SEND bulletin November 2024

    Message from Madhu

    It was wonderful to see so many of you at our November Primary SENCO briefing. I truly valued our conversations, and the professional insights shared. As one SENCO remarked, these sessions provide a crucial space for supervision and support—a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with.

    I’m excited to announce the launch of SENCo clusters across all primary schools. These clusters will offer an additional and essential layer of support, fostering opportunities for reflection, leadership development, and the sharing of best practices. Together, we can collaborate on solutions to address the areas causing you the most concern.

    Emma, Tessa, and I are eager to work closely with you in these sessions. We encourage you to prioritise attending them, as your participation is key to their success.

    For our secondary colleagues, I recognise the hard work involved in consultations as you prepare for the new Year 7 cohort. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to primary colleagues if you need further information about any child. Additionally, I encourage you to refer to the most recent student data, such as Annual Reviews. In some cases, the progress a child has made may not be fully reflected in their EHCP.

    I look forward to seeing secondary SENCo and inclusion leads at our very first seminar on Thursday – and watch this space for more information on a Secondary SENCo Cluster pilot for the new year!

    Thank you all for your ongoing dedication and commitment to supporting our children and young people.

    Autism Education Trust resources

    Handpicked by Dawn Clegg from Springhallow outreach, we plan to recommend a resource from the AET each month from their wealth of support for our Autistic pupils. Links will also be in their own tab in the SENDline padlet. Here is Dawn’s message:

    This month, I would love to share with everyone, why the Autism Education Trust is such a valuable resource in the affirmation of neurodiversity, which is vital in providing inclusive provision. The AET strength-based approach of autism as a difference, not a deficit, supports autistic, and other neurodiverse learners, to have a positive school experience. Watch their short video and find out more information, here:

    Ealing speech and language therapy referrals

    Are you considering a referral to the service? We recently hosted a workshop for teachers and SENCos on when to refer to our service, featuring engaging case discussions about those tricky referral scenarios. Here are the slides on When to refer to SLT.

    To summarise the key learning points from the workshop, we encourage you to consider making a referral for children who:

    • Are starting at your school and are not yet combining two words when speaking (or are not using any words) in any language
    • Show reduced awareness of others and exhibit frustration during play with peers.
    • Are not easily understood by others when speaking by the age of 3½ years.
    • Have a voice that sounds consistently hoarse or quiet or are unable to speak loudly.
    • Show signs of swallowing difficulties, such as food or drink going down the wrong way, coughing, watery eyes while eating/drinking, repeated chest infections, or limited chewing.

    Concerned? Don’t wait! You can discuss any cases you are unsure about with your school’s allocated SLT, or you can reach out to our advice line to speak with a speech and language therapist at wlm-tr.ealing.sltadvice@nhs.net

    We’d love for you to join us at our future workshops running this term:

    If you’d like to sign up, please email wlm-tr.sltuniversalservices@nhs.net with the staff members and their emails that will be attending.

    Curriculum and assessment review

    Have your say regarding assessment in SEND and accessible curriculum as part of the review. Ends 25 November. Curriculum and Assessment Review - Department for Education - Citizen Space

    Therapeutic Thinking resource of the month

    Message from Simon

    This is a tough time of year in schools – darker, colder nights, more illness, and fatigue from a long term. I hope you are finding ways to cope; please remember to look after your own roots first.

    Talking of roots….perhaps your school would like some free trees. Woodland Trust are offering to deliver trees to schools. Geography colleagues of mine took them up on this offer several years ago – I took one of the trees home and now have a 10ft rowan tree producing berries and providing shade.

    Some pupils need adults in school to nurture their roots more than with other pupils. A simple resource many of you will be familiar with is the stress bucket, which I have adapted slightly to use some language from Therapeutic Thinking. I have used this with pupils, talking and drawing with them what fills the bucket, and what can help to empty it (as well as what it looks like when the bucket overflows).

    I’ve also used it to think about my own needs, recognising when I am getting ‘full’ (I tend to shut down, speak less, and want to be alone) and how I can relieve this through positive experiences (walking, a hot bath, taking time to cook and eat with family/friends). I hope you find it useful. This resource can be found on the Therapeutic Thinking Padlet.

    Mental Health open morning at Circle Café

    The Circle Café are holding an open morning for partners and LA teams to attend. It’ll be a chance to see the Circle, meet colleagues working across Ealing, and chat to the team. You can visit anytime between 9am and 12pm (drop in) on Thursday, 21 November – no need to register. Address is the Circle Cafe, 46 South Ealing Road, London, W5 4QA.

    SEN governors

    For your governors to be able to support your school, best practice is for them to be able to visit and meet with the SENCO termly, as well as attending governor meetings. A governor perspective can really strengthen your SEN provision. Additionally, measures that seek to promote diversity in governing bodies will inform your race equality work. Watch the video about Ealing race equality in education for parents May 2024

    Ealing Education ICT

    Would you like to see attendance records alongside other information in gateway, when you are preparing for an annual review or request for assessment? To view this tab on your gateway log in, send a request to Ealing education ICT EalingEducationICT@ealing.gov.uk. You can also ask the team about pupils or if a pupil has more than one record.

    SEN assessment service (SENAS) updates

    Read the SENAS team updates about caseload allocations, relocating, improvement work on descriptor levels, admissions and transition from special schools and ARPs, EHCP co-production meetings

    Training this month

    Browse Ealing CPD Online for a full view of professional development in Ealing.

    Supporting neurodiversity in the classroom Wednesday 27 November Last few places available! on the one-hour online course for teachers.

    Use this search to find all the SEND training on offer SEND training

    Joint secondary SENCo and inclusion leads seminar Thursday 21 November 2024 will provide a valuable space to hear from other schools and reflect on your schools practice, consider what is working well and next steps. 9.30am – 3pm at EEC

    Translation and interpreting services: can you help?

    Have you used a translation/interpreting service recently, that you would recommend? Schools are looking for this service, especially languages not in our Ealing top 10, such as Albanian or Kurdish. Here are some links used by schools. If you have suggestions please share by email to Sam at sendline@ealing.gov.uk.

    Signposts for parents

    Do share the Autism Hub family support service which is for any parent/carer pre-diagnosis who has been referred to CDT or CAMHS (even if not added to a waitlist) to receive some advice and guidance. Ealing Families Directory | Ealing All-Age Autism Pre-Diagnostic Hub autismhubsupport@contact.org.uk

    Parent workshops from Contact:

    Coming up in January

    Thursday 30 January 10am-12pm, Southall Town Hall: Contact workshop on learning difficulties in school and how parents can support their child, delivered by SENCo Alison Towers – look out for the flyer in January.

    Ealing Parent Carer Forum

    EPCF run ADHD and chat coffee mornings at Field Café, Questions Theatre – the next two are

    • Friday 22 November and
    • Friday 13 December, from 10:30-12midday

    EPCF coffee morning on Monday 9 December, 10am – 12pm

    Useful Race equality resource for parents: Ealing race equality in education for parents May 2024

    Top Tip

    Podcasts can be a great way to get some SENCo cpd. Here are some to try:

    Did you know?

    School Voice survey published Oct 2024:

    A large majority of primary school teachers said they required support from a SENCO (86%) or from teaching assistants (80%). About half (49%) said they required support from their school safeguarding lead(s).

    Contact:
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    Last updated: 20 Nov 2024

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