SEN bulletin December 2023

Message from Madhu

As we come to the end of 2023, I would like to reflect on the year’s achievements. We have remained committed to providing our children with a great education experience. Many parents have shared how much their school has supported them over the year and many children and young people have thrived - family events including the family fun day and parents drop-in sessions, and our first youth forum for children with additional needs have been highlights. We have made steady progress towards our strategy aims and continuing to work together on the challenges.

Thank-you Chike for all your work over the last 18 months and all the best in your new role. I am also pleased to announce that Fabiola Peacock will be acting Head of SEND from January and Lucy Granger will be stepping into the Head of EHCP planning position. I know you will join me in congratulating them both.

Thank you for all your hard work, passion and resilience this year. I wish you a Happy Christmas holiday and look forward to seeing you in the new year.

Celebrate our pupils

Drayton Green Primary is celebrating Omar, who has moved from ARP to mainstream this term and is doing really well. Omar loves maths, rubicx cubes and would like to be a policeman or an accountant when he is older. Please do send pictures, ideas, and success stories to the Bulletin to share with colleagues. Email Sam on sendline@ealinggov.uk.

Using NTP Funding for pupils with SEND

The DfE have a National tutoring programme (NTP) - Support for pupils with SEND

Training to book/review this month

View the latest training via Ealing CP Online Development Opportunities | Ealing Schools CPD Online (ealingcpd.org.uk)

Autism Education Trust training from Castlebar and Springhallow schools in the Spring term.

Team Teach Level 1

We have a few more places left for level 1 team teach training in the Spring term. This training is suitable for leaders, teachers and teaching assistants who want to learn more about reading behaviour and strategies to de-escalate. Please get in touch if you are wanting to offer this to staff. Provisional date for Level 1 is 16 Jan 2024, £75 per participant. sendline@ealing.gov.uk.

Dyslexia type difficulties training – January 2024

Sign up for this training with Lady Margaret Primary School Dyslexia type difficulties outreach support in spring 2024

Training from the school nurses team

Implementing the school medical conditions policy and Managing Medical Emergencies courses will be running again in the Spring term. Email to book: Clcht.ealingschoolnurseteam@nhs.net

Training module one: Implementing the school medical conditions policy

28 February 2024 and 19 June 2024, 1.30-3pm, or 3:30-5:00pm

Training module two: Managing medical emergencies

22 February 2024 and 6 June 2024, 1.30 to 3pm or 3.30 to 5pm.

Therapeutic Thinking

Therapeutic Thinking provides a set of principles and an approach that is designed to better understand and meet young people’s needs. The underlying theory and a practical, graduated set of tools supports leaders with the development of policy, culture and practice in relation to young people’s behaviour.

• 17– 19 January 2024
• 13 - 15 March 2024.

‘Wow! I have had one staff of member say: ‘it was the best CPD he has ever had’’. (High School SENCO)

Mandeville School launches new website

Mandeville Special School, which offers education to 132 children with SLD and MLD, has updated their website and outreach offer with lots of useful resources – for example: Mandeville School - The importance of play

Safe Evolve

SAFE Evolve is a new emotional well-being service for families, delivered by Anna Freud in partnership with Ealing Council. The service offers mental health support to all children and young people up to the age of 18, and their families through brief evidence-based interventions, individual and group parenting support programmes, parent workshops on common issues of need and consultations with professionals known to the family. To find out more information please email SAFE_Evolve@ealing.gov.uk or call 020 8825 7500.

Whole school SEND

New units in their free, online SEND CPD programme – 20 mins long, clear guidance and link to Specialist Spotlights to build on the learning. There are now 17 units, the latest ones being:

• Understanding executive function
• Memory for learning
• Developing Maths skills
• Person centred working

Please share your feedback if you are building these units into your staff CPD programme.

Featured Webinar from Whole School SEND

Just for SENCOs, this month’s featured webinar is on SENCo wellbeing: How to ensure balance between the role of SENCO and personal wellbeing. | Whole School SEND

Contributions for SENCO celebration conference 2024

This free to Ealing Senco’s conference is scheduled for Wednesday 6 March 2024. A nourishing and invigorating programme is being planned and there will be a marketplace of local providers and charities for you to get to know face to face. If you have a project you would like to present, or speaker you would like to hear, please contact the Sam: sendline@ealing.gov.uk

Signposts for Parents

Workshops from the Ealing Mental Health Support Team

Nine workshops across the spring term for parents and carers on a range of topics from teen mental health to Autism.

Learn Ealing Courses for parents and carers

Learn Ealing have a wide range of courses including Family Learning, homework clubs and Family English for multilingual parents and carers. Supporting our families in this way can help to make Ealing services easier to reach.

Winter HAF

Winter 2023 HAF Ealing’s Winter HAF Programme will run from Friday 22 December 2023 and Tuesday 2 – Friday 5 January 2024

Throughout the borough, HAF provisions will be offering a wide range of free activities as well as a healthy meal. Eligible children and young people can attend for a maximum of 5 days over the Christmas school holiday, with any number of our HAF providers.

Inclusive Christmas in school

This resource from the North East Autism Society is a reminder to be mindful of the challenges school Christmas activities create for some of our learners. Christmas in Schools | North East Autism Society (ne-as.org.uk)

Speech and language therapy: Story telling info for parents

Reading stories is a really great way to build your child’s speech language communication skills.

Reading together helps to:

• Expand your child’s vocabulary - Book expose your child to more unique, more complex and more meaningful words
• Expose your child to new sentence structures and sentence types
• Use abstract/create thinking - Books support your child to use their imagination and think about things that aren’t right in front of them
• Build their attention and listening

Check out our YouTube video on how to use books to help children’s speech, language and communication development

Top Tip

To support pupils with ADHD traits, use a ‘concentrator’ Tangle types are less likely to be thrown than stress balls and are silent. Make the rules of use clear to all pupils.

Concentrators – Fintan O’Regan (fintanoregan.com)

Did you know?

From September 2024, the new qualification for SENCOs will be an NPQ for Sencos, rather than the NASENCO. The NASENCO will still be a valid qualification for those who already have it or have started it.