SEND

How online learning can help SEND students succeed in English, maths and science

Reading time: 2 minutes

Students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) can face several challenges in the traditional classroom setting. These challenges can include difficulty paying attention, following instructions, and understanding complex concepts.

However, when appropriate measures are implemented, online learning can provide several benefits for SEND students. Their core subject knowledge can be enhanced when their specific needs are accommodated.

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5 ways a pastoral wraparound approach can help those with mental health issues

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Pastoral care is an essential part of school life and aims to meet the needs of a pupil’s happiness, safety, well-being, and ultimately future success. How a school offers this pastoral wraparound care has to be personalized to meet the individual needs of the students in their setting, however, in this article, we discuss 5 ways in which pastoral support can help those students with mental health issues.

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3 reasons why learning online can be better for SEND students

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Blog 3 reasons why learning online can be better for SEND students

SEND students may struggle with their education in a mainstream setting but could acquire real benefits from online learning if the circumstances dictate. Here’s why it can be better for them.

The 2022 SEND Review has highlighted poor outcomes and experiences for SEND students stating:

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How the SEND Review Impacts Learning

Reading time: 4 minutes

The recent 2022 SEND Review has highlighted faults within the education system, what are its impacts and what can we learn from it to take into the new academic year and beyond?

The review outlined 3 main challenges within the education sector which needed to be addressed:

1. Navigating the SEND system and alternative provision is not a positive experience for too many children, young people and their families.
2. Outcomes for children and young people with SEND or in alternative provision are consistently worse than their peers across every measure.
3. Despite the continuing and unprecedented investment, the system is not financially sustainable.

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Mental health issues in education – time to improve

Reading time: 5 minutes

Mental health concerns within education have increased over the past few years. Concerning the recent SEND review and alternative provisions, what can be done to improve the situation and the negative stigma that surrounds certain APs?

3 main concerns that the SEND review highlighted are that children are making inadequate progress, families are dissatisfied with the situation and financially the situation isn’t sustainable.

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SEND/CAMHS support

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Children with SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) have faced lots of changes to their daily lives because of Covid-19.

Routines and regular support that they rely upon may be significantly different – and this presents challenges.

Parents and carers may be concerned throughout the pandemic how changes are affecting their child. It also presents some challenges on how parents and carers manage their own work and home life.

But platforms are available to support children with SEND to receive an education. This blog post takes a look at what is available and advice that you and your child can follow given the situation.

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How should the Government be supporting SEND students?

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There are concerns about the impact that the coronavirus pandemic is having on children with SEND (Special Educational Needs). 

Currently schools remain open for children deemed as ‘vulnerable’. However many schools had temporarily closed because they were unable to support children in need.

A particular concern is the support for students with dyslexia and dyspraxia. A BBC report in 2019 found that 80% of students with dyslexia were already being missed by schools, therefore will the support available further penalise these students who still not expected to attend?

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Teaching SEND pupils in mainstream classes

Reading time: 4 minutes

Managing the education of SEND pupils has always been a difficult topic.

In the past these children have been ignored, moved into specialist SEND schools, moved back into mainstream schooling with or without additional support, provided with additional funding, had funding removed, taught in isolation units or excluded altogether.

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How to identify relevant training opportunities for your SENCO

Reading time: 3 minutes

A school’s SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator) is a vital component of modern learning environments. They take responsibility for supporting SEN pupils throughout their time at school and their workload is varied and challenging.

Since 2009, all newly-qualified SENCOs have been required to take the National Award for SENCOs within three years of taking up a relevant post. Completing this initial training is enough to prepare SENCOs for their challenging role, but, as with all teaching positions, training is ongoing.

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Supporting students with mental health problems

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Being a student can be challenging and stressful enough, but when a child is experiencing mental health problems and trying to cope with this alongside schoolwork and other responsibilities, it becomes much, much more difficult.

Medically or psychiatrically diagnosed challenges, including depression, anxiety, and stress, can have a much greater impact on academic performance than other factors such as relationship problems, excessive internet use, and chronic pain.

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5 ways to help teach students with dyslexia

Reading time: 2 minutes

More than 1.2 million children in the UK have dyslexia, a disability which results in difficulty reading and understanding the meaning of the words in front of them. Many children who have dyslexia have said that the words they see do not stay still. Instead, they move around the page, affecting their ability to read them.

Unsurprisingly, dyslexic students can find themselves falling behind others in the class, resulting in performance issues.

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5 Simple Strategies…for Overcoming External Barriers

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Routines will help in so many ways. They reduce stress levels in pupils on the Autistic Spectrum. They provide containment and structure for pupils with ADHD or social issues. They speed up your planning because you will know what type of task you are doing and when ahead of time: everyone’s a winner!

You may choose to have specific types of lessons on specific days, or to have a bank of structures that you draw on, which can be signposted to the class either ahead of time or at the start of the lesson. Find the system that suits you and your group(s).

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Removing barriers to learning

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The new SEN reforms have, more than ever, placed the emphasis on all classroom teachers to be ‘teachers of SEN’. This is not new information; in fact it is a sentence that has been repeated in almost every discussion about the reforms. It is the impact of this catch-all statement that will really be news.

Increasing numbers of children who would have been considered to have additional needs, and would be placed at either School Action or School Action Plus will now simply be members of the class.

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SENCOs queue to get free help with speech and language issues

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Integrated Treatment Services see scores of SENCOs booking onto ‘hubs’ to make provisions for 10% of students with SLCN as refomations loom and NHS remains controversial.

With the summer holidays already being a distant memory to most teachers, a team of UK experts at one service provider have recorded over 200 delegates, such as SENCOs, registering to attend training hubs in response to reformations.

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Person-Centred Planning

Reading time: 3 minutes

The new school year is always a time of transition and change: new pupils, new staff and renewed energy from the summer break. This year sees more change than usual however, as the much discussed SEN reforms are finally upon us and provision has quite dramatically changed.

Following on from earlier newsletters about what the reforms mean for you, here we will discuss one key aspect of the reforms: the person-centred approach to planning and review.

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5 Simple Strategies…to Support ESOL Pupils

Reading time: 2 minutes

Students who speak English as a second language can face multiple barriers to education. It is important that we strive to enable these pupils to have full access to the curriculum, allowing them to develop autonomy and achieve in mainstream education.

In order to do this, here are our top 5 strategies to support your ESOL pupils, which can be adapted to suit both group workshops and the mainstream classroom

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Supporting Pupils with Medical Conditions

Reading time: 3 minutes

Many children experience debilitating illnesses that allow them to attend school, but find it difficult to participate fully in classroom activities such as excursions. Over one million children suffer from long term medical conditions such as asthma, heart disease, cancer, Type 1 diabetes, stroke, celiac disease and anaphylaxis.

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What will the SEN Reformations mean for you?

Reading time: 3 minutes

Our attitude to SEN has always been the same: more should be done. With the government’s reformations due to be implemented in September, we look at what the changes will mean.

You only need to hear two words to incite a wince on most of our faces: government reformation. The pending reformation in the way SEN support is delivered in schools and colleges in England is no exception; bringing with it confusion for parents, young people, teachers and other education, health and care practitioners.

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