learning need, or a signiﬁcant barrier to learning. This is when the 5 ‘i’s kick in! The process then demands a couple of additional steps.

The issue may not always be obvious, obscured by complexities in the child’s learning proﬁle. In order to unpack the issue, the teacher may need to engage with the process of inquiry – investigating, exploring, discovering what it is that is challenging the child, and preventing them from becoming an eﬀective learner. Having gained additional information through the inquiry process, this leads to a more accurately designed intervention. The child needs to be an active participant in their learning, not a peripheral onlooker, watching the learning of other children. The intervention needs to mould around the child enabling them to experience success and achievement.

This may not be reﬁned in the ﬁrst application of the intervention, and so the teacher may need to innovate, and create a more personalised learning pathway. Perhaps this will be through the addition of some technological aid like an App on an iPad, or a further deconstruction of the task, so that the simpler steps make the attainment more possible. Ultimately through a sensitive,

iterative process of personalisation, with a fundamental focus on highquality teaching and eﬀective learning there will be impact, a clear and meaningful outcome for the child with SEND, which enables the teacher to record progress. As Marcel Proust says: “The only real voyage of discovery consists

WINTER 2019 SEND MAGAZINE

not in ﬁnding new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

Further reading 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. Jones, P., Whitehurst, T. and Egerton, J. (eds) (2012) Creating Meaningful Inquiry in Inclusive Classrooms: Practitioners' stories of research. Abingdon: Routledge. www.sendmagazine.co.uk

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.

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. 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.

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Difficulties attending school

8 out of 10 children with autism, experience anxiety about attending school according to leading charity. CHILDREN with autism ﬁnd going to school so stressful that they experience anxiety and of those, 58% of children ﬁnd this anxiety so debilitating that they miss days at school, according to a new survey carried out by the charity, Ambitious about Autism.

The report, titled ‘When Will We Learn?’, looks at the impact of the school system when it fails children and young people with autism and their families. Many families are struggling to get the right support for their children and young people, who, as a result, are not receiving the education they are entitled to. The survey also revealed: • Children with autism are four times more likely to be permanently excluded from school than any other child;

• 45% of the families surveyed said that their child had been illegally sent home from school, put on a reduced timetable, sent home early or asked not to come in to school when tests or school trips were happening, denying them a full education; • 71% of parents of children with autism say that getting them the right support in school was so stressful it caused them to lose sleep.

Parents reported that getting their child’s needs assessed, and accessing the right support at the right time is never easy. 69% of parents said their child had waited more than a year for support and 16% had waited more than three years.

Louisa Emerson, mother of Fred who features in the report, says: “Fred had an Education, Health and Care Plan but the people who should have been supporting him www.sendmagazine.co.uk

at school had no training or understanding of autism and therefore, did not put his plan into place. There was also a reluctance to fund the support. I was forever being told they didn't have the resources. “Despite his diagnosis, we were threatened with exclusions on several occasions and this made Fred incredibly anxious. My son wasn’t getting the support he needed and this had consequences for him. There was an incident with another child and as a result, he was illegally excluded for 20 days. He was taught in a small back room away from the others. Fred no longer felt safe at school. As parents you feel like you have to send your child to school, but we felt like we were sending him to be abused every day. “This exclusion had a devastating eﬀect on us all but particularly on Fred – he refused to eat or leave the house. There was no-one to help us. “In the end, we decided to change schools but I had to leave my job;

he has to be the priority. The experience has scarred me and I don’t trust schools anymore, which is awful.” Jolanta Lasota, Chief Executive of Ambitious about Autism, said: “Our survey shows that the education system is still not working for many children and young people with autism. It is unacceptable that 8 out of 10 children with autism are experiencing anxiety about going to school everyday. “Every child has a fundamental right to an education. Yet 45% of parents of children with autism say their children have, at some point, been illegally denied that right. Education is the key to transforming the lives of children and people with autism and early intervention, education and support are critical if children and young people with autism are to lead fulﬁlling lives and make a positive contribution to society. “Children with autism must access an assessment faster and their

needs should be met in an environment that is welcoming to and accepting of them, so they can succeed in education and enjoy their childhoods.” Ambitious about Autism’s When Will We Learn? campaign aims to ensure:

• Children with autism get the right start by making sure their educational needs are assessed promptly after diagnosis; • The needs of children with autism are met by having the right mix of services and support;

• Schools are supported to do a great job by making sure everyone working in schools receives training to support children with autism; • The rights of children with autism are respected by preventing illegal exclusions and supporting school governors to fulﬁl their legal responsibility to children with autism.

SEND MAGAZINE

WINTER 2019

Finding friendships

Building social networks and friendships for young people with SEND. Heather Stack writes. A study by Mencap in 2016 found that one in three young people with SEND spent less than an hour outside their home on a typical Saturday. Compared to the plethora of opportunities for young people without SEND to enjoy with family or with friends, this paints a bleak picture of the social lives of many young people. Of those children responding to the survey, a fear of bullying, being laughed at and getting lost were key concerns when leaving the family home.

Why should that one particular statistic be so disturbing, and so poignant? I believe it’s because that one single statistic sums up the challenges faced by teenagers with SEN or disability in having an active social, sporting and leisure life; the stresses and diﬃculties faced by the families of children with SEND, and is the nightmare future scenario of many parents of young children with SEND. What will their life be like beyond nursery, beyond primary education, as they progress towards adulthood? The unanswered fears of many parents are bound up in that research report by Mencap. Yes, the present is hard, but without signiﬁcant change, the future is likely to be equally as challenging. During Learning Disability Week, June 2018, The Guardian ran a feature on the way that some young people and adults with

SEND found love and friendship through charity programmes. The article referenced the work of local projects designed to support the social needs of young people with disabilities. Many towns have their own designated places that are naturally more attuned to people with SEND, but often these are not supported as part of local authority local offers. They are just business people doing their best for the people in their community. Most do not always recognise the significant part they play in improving the social lives of young people who are marginalised, living on the other side of opportunity. Recently I received a private request to support a colleague’s grandson, a young adult with learning difficulties. He was

WINTER 2019 SEND MAGAZINE

regarded as an anomaly in an aﬄuent, middle class family with high achieving children. The family were rather embarrassed about Peter’s lack of qualiﬁcations, his academic failures at several schools, his inadequate social skills. All this was shared with me in Peter’s presence in one of those awkward conversations that is best to bring to a halt as quickly as possible.

During the course of ten weeks, I had weekly coﬀee meetings with Peter, in an unstructured format, visiting initially the one place where he felt safe and the waiters knew him and his fondness for hot chocolate, whipped cream and marshmallows. Peter’s voice was booming, and his eagerness to mask his diﬃculties presented in

multiple ways, including his insistence on asking for the menu on every occasion, despite not being able to read its content. He always ordered hot chocolate, whipped cream and marshmallows.

After a familiarisation period, and attuning to Peter’s particular difficulties – autism, learning difficulties, social anxiety, communication difficulties – I suggested a new venue for our coffee meeting. Peter was extremely wary. We ended our meeting by walking to the new, suggested venue, to see what the walking route might be, and what it looked like inside and more importantly, whether they offered hot chocolate on the menu. These are stages of preparation and anticipation all parents, support staff and

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varied social and sporting opportunities for young people with SEND, include Entrust Care Partnership, Leamington Spa, ILEAP Charity in Stratford upon Avon and Kenilworth, Level Best Café as part of the Dacon Trust in Colchester, Love2MeetU, based in Bradford, Snap Charity in Cannock, Brighter Opportunities Through Supported Play, Macintyre Charity, Purple Patch Arts in Bradford, the Inclusion Project in Cambridge City and Huntingdon amongst others. teachers are familiar with – the scaﬀolding of topics or activities that present as a challenge, to allay fears and help visualise the change.

We succeeded in visiting a new café the next week, and the week after, until we had almost exhausted the cafes in Stratford upon Avon that offered hot chocolate. You could count on one hand, prior to our meeting, the places that Peter felt comfortable visiting alone. His solo journeys into town were to visit his grandmother who volunteered at a charity shop. I gained success in broadening his small range of familiar places and increasing his friendship circles, not because I was applying any specific programme, but because the approach was personal to his needs, adapted as new concerns emerged. I set homework tasks which Peter was eager to take on and included: looking at the menus of different cafes to see if hot chocolate featured; exploring street names so that a café in Sheep Street could be located as easily as one elsewhere; the distance between the café and the bus stop. Peter’s life, as a young adult not in employment, education or training, was narrow and confined to the support of his parents and grandmother. One breakthrough moment with Peter came about through stretching the boundaries of his comfort zone. One of the new cafes I visited with Peter had a high proportion of adults with learning difficulties. There was clearly an established friendship group chatting together in a corner of the café and a highly skilled empathetic manager of

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the cafe. It didn’t take long for Peter’s booming voice (“remind him to be quiet – he speaks far too loudly”) to attract a warm hello from others in the café. The first tentative steps of friendship were formed. The need to be mindful that he spoke too loudly – something that had clearly been drilled into Peter from a young age – was forgotten as he had his first spontaneous conversation with a friendly person similar in age, in a long time. There are many thousands of young men like Peter and many young women whose social lives are entirely the construct of professional support staff and family. Their world is geographically and experientially small, as Mencap’s study evidenced. The sports clubs, social groups, parties and meet ups in out of town shopping centres that are the norm for so many teenagers, are rarely part of the schedule for young people with SEND.

The Guardian’s article referenced the work of Buddy’s Café in Worthing, Mencap’s social groups and the Young Ambassador’s programme also by Mencap. As Founder of The Local Oﬀer, I’m always impressed and delighted when new specialist services register their service with this independent national local oﬀer, with a focus on supporting friendships and social outings for teenagers and young adults with SEND. They remain in the minority, and there is a demand for their growth in all towns and cities, but it is a positive beginning. Services whose progress I have followed over several years, all excelling in providing rich and

meet people and develop friendships as anyone else. Friendships can help people feel happier, included and valued. They can also enhance wellbeing.”

Mencap set out a vision where “adults, children and young people with a learning disability have the same opportunities to be involved in their community,

The Local Offer sets out the case for a society that values the right of all children and young people to – 1. Achieve success 2. Enjoy school and be happy 3. Feel valued and respected 4. Experience a rich and interesting curriculum 5. Have a say in the support that is offered 6. Socialise and make friends 7. Play sports and take part in the whole life of the school 8. Develop self-confidence and gain independence. There is nothing contentious in any of these statements, yet realising them for all young people, in all localities, remains hugely problematic. There is always more schools and colleges can do to raise awareness of the true breadth and variety of support and provision via the local authority local offer, but unless these services are recognised as part of the big picture of specialist support they will fail to come to the attention of those who would most benefit. I am proud of the work of The Local Offer in raising

awareness of diversity of specialist provision. This social enterprise is in its infancy and too small, in its present form, to impact on the national outlook, but I’m encouraged that more requests to join come from those services who recognise the signiﬁcance of providing social, sporting and leisure opportunities for teenagers and young adults with SEND. • What does your setting do to tune into accessible, inclusive social, sporting and leisure opportunities? • What more can you do to create opportunities for a rich social life for the young people in your care? • What can be done to remove some of the barriers that young people face when venturing into towns and cities at the weekend? • Where can a few adjustments make more accessible leisure and social provision for young people, to include all young people?

heather Stack is Founder and Director of The Local Oﬀer, a social enterprise and membership platform for specialist and targeted education, health and social care services. She is a SEND consultant available for contractual work on heather@thelocaloﬀer.co.uk heather is a passionate advocate for cultural and social engagement for children and young people facing adversity, disadvantage, SEN or disability SEND MAGAZINE

WINTER 2019

The Hidden Fact of

Dyslexia

In the UK dyslexia is the largest hidden disability and there are still people that really don’t understand it. It is also staggering to hear that young people are still not being diagnosed or identified as being dyslexic. Dyslexia Consultant Arran Smith writes. that they can then implement proper interventions which can really support young people into adulthood. More and more adults are being identified later in life and this is really affecting their ability to work in our society, many of them have low confidence levels and low selfesteem, I believe that if they were aware of the difficulties and had been advised earlier about their difficulties they would have a better outlook on life.

THERE is always the argument should we identify or should we not? In my opinion identification is a good thing. This may be because I am a severely dyslexic adult, I was diagnosed aged 9 and because of that diagnosis/identification I was able to understand my difficulties and get support from my parents and my school was able to give me adequate help. This is not to say that dyslexia does not affect me now, because it does, but because of my identification I am able to overcome difficulties and find solutions and strategies to live my life.

This year’s Dyslexia Awareness Week is 3rd-9th October and the theme is ‘Identiﬁcation of Dyslexia’. I’ve seen many dyslexia awareness weeks and I am really encouraged by the title of this one as I am so passionate about making sure that people are more aware about dyslexia and ensuring that we can have a positive approach towards changing people’s lives which hopefully will remove barriers to enable people to get more support. All the major dyslexia charities have come together to create this title. This includes the British Dyslexia Association, Helen Arkell, Dyslexia Action and Xtraordinary People. Dyslexia Awareness Week in Scotland will be on 7th-12th November. The theme for

Tuesday How is dyslexia identified? The British Dyslexia Association says there are four different ways of being identified:

Scotland is ‘Dyslexia: did you know...’ and under this they will highlight various topics to raise awareness of dyslexia, provide information about sources of help and support and also celebrate the strengths of people with dyslexia. In Scotland, they will be distributing 40,000 blue ribbons for people to wear to show their support. A range of events to mark the week will be held across Scotland, mostly organised by their network of volunteer-led branches. More information will be posted on their website at www.dyslexiascotland.org.uk/edu cation-conference The British Dyslexia Association

WINTER 2019 SEND MAGAZINE

this year have also created a theme for each day of the week, please see below their title for each day and my thoughts on them.

Monday Why is it important to identify dyslexia? This overarching topic is that it is very important to identify people with dyslexia; many studies have shown that if it is not identified it can have a serious effect on a child’s well-being. Early identification can really support individuals and by having awareness and understanding of what their difficulties are it can also help the people around them to have a good understanding so

1. Checklist; this is an informal way of checking specific traits and characteristics through a number of questions to identify if a young person or adult has dyslexic tendencies. This may not give a true picture but it may be a starting point to think about what the difficulties and attributes could be. 2. Screening; this is normally done using a commercially available tool which does not need to be implemented by a specialist. There are many tools within the marketplace both for children and adults, the majority of them are done either online or there are still some available that are paperbased. Screening tools should look at the key areas of the difficulties within dyslexia including working memory, phonological awareness, visual and auditory processing

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speeds. The majority of these tools will give you a report identifying a percentage of the person’s ability.

3. Specialist assessment; this is normally carried out by a specialist teacher that has undertaken a specific course within dyslexia which is either accredited by the British Dyslexia Association or Patoss. The specialist teacher will use a range of tests that will show a profile of the person they are assessing, this can take up to 3 hours and then the specialist will go away and write a report on their findings and may also advise on intervention strategies to support the person. This type of assessment can provide diagnosis. 4. Psychologist assessment; this type of assessment is carried out by an educational psychologist or the workplace occupational psychologist. This is very similar to the specialist assessment as they will use many different types of tests to create a profile of strengths and weaknesses of the individual. Psychologists may also www.sendmagazine.co.uk

use an IQ test which is a more complex assessment to identify people. This type of assessment can provide diagnosis.

Wednesday How does dyslexia affect people differently? Wednesday's theme is very interesting to me as every dyslexic is different and dyslexia affects people in many different ways. If we look at the emotional side of dyslexia it is very interesting as some people can really excel because they really understand the difficulties and many people feel that they are stupid or silly and they have low self-esteem and no confidence. By understanding the difficulties that dyslexic people face we hopefully can remove some barriers and help to grow their confidence and self-esteem and encourage them to have the strength and the determination to succeed. Thursday What help is at hand for those with dyslexia? (Also World Dyslexia Day)

If you look around a lot of help is out there for dyslexic people but the question is, are they getting the right help at the right time? This is probably more what we have to think about. There are a number of private tutors, local dyslexia associations and support groups who are able to oﬀer advice and help to young people and adults. Really and truly if we are identifying young people early, as part of early identiﬁcation we should be putting interventions into place and making sure that teachers, teaching assistant and senior management teams at schools are aware of dyslexia and ensure that schools have undertaken awareness training either through online training courses or inset days as this can really support and help them to understand and help people with dyslexia.

Friday Why is the correct help important and how can we raise awareness together? Identifying and implementing intervention can really help people

to grow in confidence, self-esteem and raise the ability in any dyslexic. When we look at the positives of dyslexia it often helps with creativity, thinking outside the box and problem-solving. These are strengths that we need in society today to ensure that we can all succeed, including dyslexic people. We have to make everyone aware of the difficulties of dyslexia within the wider community and that dyslexia is not just about reading difficulties, then we can really help and allow everyone to reach their full potential.

There are many events going on over Dyslexia Awareness Week, don’t forget to use the #dyslexia2016 to make sure that we spread more awareness support.

More information http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/f undraising/dyslexia-awarenessweek Source British Dyslexia Association, helen Arkell and Dyslexia Action.

SEND MAGAZINE WINTER 2019

Embracing the joy of reading for pleasure Local offer managing director Heather Stack writes.

I’M revisiting a favourite theme here, much that it may seem counter-intuitive: that of the power of parents to inﬂuence their child’s reading success. This is especially true where children fail to succeed at reading or struggle over many years to acquire the essential building blocks of literacy.

My thoughts also lean, as the academic year draws to a close, to how best parents and the child’s school can sustain an interest in books and literacy skills during the long Summer holidays? How do we support children’s literacy, not just in those early years of education, but when education has failed to equip that young person with reading skills, often over many years? The protracted effects of long-term reading difficulties are not as well documented as they should be, but include significant trauma, shame, self-loathing, low selfesteem, feelings of worthlessness, of inadequacy and contribute to a host of secondary difficulties, or additional special needs. It is the blight of our advanced civilised nation that we still permit so many young people to leave primary education with barely functional skills in literacy, and without the skills needed to advance or progress in secondary education to any satisfactory degree.

My own foray into writing children’s ﬁction has been met with enthusiastic support from fellow writers at the creative writing group I attend. My fables and fairy tales are ﬁlled with the God of Wind and Air, the Man Who Loved Clouds and a bewitching Forest of Dreams. It is impossible to separate out the writing of a story to its reading, and from there, to its audience. In writing my stories I look back with nostalgia to a time when my son and daughter were young and bedtime stories were a daily essential. Despite the ritual was set by me, the choice of which book to read was entirely my son or daughter’s. It helps that I’m an inveterate book collector, but with the plethora of discounted book stores in most high streets,

WINTER 2019 SEND MAGAZINE

second hand book shops, the library and online buying, reading remains, fortunately, a low-cost, high impact activity accessible to all.

Parents are often uneasy partners with schools, complicit in the failure of their child to develop reading skills, or to make appropriate progress. Despite the anguish and despair, many parents could do far more, at negligible or no cost, to support their child’s reading progress, with a little thought and analysis of what is currently the status quo with regards books and access to reading material at home. I have often found SEN Support review meetings with parents to be somewhat tortuous, with protestations by the parent that the child can achieve certain skills when

at home, and the school making equal protestation that those skills are not in evidence in the classroom. Many high horses are climbed at such times, yet I suspect the truth lies in some grey, muddied area along the continuum of skills that are just emerging, and may be evidenced in certain contexts, to skills that are consistent and evident across a range of contexts. Just like self-confidence, which may be packaged up and good to go in certain contexts, so reading skills can be context specific – more secure in some settings than others. So, what can parents practically do that influence the chances of their child achieving success in reading, and breaking through barriers to literacy?

To inﬂuence a child’s chance of success in reading, parents can consider the following. 1. How reading friendly is the home? What books, magazines, newspapers, leaﬂets, or other reading material are visible in each room of the house, electronic or hard copy? 2. How much time do the adults in the home spend actively reading – whether on screen or on paper, books or electronic devices? Provided that the child is able to determine that the adult’s activity is reading, it does not matter what medium is in use.

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3. What time is allocated on a daily and weekly basis to reading to and with children? Is this a matter of minutes, or can this be counted in hours? 4. Has each child got easy access to books or other reading material? Comics, magazines, fact sheets, information packs from days out, quizzes and special offers on the back of cereal boxes all count as reading material. 5. Are stories and children’s rhymes and songs a feature of home life? Consider children’s nursery songs and think what stories lie behind each song, many of which can be found in print also. 6. Is reading encouraged, in and away from the home? Reading road signs on the way to school, reading menus in cafes and restaurants, reading shop window notices, leaflets and posters about clubs and sports and local events, all foster an interest in reading and help children who struggle to read, see the purpose of reading skills. 7. Is reading a spoken, shared activity at times, or is it always a quiet, private activity? Children can be compliant and agree to read a page of their school reader before bed each evening, but if no one hears that reading, what chance of ensuring progress or success? 8. Do the adults in the house have their own collection of favourite reads, or spend time reading for pleasure during each day or week? The value of a reading household cannot be over-estimated in inspiring young people to want to read, and to persevere, even when difficulties are encountered. 9. Is there a rewards system in place for rewarding a child’s progress, however slow and uncertain that may be, through the school’s reading scheme? Marking progress through sticker charts and with special treats can be a means to keeping flagging enthusiasm alive, and help a parent notice dips in progress, sometimes before that dip is picked up by the school.

10. Are books or comics or magazines bought regularly for the child, and is time spent browsing book shops? There are a host of discount book stores, traditional book shops and stationers in each high street so that choice is never an issue, even where ﬁnance might be a constraint. If it’s a choice between a packet of sweets and a paperback book in a discounted store, how often does the book win over sweets? Within the school setting, there is much that can be done to help foster a love and appreciation of books and reading, that can be shared with parents to support the absence of formal learning during the long Summer holiday. A holistic and pragmatic approach to developing good reading skills in all children may consider – • The school’s existing reading resources, schemes and other reading materials • The school’s commitment to identifying and supporting a child’s early reading diﬃculties • The school’s commitment to supporting reading during the school holidays • Its connections with local libraries and visiting library vans or publishing houses • Its awareness of local Summer reading challenges in nearby libraries • Its promotion of local reading events, competitions, activities and workshops • The value placed on its library as a highstatus resource and asset to the school • How adults provide good role models as readers to all age groups, not just the very young • The balance of time allocated in school to reading for pleasure and reading for purpose • What range of reading opportunities are provided in each classroom • The balance of time between private reading and shared story telling

If, as a parent, you are facing yet another fraught and emotionally charged SEN Support or EHC Plan review meeting in school, or despairing your child’s lack of progress and interest in books, do consider not just what your child’s school can do to make a difference, but what you can do also that multiplies the potential for success? Two books that were a permanent bedside feature from my son’s childhood and remained firm favourites for many years, are Eric Kincaid’s ‘Riverbank Tales’, which my son would wish to have read incessantly and the wonderfully rhythmic story, ‘Ten in the Bed’. There is a pleasure to be gained in reading to a child – a pleasure that is infinitely rewarding and soothing, at the day’s end.

For parents, ﬁnd the time to read with your child, for your child and by your child. Find the time and make the time. Make it a daily ritual and your child will reap the rewards for a lifetime.

“There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.” Jacqueline Kennedy

January 2018

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WINTER 2019

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Teachers notes

SEND Abbrevia ons AAC ACE ACfE ACPC ACCAC ADD ADDiS ADHD AEN AENCo AET AfA AfL AGT ALD ALS AoL AQA ARB ARM ASD ASDAN ASN ASL AST AUT AWPU BATOD BDA BDD BECTA BESD BEST BILD BIP BME BSF BSL BSP BST BSU C&FS CA CAF CAFCASS CAMHS CAT CBAC CCEA

Alterna ve and Augmenta ve Communica on Advisory Centre for Educa on A Curriculum for Excellence Area Child Protec on Commi ee Quali ca ons Curriculum and Assessment Authority for Wales A en on Defect Disorder A en on De cit Disorder Informa on and Support Service A en on De cit Hyperac vity Disorder Addi onal Educa onal Needs A ddi onal Educa onal Needs Co-ordinator Au sm Educa on Trust Achievement for All Assessment for Learning Able, Gi ed and Talented Adults with Learning Di cul es Addi onal Learning Support Assessment of Learning Assessment and Quali ca ons Alliance Area/Au s c Resource Base Annual Review Mee ng Au s c Spectrum Disorder A ward Scheme Development and Accredita on Network Addi onal Support Need Addi onal Support for Learning Advanced Skills Teacher Au sm Age Weighted Pupil Unit Bri sh Associa on of Teachers of the Deaf Bri sh Dyslexia Associa on Body Dysmorphic Disorder Bri sh Educa onal Communica ons and Technology Agency Behaviour, Emo onal and Social Di cul es B ehaviour and Educa on Support Teams Bri sh Ins tute of Learning Di cul es Behaviour Improvement Programme Black and Minority Ethnic Building Schools for the Future Bri sh Sign Language Behaviour Support Plan Behaviour Support Team Behaviour Support Unit Child and Family Service Classroom Assistant Common Assessment Framework Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service Cogni ve Ability Test Welsh Joint Educa on Commi ee Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum,

CD CDC CF CFS CHEN CLD CP CRE CSCI CSP CoP CRE DAMP DCD DDA DED DEE DELLS DENI DfES DLA DRC DS DSD DSP DVD DYSC DYSL DYSP EAL EAT EBD ECM ELBs EOTAS EP EPi ERA ESA Estyn ESL EWO EYA EYAP EYDCP FLS FLT FRX FSP G & T GLD GTC GTCS

Examina ons and Assessment Conduct Disorders Council for Disabled Children Cys c Fibrosis Chronic Fa gue Syndrome Children with Mental Health and Educa onal Needs Complex Learning Needs Cerebral Palsy Commission for Racial Equality Commission for Social Care Inspec ons Coordinated Support Plan Code of Prac ce Commission for Racial Equality De cits in A en on, Motor Control and Perceptual Abili es Development Co-ordina on Di cul es (Dyspraxia) Disability Discrimina on Act Disability Equality Duty Disability Equality in Educa on Department for Educa on, Learning and Lifelong Skills Department of Educa on for Northern Ireland Department for Educa on and Skills Disability Living Allowance Disability Rights Commission Downs Syndrome Developmental Coordina on Disorder Dedicated Specialist Provision Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia Dyscaculia Dyslexia Dyspraxia English as an Addi onal Language Ea ng Disorders Emo onal and Behavioural Di cul es Every Child Ma ers Educa on and Library Board Educa on Other than at School Educa onal Psychologist Epilepsy Educa on Reform Act Educa onal Support Assistant O ce of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector and Training in Wales English as a Second Language Educa on Welfare O cer Early Years Ac on Early Years Ac on Plus Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership Further Literacy Support Founda on Learning Tier Fragile X Syndrome Founda on Stage Pro le Gi ed and Talented Generic Learning Di cul es General Teaching Council General Teaching Council for Scotland

HI HMCI

Hearing Impairment Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (of schools) HMI Her Majesty’s Inspectorate HMIE Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Educa on in Scotland Higher Level Teaching HLTA Assistant HSA Home School Agreement IBP Individual Behaviour Plan Individual Educa on Plan IEP Individual Learning Plan ILP INCO Inclusion Co-ordinator IPSEA Independent Panel for Special Educa on Advice IQM Inclusion Quality Mark ISP Individual Support Plan KS Key stage Local Authority LA LAC Looked A er Children LDD Learning Di cul es and Disabili es Learning Mentor LM LSA Learning Support Assistant LSC Learning and Skills Council LSP Learning Support Prac oner LSU Learning Support Unit LTS Learning & Teaching Scotland Mul -Disciplinary Team MDT MLD Moderate Learning Di cul es MD Muscular Dystrophy ME Myalgic Encephalomeli s MND Motor Neurone Disease MSI Mul -Sensory Impairment NAS Na onal Au s c Society NBCS Na onal Blind Children’s Society NDCS Na onal Deaf Children’s Society NEYTCO Na onal Early Years Trainers and Consultants NMSS Non-Maintained Special School NRWS New Rela onship with Schools NSF Na onal Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services NSSEN Non-Statemented Special Educa onal Needs NWRSENP North West Regional Special Educa onal Needs Partnership Ofqual O ce of the Quali ca ons and Examina ons Regulator Ofsted O ce for Standards in Educa on PATOSS Professional Associa on for Teachers Of Students with Speci c Learning Disabili es PCTs Primary Care Trusts PD Physical Di cul es/ Disabili es PDD Pervasive Development Disorder PMLD Profound and Mul ple Di cul es PSP Personal Support Plan OCD Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ODD Opposi onal De ance Disorder OT Occupa onal Therapist PDA Pathological Demand Avoidance Syndrome

PDD PECs PMD PMLD PNI PRU PPS PSI PT QCA RAD RAISE RAP RoA RoN RNIB S & L SA SA+ SaLT SCD SEAL SEBD SEF SENAG SENATS SENCO SEND SENDA SENDIST SENJIT SLCN SLD SMA SIP SPD SpLCN SpLD SQA SSEN TA TDA TLR TS VI WJEC

Pervasive Development Disorder Picture Exchange Communica on System Physical and Medical Di cul es Profound and Mul ple Learning Di cul es Physical and neurological impairment Pupil Referral Unit Parent Partnership Service Physical and Sensory Impairment Physiotherapist Quali ca ons and Curriculum Authority Rapid A achment Disorder Repor ng and Analysis for Improvement through School Self Evalua on Reasonable Adjustment Project Record of Achievement Record of Need Royal Na onal Ins tute of Blind People Speech and Language School Ac on School Ac on Plus Speech and Language Therapist Speech and Communica on Di cul es Social and Emo onal Aspects of Learning Social, Emo onal and Behaviour Di cul es Self Evalua on Form Special Educa onal Needs Advisory Group SEN Advisory and Teaching Service Special Educa onal Needs Co-ordinator Special Educa onal Needs & Disability Special Educa onal Needs and Disability Act Special Educa onal Needs and Disability Tribunal Special Educa onal Needs Joint Ini a ve for Training S peech, language and Communica on Needs Severe Learning Di cul es Spinal Muscular Atrophy School Improvement Partner Seman c Pragma c Disorder Speci c Language and Communica on Di cul es Speci c Learning Di cul es Sco sh Quali ca ons Authority S tatement of Special Educa onal Needs Teaching Assistant Training and Development Agency Teaching and Learning Responsibility Toure es Syndrome Visual Impairment Welsh Joint Educa on Commi ee

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Wordshark is being re-vamped and will be going online early 2019, accessible on most internet enabled computers or tablets throughout school and at home!

There’s no doubt that educational technology can make a big difference in the classroom and in the home. But the facts show that the key to closing the achievement gap is not providing more technology to students, but rather putting the right educational technology into the hands of teachers. It is well documented and recent research shows that a better way to improve outcomes and close the achievement gap is to give teachers effective digital tools that are purposefully designed to improve instruction and empower teachers to better focus their time and resources.

Wordshark online remains a teacher tool first and foremost, retaining the structure and integrity of previous versions. In addition, Wordshark online offers active progression – an adaptive assessment followed by a self-pacing structured program, allowing students to progress on their own individual learning program.

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