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Recently there has been much discussion about transition. The 0-11 nasen Advisory Group have produced three written pieces on the role of good transition as part of our recent activity and we have decided to share these.

Two were written in ‘normal circumstances’ and one was written post COVID19 lockdown. We have not edited them. We have published them as they have been presented to nasen connect.

1. School B Ready
2. Primary to Secondary
3. Returning from a significant absence

The 0-11 nasen advisory group, chaired by Michelle Prosser Haywood have been discussing the merits of an excellent transition programme for learners with SEND. Here they outline some considerations for learners transiting from Early Years to School Settings.  

It is without doubt that we are all aware of the change model and the impact it can have not just on our lives but also the lives of the learners we teach. It was Williams (1991) who proposed that we should accept change, as it happens to all learners, but we should also reconsider it as managing transition. In education there is perhaps no more important transition than managing change for young children going from the familiar to the unfamiliar, such as; from nursery to reception, or reception to year one, or key stage to key stage or transition to high school.

Some learners can cope well with transition, and this can simply be visiting and meeting their new teachers, but for learners with SEND, a move between settings can create uncertainty and anxiety, which we can try and avoid through careful and thorough planning.  Galton, Gray & Ruddock (1999) suggest that there are five learning bridges to good and effective transition; administrative, social & personal, curriculum, pedagogy and autonomy and managing learning and in the first of the transition series by the 0-11 nasen advisory group, these areas have been explored to support Early Years transition from an Early Years Setting (PVI or School run setting) to a School Setting for a learner with SEND

Administrative

The timeline is tight – Move fast!

Allocated school places for F2 are communicated to the school and parents in April, before the learner is due to start in September. Four to five months can sound like a long time but time soon slips away with the other demands a SENCO faces in school and in reality, everything needs to be in place by mid-July. If a learner has been allocated a place at your school then you have a duty to be ready.

Remember the other professionals in the Team around the Child are there to help you. If you had an idea that a learner with identified SEND is likely to be coming to your school you may already have pencilled in a pre-transition date. If not you will have to move quickly to pull together a pre-transition meeting and finding a mutually convenient time should not be underestimated as a task. Remember to ask the parents about who they would like at the meeting but also consider who from the receiving school should attend. It may for example, also be helpful to have a paediatrician at the meeting to explain the implications of a complex medical condition but the specialist ASD SALT may be the most useful person for the learner with complex autism and the paediatrician may not be needed.

Leaflets and pre joining information 

Any leaflets and guidance about a child being ‘school ready’ or ‘key stage ready’ must be considered with great caution when a learner has SEND. Apart from causing undue stress and worry to parents, who can then believe they should seek to delay the transition, whilst their child ‘catches up to be ready’ it could be wholly inappropriate, for example common statements in early years might be your child must / should; be able to ‘count to 10’ when the learner is pre-verbal, be toilet trained when the learner is incontinent and be able to write their name when the learner has cerebral palsy and may never be able to hold a pencil.

Local Authority Support (and any additional funding) 

Different agencies and Local Authorities will have different funding streams and negotiating these (if applicable) can be complex. For example does health contribute towards the care of a learner in school who has a tracheostomy?  Arrangements may vary across health authorities. These arrangements will need to be have been finalised before the learner enters the new setting.

Social & Personal

One size does not fit all

Pre-transition activities that worked well last year for a learner with SEND may not be right another for each learner. The best transitions for learners with SEND are bespoke and personalised.

The ‘Empty/extra’ visit can help with familiarity. A child will visit the classroom when it is empty so that they can look around without the hustle and bustle of 30 other children in the space. This can be very useful for children with sensory needs and those to whom a familiar environment is particularly important. Parents can also be encouraged to take photos on their phone of key areas in the room – the toilets, where the child will hang their coat, put their water bottle, sit on the carpet etc.

A parent can then show their child the photos during the long summer holidays to remind them of their new environment. The benefit of an empty visit is that there are less GDPR issues as there are no children in the room. For some learners, as well, the most important photos will be of the new adults, rather than the environment and schools should endeavour to provide photographs of the key people.

Some learners will benefit enormously from extra visits – the more time they spend in the new room with the new adults the better. For others it may be a very unsettling experience as they are now not sure where they belong – their existing setting or the new school? Be guided by parents/carers here and other adults who know the child well.

Uniform 

This may be the first time a child has to wear a uniform. Any sensory needs that require reasonable adjustments should be addressed before the learner joins the school. Preparation could, for example, involve the child wearing their uniform on their pre visits.

If a child is still in nappies some school trousers do not fit and some do not support independence when a child is learning to use the toilet independently. Trousers that can be washed and tumble dried make life easier for parents.

School Lunch 

It could be the first time that a child has had a lunch outside of their home. The school healthy eating policy may not fit with the limited foods that some children can or will eat. Consider before the child starts school, how this is going to be managed.

School Behaviour Policies 

Careful consideration should be given to school behaviour policies and what impact these could have and this information could be collected during pre-observation. Information as how the learner responds to praise, what are potential triggers and how does the learner like to be comforted could be useful starting points.

Curriculum

The SENCO will need to informally observe the learner on several occasions, in their current setting, prior to their start date, to gain as much information as they can about their current levels of learning, how they access activities and what their interests are.

Pedagogy

Most young learners do not have a good understanding of the passage of time and so telling them that they will be going to school after the holidays or in 6 weeks’ time will not reassure them or be meaningful to them. Guide parents with this by offering them a simple calendar with symbols to use during July and August and early September. This may help to give some structure to the summer holidays for the child and the start of school will flow naturally from this. It will also help to make life feel more predictable for the learner.

Autonomy & Managing Learning

No matter what the size of the Team around the Child and the meeting there are some underlying aims that are the same; parents should leave the meeting reassured, and with a clear idea of what the plan is and feel that their voice has been heard and that they have been listened to. We are asking parents to take a leap of faith with professionals, some of whom they barely know and entrust them with their child and we want this relationship to get off to a good start.

At the meeting the school staff need to glean as much information as possible about the child. This includes what the child is like both in their existing setting and at home and we would expect there to be differences between the two. There is no substitution for a robust Action Plan which anticipates the learner’s needs and is able to detail reasonable adjustments to ensure curriculum entitlement is met as well as acting as a reassurance for the parents.

The Bridge of Transition – Primary to Secondary

Following on from their last article on transition for EY pupils with SEND, the 0-11 nasen advisory group, chaired by Michelle Prosser Haywood, have put together a subsequent piece on children with SEND transitioning from Primary to Secondary School. They have again used the five learning bridges which they explained and used previously.

Transition involves adjusting to new surroundings, and throughout primary, if the child has stayed in the same school, they will have been involved in transition. But this will have been within a familiar primary setting, where they know the teachers and support staff, and are comfortable and confident within their current school environment. Children will know where their next class will be and they may have visited or been in other classrooms for various reasons prior to being regularly based there. Each new academic year, although children may not yet know their new teacher, they will often stay with the same class of children and so there will be some level of familiarity for them.

In comparison, the transition to secondary school, will involve making sense of new rules on a larger scale, adapting to a new uniform, becoming familiar with different groups of people, including peers from a range of different primary schools and also a range of subject teachers, a form tutor and numerous other members of staff.

Alongside this, children will also have to become familiar with the school layout so that they can find subject rooms, navigate around the building (often more than one) and learn to use a timetable (sometimes one that is over two weeks). They will have to adjust to not knowing where they stand in the new ‘pecking order’, or how they compare against their new classmates.

Again we recognise that some children can cope well with transition, and by visiting and meeting their new teachers they feel assured, but for children with SEND, a move between settings can create uncertainty and increase anxiety, which we can try to avoid through careful and thorough planning.

The five learning bridges (Galton, Gray & Ruddock 1999); administrative, social & personal, curriculum, pedagogy and autonomy and managing learning, which we used to structure the transition from Nursery to Reception, in our previous piece for Nasen Connect are equally valid to support the transition from Primary to secondary school and we have focused on them again here.

Administrative

Allocated places for secondary schools are formalised by most LAs around February, usually by similar dates each year. The transition for a learner with an Educational, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) will start earlier at the Year 5 Annual Review, when the LA will have an indication of the wishes of the parent/carer and learner. This Annual Review is really important as a time to start setting out the plans for a successful transition. Where decisions have been made about school placement, it is helpful for the SENCO from the secondary school to be involved in the annual review, enabling children and families to start developing communication and  positive relationships with key staff early on.

Pupils at SEND Support won’t have an annual review, but parents & carers can still be asked their wishes, in year 5. The choice may well be the local feeder school and additional arrangements to the standard transition package could be put in place, which ensures that children accessing SEND Support are given a longer transition period to support their individual needs. This might include extra visits for the child to the secondary school.

Social & Personal

Transition activities should involve visits to the secondary school for a range of different activities, such as the school play and sporting events. We mentioned the ‘Empty/Extra’ visit in our previous piece. There is no reason why the same strategy cannot be used at this stage too. These strategies will start to help a child to feel a sense of belonging, and if they take place with peers who intend to also attend the same secondary school, they can start to make connections to this new group.

Children may want to take photographs to help them remember and think about their new school.  Providing a colour coded map of the school layout may also help students to identify subject rooms and other areas such as the cafeteria or form rooms.

Children will want to feel emotionally and physically safe. The common places which pupils cite as being less safe are open spaces during less structured time such as break and lunch times. Transition packages can focus on these times in regards to the School behaviour Policy, and also on alternatives. If, for example, the school runs lunchtime clubs, then children should attend these as part of the transition package.  During transition the school should be clear on its homework policy and expectations.

Pedagogy, Autonomy & Managing Learning

Transition can be considered effective when the school has an understanding of their pupils and they have created an environment where they can make progress, and the transition package should continue beyond the first few days of entry to the new school. Not all pupils will have the resourcefulness or resilience to adapt quickly to their new school. Issues may also crop up which haven’t been anticipated, such as sensory overload in the corridors which prompts a pupil to wait until the corridors are empty, or draw on a coping strategy which draws attention to him/her. These should be identified immediately and consideration given to them.

Overall remember that children with EHCPs and at SEND Support may have parallel planning in place which can be tricky for transition and needs to be handled sensitively and carefully. There is a fine balance between the preparation for transition and the child still feeling part of the current learning environment, and community.

Transition after a significant Absence

Following on from their pieces on transition for EY pupils with SEND, and from primary to secondary, the 0-11 nasen advisory group, chaired by Michelle Prosser Haywood, have put together a subsequent piece on considerations for all children who could be transitioning back to school after a significant absence.

No one expected the country to go into a lockdown on the 23^rd March as a result of a global pandemic, and over the few weeks that followed to the Easter holidays, Schools and families had to adjust to new circumstances. Many children stayed at home with their parents, whilst other children, with parents who were keyworkers or where considered vulnerable continued to attend school, but with considerable changes made to allow for social distancing. This was the biggest change to our ‘normal ways of living and working’ that any of us have ever had to deal with, but an even bigger challenge to could be returning to a ‘normal’ school routine.

Each year, transition and change is managed across schools, from year group to year group; it is part of school life. For what we may consider more significant transition, such as from an early years setting to reception or from year 6 to year 7, we arrange more transition activities than when learners are moving from one class to another in the same school. In the past, the majority of children coped well with this; visiting and meeting their new teachers and settling quickly into new routines when they arrive in new classroom or setting.

Additional work around transition tended to focus on vulnerable children and learners with SEND. Following the current lockdown, all children may not have the same ‘bounce back ability’ and resilience they  have demonstrated in the past. Its likely all children will need ‘additional and different’ support depending on their individual experiences during the lockdown.

Every school has responded differently to the learning resources they have provided, during the lockdown, and some of these will have evolved, making use of free resources as they become available (i.e. Oak National Academy and BBC Bitesize) and including celebrity activity, such as PE with Joe Wickes and Storytime with David Walliams. Others have provided daily challenge; the #ChatleyChallenge for example has been setting a range of activities, with films of teachers taking part;  say the alphabet backwards, obstacle courses, blindfold activity and the #keepdancingchallenge which featured on the One Show.

Younger children particularly will not have been able to engage in the same way as older mature children who will be able to follow online lessons. Over the weeks of the lockdown, it is likely therefore that children’s engagement with any school work could have varied, from day to day, and week to week, depending on home circumstances. Some parents will have been working whilst trying to support their children’s learning, other families may not have had access to the technology to run online learning sessions  or have a space to set up as a ‘classroom’ whilst others have kept some form of routine and continued to attend school although in smaller groups and not always with the same teacher each day or each week. Each child’s experience, therefore, during this time will be different and when our children are able to return to normal schooling, we need to be aware of these experiences and plan accordingly.

While our children are absent, we need to continue to maintain regular contact with them, and this can be through a number of ways, which have successfully demonstrated by schools across social media; regular quizzes, webchats, marking work if it has been set, dedicated youtube channels and using Tik Tok!

It is important to remind children what their school looks like, so running virtual tours and using parts of the school for activities, such as one of the classrooms for a story setting, or a ‘live’ treasure hunt around the school with the teachers and children who are in the building, will help to keep the school building familiar to them for when they return.

No decisions have been made when and how children may return, so a range of staggered starts may be employed, however there will be those children who are transitioning to another key stage, in another school or setting who did not get the chance to stay goodbye, and have not had the opportunity to visit their new setting. There is no reason why similar activities cannot be planned, with the intent that pupils, especially ones transitioning from year 6 to 7, might want to go back to their previous schools and this could even be part of a staggered start for this group of children.

On return, we will need to be re build our school communities. Staggered starts will give schools to the opportunity to rebuild with their children. Many children will  experience separation anxiety, at the very least, and will need to adjust to being around big groups of children again, as well as coping with loss and change. The schools the children will be returning to, will not be the schools they left, some staff may no longer be there, and they themselves will have changed during the time they have been absent.

We will need to provide safe spaces, so that children can talk about their experiences during the lockdown and there will be some children and schools who will have lost friends and colleagues. We need to understand bereavement and trauma ourselves and we must prepare so that we can support our children.

We must understand that children will have had different experiences during the lockdown, and not return to a formal assessments and formal schooling, some children will have made progress, others will not and we will have to make changes to our curriculum and the types of lessons we deliver.

We must understand that re-establishing routines may take longer than we expect. Everyone will be re learning the rhythms of the everyday; getting up at the same time, leaving the house at the same time and accommodating other family members in these routines.

And finally we must remember that post lockdown, things will have changed for everyone and we must take our time to adapt to this, for ourselves and the children we teach.

The Impact of School Transitions and Transfers on Pupil Progress and Attainment

Galton, Gray and Ruddock, Homerton College Cambridge 1999 – DCSF Research Report No 131

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RR131.doc

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On Friday the 12th of July 2019, I presented a session at Nasenlive on Using Case Study to support learners with SEND. This is the narrative to support the presentation taken from an edited piece that I originally wrote for nasen connect.

The case study , is often used individually within the context of Pupil Premium (PP) to demonstrate PP spend, or to outline the support a learner with SEND may have received within a school or Early Years setting. Case studies, used in this way, usually list how support which is additional to or different from the usual classroom arrangements has contributed to pupil attainment, by putting the school and learner into context, the approaches to learning used, the impact of any intervention delivered and identifying next steps.

Within a wider framework case studies are often seen as a way of recording and presenting good practice, across a larger area, may be a group of schools or early years settings. In the Partnership case Studies, undertaken by Action for Children (foundation years.org.uk) for the Department of Education (DFE) Voluntary and Community sector grant programme, for example produced ten case studies which identified top practice tips from early years (EY) settings with sections on benefits, challenges and next steps, which could aid another professional if they wished to adopt similar strategies within their own setting.

In another example, case studies can be used for illustrative purposes to support an evaluation. The Independent Evaluation Report into nasen’s Early Year’s SEND Resources, undertaken by LMKCO, commissioned by nasen (http://www.nasen.org.uk/newsviews/News/News.the-independent-evaluation-report-into-nasen-s-ey-send-resources-is-published.html) uses four case studies following a questionnaire to probe further around the impact of the nasen resources within an Early Years setting. The final evaluation uses these four examples to enhance the conclusions drawn.

There are a range of different publications, including edited books which use case studies, as their chapter format. The work of Villa & Thousand (2005 & 2015) is of particular significance as it was used by Deb Robinson, from the University of Derby, at a recent ResearchSEND Conference to illustrate the features of inclusive schools, such as team work and collaboration, flexible and diverse teaching approaches and improving universal provision Both of Villa and Thousand’s publications take a case study approach, but Deb had analysed these herself to present the features she thought were important to an inclusive school

A case study approach can enhance work, where similarities and differences are being documented and patterns are likely to emerge,. These possibilities can be identified at the beginning of the process and identified though the research methodology during the development of the research proposal and the submission to the Ethics Committee, which have been discussed in a previous piece within this series .

Case study research is popular in professions such as health, political science, social work, architecture, operations research and business management, as its intention is not to describe a subject or situation but to answer a hypothesis in the same way that another research project would be set up to answer a question.

Case studies are most effective when they are collected across a similar theme and a number of these are produced and the information collected is through a mixed method approach, using both qualitative data and qualitative techniques. Case study methodology, in an educational context, allows for the collection of multiple sources of data to build a picture of a setting to highlight what they may be doing well, or to examine a professional undertaking a specific role or even consider the impact of an intervention for a learner with SEND.

Research information for the case study can be gathered from a range of data sources, starting usually with document analysis to establish the context. This could take the form of collating and studying information, readily available within the public domain, such as a setting’s website, their Ofsted grading and any assessment results and analysis they may publish.

Fieldwork following the initial information gathering stage, could then take the form of a number of different research methods. In one piece of research it may be appropriate to gather data from the whole school staff, and an online questionnaire may be the best way to achieve this, whereas in another piece of research, the case study, may only be examining the role of SEND support staff, so a focus group and follow up with semi structured interviews may provide all the information required.

Case studies when collected around similar themes across a wide area may reveal some expected outcomes, which were not identified at the beginning, giving scope to re-evaluation and will add, understand and give conviction to a subject.

It may be that in school there is not the capacity for undertaking case studies, but finding ones already completed, as either a single case study using mixed methods, or examining ones within an evaluation, may help to inform and support pupils with SEND more effectively.

Some examples of Educational Case Studies

1.Early Years SENCO Case Studies https://foundationyears.org.uk/ey-senco-case-studies/

2.Evaluation Report for nasen’s Early Years SEND Resources http://www.nasen.org.uk/newsviews/News/News.the-independent-evaluation-report-into-nasen-s-ey-send-resources-is-published.html

3.Education, Health & Care Plans. Examples of Good Practice. https://councilfordisabledchildren.org.uk/sites/default/files/field/attachemnt/EHCP%20Exemplar%20Guide%202017.pdf

4.Freedom to lead: A study of outstanding primary school leadership in England. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/outstanding-primary-school-leadership-in-England

5.Primary School Case Studies (NI) https://www.csscni.org.uk/schools/good-practice-primary-school-case-studies

 

These ‘Take 5’ or ‘Take 3’ or ‘Take 6’ were developed by the Primary SDS Cohort at The University of Wolverhampton (2018 – 2019), following some teaching sessions on SEND as part of their course, to state some key facts about some areas of SEND policy.

They may be useful for another group of students to use, and they could be added to…

SEND Code of Practice

1. The Code of Practice refers to Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014 and associated regulations.
2. The SEND code of practice applies to young people from the age of 0-25
3. The 4 areas of need are:
   • Communication and interaction
   • Cognition and learning
   • Social, mental and emotional health
   • Sensory and/or physical

SEND identification

1. Referrals to specialists are made if the school have tried their best to support the needs of the child.
2. Before referrals are made, parents need to be informed.
3. If the support of specialists is agreed, parents’ permission is needed.
4. Specialist Professionals work with the child to give recommendations for their needs to be supported fully.
5. Changes are then recommended by professionals and the school with the parents. If the needs are more complex and require provision that the school cannot meet, school will assist making an application for EHCP.

 

　The Role of the SENCO

1. Supporting the identification of children with special educational needs
2. Co-ordinating provision for children with SEN
3. Liaising with parents of children with SEND
4. Liaising with other providers, outside agencies, educational psychologists and external agencies
5. Ensuring that the school keeps the records of all pupils with SEN up to date

 

Teaching Assistants

1. Not all SEND students require a teaching assistant. In mainstream settings, most SEND students are supported by the teaching assistant
2. Teaching assistants in mainstream schools are sometimes utilised by providing interventions for SEND students.
3. Teaching assistants should be directed by the teacher and should always be overseen by the teacher.
4. Researchers found a number of reasons behind why pupils were not making progress and are at great pains to make it clear that TAs themselves are not at fault. In fact, they went as far as stating that schools would not be able to function without them. The problem lies with how TAs are trained and deployed.
5. An EHCP could secure some to one-to-one support from a teaching assistant (TA), if it named in the plan.

 

　Local offer

1. Has 2 key purposes a)provide information about available provision and b) to make provision more responsive to local needs.

2. Are expected to be available to SEND children and people

3. LA must publish information that is up to date

4. Prepares people to be independent and for adulthood.

5. LA wanted to develop a system that lets professionals innovate and use their judgement to work together.

Early Years

1. Early Years Providers are required to have regard to the SEN Code of Practice.
2. All early years providers are required to have arrangements in place to identify and support children with SEN or disabilities.
3. When a setting identifies a child as having SEN they must work in partnership with parents to establish the support the child needs.

 

School Responsibility

1. Every school is required to meet the SEN of the children and young people that they support.
2. Schools must use their best endeavours to ensure that the necessary provision is made for any individual who has SEND
3. The SENCO or another member of staff must inform parents when they are making special educational provision and ensure that all children and young people engage in activities alongside their peers.
4. A School should designate a qualified teacher to be the SENCO

 

DfE Statistics

1. Decrease of children with SEND in mainstream schools from 2007 (790,695) to 2018 (650,455) During the same time period 2007, 38% with a SEN were in special education schools. By 2018, 45% with SEN were in Special schools.
2. This correlates directly with Ofsted announcement that a statement (now known as ECHP was not enough for categorisation as a child with SEND).
3. Jan 2018-49,070 boys with ECHP, 17,719 girls with ECHP
4. The number of fixed inclusions across all state-funded schools has increased from 339,360 in 2015/16 to 381,865 in 2016/17.
5. Additionally, in 2016/17, special schools had the largest percentage of fixed period exclusions at 13.03% compared to state primary at 1.3% and state secondary at 9.4%.

School & EY Support

1. Children under 5 will receive a written progress report when the child is 2 years old, a health check for children aged between 2 and 3, and a written assessment in the summer term of the first year of Primary school, which are early steps for identifying SEND
2. Early years have access to a local area SENCo, who will offer support and advice on how best to include children in learning, and any next steps that may need to be put in place.
3. The SENCo will help to co-ordinate support in schools, which may include observing children’s behaviours, getting children to work in smaller groups or with TA support, help with taking part in class activities, and support with physical/personal care difficulties.
4. The Local Authority will also offer support to schools in various forms　　- targeted services such as　educational psychologists and　mental health services.
5. If a child needs more support than the school is able to provide, then and EHC will be put in place and this will enable them to access the curriculum as well as specialist support and provision.

 

EHC plans

They were introduced in 2014 by the children’s and families act and they replaced statements.
EHC plans are in effect until the child/young person reaches the age of 25, provided they need to be in education, although this does not apply for university students.
The primary purpose is to summarise the difficulties a child may face and to outline specific provision.
2.9 per cent of the total pupil population had a statement of SEN or an education, health and care (EHC) plan.
SEN Support is most prevalent among 10-year-olds. The statistics show that 14.6 per cent of 10-year-olds have SEN support. This reduces to 12.5 per cent of 11–year-olds and continues to decline as age increases.

　Special Schools

1. Every child needs an EHCP
2. Special schools can be maintained (Funded and controlled by the local education authority), academies (independent state-funded schools) or independent (fee-paying schools)
3. Maintained schools have to follow the National Curriculum, but it can be limited as reasonable adjustments are made
4. Provide　a wide range of interventions including therapists, physiotherapists, specialist swimming teacher, Makaton, Picture Exchange Communication System
5. 2% of school-age children attend a special school
6. Class sizes are smaller. There is a higher staff ratio due to additional needs, but doesn’t necessarily mean that children receive 1:1 support

 

　OFSTED

 

Ofsted does not make a separate judgement about schools’ special educational needs (SEN) provision. Instead, SEN provision is inspected as part of the whole-school inspection.

Inspectors must take account of the learning and progress across different groups of pupils currently on the role of the school. This includes disabled pupils, those who have special educational needs, those for whom the pupil premium provides support and the most able.

Paragraph 141 of Ofsted’s　School Inspection Handbook says that before making their final judgement on a school’s overall effectiveness, inspectors must evaluate “the extent to which the education provided by the school meets the needs of the range of pupils at the school”, including pupils with disabilities and pupils with SEN.

Paragraph 155 of the School Inspection Handbook, linked to above, explains that when judging the effectiveness of leadership and management:

1. Inspectors will report on the achievement of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities.
2. This includes reporting on the pupils in any specialist resource provision managed by the governing body and the extent to which the education the school provides meets the needs of these pupils.

Paragraph 177 explains that when judging personal development, behaviour and welfare, inspectors will look at a small sample of case studies to evaluate the experience of particular individuals and groups. This may include case studies about pupils with disabilities and pupils with SEN.

When judging outcomes for pupils, paragraphs 193 to 195 say inspectors will:

1. Consider the progress of pupils with SEN and/or disabilities in relation to the progress of pupils nationally with similar starting points
2. Examine the impact of funded support for them on removing any differences in progress and attainment. The expectation is that the identification of SEN leads to additional or different arrangements being made and a consequent improvement in progress
3. Consider whether any differences exist between the progress and attainment of pupils in resource-based provision and those with similar starting points who have SEN and/or disabilities in the main school. Inspectors will report on any differences and the reasons
4. When considering any whole-school published data on progress and attainment, take into account the impact that a large number of pupils in resource-based provision might have on these figures
5. For groups of pupils whose cognitive ability is such that their attainment is unlikely ever to rise above ‘low’, base the judgement on an evaluation of the pupils’ learning and progress relative to their starting points at particular ages and any assessment measures the school holds. Evaluations should not take account of their attainment compared with that of all other pupils.

Pupils with SEN are also mentioned in the grade descriptors for the effectiveness of early years provision, found on pages 67-69 of the inspection handbook.

Ofsted found that Disabled pupils and those with Special Educational Needs made the best progress when:

1. 1. 1. There were high aspirations for the achievement of all pupils.
      2. Teaching and learning for all pupils was good or better.
      3. Provision was based on careful analysis of need, close monitoring of each individual’s progress and a shared perception of desired outcomes.
      4. Regular evaluation of the effectiveness of the provision at all levels took place.
      5. Swift changes were made to the provision as a result of evaluating outcomes and well-being.

References

https://schoolleaders.thekeysupport.com/school-evaluation-and-improvement/inspection/whole-school-inspection-criteria/ofsted-inspection-of-special-educational-needs-sen-provision/

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=2ahUKEwiHuLTW95LgAhUTD2MBHUWYD4YQFjADegQIBxAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nasen.org.uk%2Futilities%2Fdownload.6CEC715B-1896-428B-A20C0CA2F7B42E98.html&usg=AOvVaw1N5KJNVYQQs2IYa3-0MLLs

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michelle Haywood considers how the role of SENCo has become one where strategic decisions are increasingly important – so can we expect more of tomorrow’s heads to be one-time SEND specialists?

Back in 1978 – the year that Olivia Newton John and John Travolta declare their devotion to each other as Sandy and Danny in the film Grease – a publication entitled ‘Special Educational Needs: Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the education of handicapped children and young people’ was presented to the Secretary of State. More commonly known as ‘The Warnock Report’, its publication followed a detailed enquiry commissioned three years earlier to consider the needs of ‘handicapped’ learners.

40 years on, it’s hard to appreciate just how revolutionary The Warnock Report was in changing the narrative around SEN and its influence on subsequent government legislation. It did much to popularise terminology now firmly established around our educational narrative, such as replacing medical classifications with ‘Special Educational Needs’ for the first time and removing categorisations such as ‘handicapped’ and ‘educationally subnormal’. The ‘Statements of Special Educational Needs’ it proposed would continue to be used by LAs for decades to come

When it came to the business of managing SEND provision in schools, The Warnock Report didn’t use the term ‘SENCo’, but did suggest that headteachers within ‘ordinary’ schools should ‘delegate responsibility for special needs to a designated specialist teacher’ with an understanding of SEN, who would work with pupils in small groups or one-to-one to support pupils’ individual needs. There may have been no mention of how SEND support could be coordinated and managed across a school, but it was from these early beginnings that the SEND co-ordination we now recognise was born.

 

It was the 1994 SEN Code of Practice that first formalised the ‘Special Educational Needs Coordinator’ role, recognising it as a position within its own right. Many TAs who had shown expertise in supporting learners with SEND were assigned such roles, with the result that a number of schools came to be considered as having a wider knowledge of SEND matters. Following a change to the law in 2008, all SENCos were required to be qualified teachers; as of September 2009 it also became necessary for them to undertake a National SENCo qualification (NASENCO), within three years of being appointed.

One would expect a role first proposed in 1978, to change and evolve over time, and indeed that evolution has been well documented by Robertson and Morewood, Rosen-Webb and Done et al, among others (see references). A SENCo who would once have been identified as a ‘specialist teacher’ is still expected to be an in-house authority on a school’s provision for pupils with SEND, but may now also hold a range of other specialist qualifications alongside their NASENCO.

In 2014, the SEND Code of Practice identified four broad areas of need (communication and interaction; cognition and learning; SEMH difficulties; sensory and/or physical needs) operating within mainstream schools, specialist schools and at LA level. Depending on the context, that means there could be up to seven areas of specialism to manage across a school. It’s unlikely that a sole SENCO can specialise in all of them, yet there’s often an expectation among school staff that they do.

Slowly, though, a different picture of the SENCO role is emerging. There’s now a growing number of ‘hybrid positions’, stemming from the recognition that schools need specialist SEN knowledge to be by possessed by individuals in strategic leadership roles. Deputy and assistant headteachers are thus increasingly taking on SENCo duties, or else overseeing their school’s SENCo role. Some headteachers – particularly those in small rural schools who were once SENCOs themselves – are adding SENCo duties to their management roles. In MATs, a SEND Director may now be appointed to lead on SEND strategy across several schools..

Some headteacher and MAT CEOs – again, often those with direct experience of performing the SENCo role themselves – will actively encourage their staff to take on SEND leadership roles as part of their performance management process and apply for SEND positions in other schools.

A hybrid position

These different visions of the role may have been prompted by the 2014 SEND Code of Practice, which states: ‘The SENCo has an important role to play with the headteacher and governing body, in determining the strategic development of the SEN policy and provision in the school. They will be most effective in that role if they are part of the school leadership team.”

A quick Google search of current SENCo vacancies within schools suggests that the role as we understand it may be steadily morphing into a more strategic one. As things stand, it remains something of a hybrid position in terms of how vacancies are advertised. It’s not uncommon to see adverts describing SENCOs as ‘specialists working with the most challenging pupils in the school’, while stating that the duties involved will be undertaken as part of the SLT.

If Grease were to be remade today, the teenage romance between Sandy and Danny would still hold the film together, but numerous changes would be made, simply due to advances in technology and fashion. Similarly, while the overarching principles of The Warnock Report continue to shape how SEND is coordinated across a school, what we see now is far more focus on leadership. Now that every class teacher is expected to be a ‘teacher of SEND’, the SENCo role itself has become a hybrid of the traditional and the new, sitting somewhere between a middle and senior leadership role.

 

 

Done, L, Murphy, M & Watt, M (2017)

‘Change Management and the SENCO role: developing key performance indicators in the strategic development of inclusivity’ Support for Learning Volume 31, Number 4: 281-295

 

Morewood, G D & Robertson, C (2012)

Editorial, Support for Learning, Volume 27, Number 2: 51-52

 

Rosen-Webb, S M (2011)

‘Nobody tells you how to be a SENCO’ British Journal of Special Education, Volume 38, Number 4: 159 – 167

An edited version of this article appears in https://www.teachwire.net/assets/freecopy/senco.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

Written to Support the PGCE Primary SEND Enhancement (January 2018) at The University of Wolverhampton 
The Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (1994) was the first document to mention the management of SEN provision and formalize the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) role and a change in statue law (Regulations 2008) stated that a SENCO, should be a qualified teacher and from September 2009, undertake a National SENCO qualification (NASENCO), within three years of appointment (unless the post was held prior to 2009).
The NASENCO is the only school based role after QTS, where further study is required, as the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) was removed as a statutory requirement for Headship in 2012.
The SENCO role that has been evolving over time and its evolution is well documented. (Robertson & Morewood 2011, Rosen – Webb 2011 & Done et al 2017) SENCOs who were once considered to be an ‘in house’ expert on all SEND provision for all pupils with SEND, now have wider remits of Middle or Senior Leadership responsibilities which can include organizational overviews, identification of continuing professional development (CPD) requirements, managing staff, and completing performance reviews.
However, it was not until 2014 and the revised SEND Code of Practice (2014) and subsequent SEND Reform that the new stance was fully recognized and a new phase was introduced, ‘every teacher is a teacher of SEND’. Throughout chapter six, the SENCO role is referred to as a Leadership and Management role, notably, ‘the SENCO has an important part to play…in determining the strategic development of the SEN policy and provision in the school. They would be most effective in that role if they are part of the School Leadership Team’ (6.87)
Total jobs (totaljobs.com) outline a SENCO job description, in which the person holding the SENCO position is responsible for some of the ‘most challenging pupils in a school, needing patience and the normal skills required of a teacher, however the SENCO role can vary from school to school and can be a different role in each.
Daniel Sobel writing on the changing role of the SENCO in (Sec-ed.co.uk) describes two types of SENCO; the Traditional SENCO and the New SENCO. The Traditional SENCO has been able to withdraw pupils from classes and provide intervention by delivering it themselves or deploying qualified Teaching Assistants to undertake one to one or small group sessions. Whereas the New SENCO is considered to be more strategic, a member of the Senior Leadership Team and focused on whole school rapid and sustained progress.
In reality, it’s likely that a SENCO is a hybrid of the Traditional and the New, sitting between a middle and senior leadership role.
In embracing ‘every teacher is a teacher of SEND’ the hybrid SENCO could be overseeing the day to day running of the SEND Policy through,

• Supporting all teachers to meet the diverse needs of the learners in their classrooms, through a range of strategies including differentiation and personal interventions

• Managing the school policy around identification, assessment and intervention

• Managing provision and deploying staff

• Monitoring pupil progress using a range of methods such as, learner observation, learner focused interviews. learner voice, book scrutiny and assessment outcomes

• Developing and regularly reviewing an action plan to be part of the annual school development plan

• Providing regular feedback to the Senior Leadership Team

• Regularly meeting with the SEND Link governor

• Organising and running relevant INSET Training

• Having an overview of the School Information Report, website information and link to Local Offer

• An understanding of statutory responsibilities and making applications for Education Health and Care Plans (EHCP)

• Arranging and running annual reviews for EHCP

• Linking with outside agencies such as the Educational Psychology Service

The Educational Landscape is ever changing, and with it the role of the SENCO, but paramount to the role will always be managing provision in schools for learners with SEND and as long as a SENCO is supporting ‘every teacher’ to be ‘a teacher of SEND’ it can be a hybrid between traditional and new and look different in every school.

Further Reading
DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION/DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH (DfE/DoH) (2014) Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice, London : HMSO
DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION AND SKILLS (2001) Special Educational Needs: Code of Practice. Annesley : DfES Publications

DONE, L, MURPHY, M & WATT, M Change Management and the SENCO role: developing key performance indicators in the strategic development of inclusivity. Support for Learning, Volume 31, Number 4, 281 – 295

MOREWOOD, G, D & ROBERTSON, C (2012) Editorial. Support for Learning, Volume 27, Number 2, 51 – 52

ROSEN-WEBB, S, M (2011) Nobody tells you how to be a SENCO. British Journal of Special Education. Volume 38. Number 4, 159 – 167

See also
Statutory Instruments 2008. No 2945. Education England.
The Education (Special Educational Needs Coordinators) (England) Regulations

Click to access uksi_20082945_en.pdf

 

 

 

 

Written for The Chartered College of Teaching to Support my Workshop on Supporting Poor Spelling through Assessment at the #ThirdSpace Conference in Bristol 04.11.2017

‘Spelling is an area of concern for Billy. He can spell single letter sounds now on an oral cue (i.e. sound to symbol) although he does confuse some similar sounding letters such as j/g and b/d. He can also spell some two and three letter regular words from a list of the ‘hundred most used words’ including some high frequency irregular words such as like, but he finds spelling any other irregular unknown words very difficult, and uses phonetic approximations for example, said (sed) and what (wot). This is particularly obvious when Billy is writing independently and this has the effect of slowing down his creative thought processes resulting in frustration and upset. It also means that his finished written text is often difficult to read or decipher by either Billy or his teacher/parent’

(Diagnostic Assessment BA, November 2015)

Billy is not in year one, he is ten years old and in year five of a mainstream school. The diagnostic report in describing what Billy cannot do in terms of spelling highlights that for his age he has a significant spelling difficulty and his teacher is concerned. Billy is simply frustrated and cannot understand why he cannot spell well, like his friends.

To a good speller, poor spelling can be one of the most striking elements of a handwritten piece of writing; a piece of writing containing multiple spelling errors can distract from the content and mistakenly convey an image of the writer as being less capable than their peers. Commonly, the ability to spell has often been linked to ‘signs of intelligence’ as survey undertaken by the Telegraph newspaper found (The Telegraph, 2014) and not only that but half of the respondents reported that they misspelled familiar words they also admitted that they judged others on their poor spelling. Judgments about poor spelling are not unique to readers of the Telegraph though. Advice given by the website, The Undercover Recruiter, suggests that poor spelling can limit opportunities in the workplace and can be the difference between being offered a job interview or receiving a letter of rejection.

Due to the rise in mobile devices less hand-written material is being produced, however spelling errors are still being made. Poor spelling is not being eradicated by spell checkers or predictive text programmes which can be ineffective as they fail to recognise misspelt words. Locating the correct spellings for a word such as amanuensis, for example, is a challenge if the speller is unable to identify the first few letters correctly.

Electronic spelling aids if mastered can be useful, but if there is little difference between them and using a dictionary where there is the same reliance on knowledge of the English sound system., then they are equally useless. Ultimately if the speller is unaware what the correct spelling should be, they may not recognise it when the doy see it and therefore select one which is out of context and incorrect.

Most children learn to spell without incident and good spellers develop a range of strategies, which help and support them to recognise the words they want and need, which they can apply to the spelling of unknown words or use to learn new unfamiliar word, techniques such as

• Chunking the component parts of a words
• Sounding out a word out phonically
• Breaking a word into syllables
• Breaking a word into morphemes
• Using knowledge of existing known patterns or knowledge of word families.
• Applying knowledge of morphology
• Using known spelling rules
• Recognising words within words
• Knowledge of similar letter strings
• Making use of mnemonics
• Remembering a critical feature

Poor Spellers, like Billy, will have struggled to acquire these skills and one suggestion might be that he, and others like him, have not moved as quickly through a continuum of spelling development as their peers. A continuum model such as the one proposed by Rees and Rivalland (1997) could suggest that Billy is functioning at a semi phonetic stage of spelling development and a revision of an earlier stage of the continuum which would be recognisable in Key Stage one is required.

Stage of the Continuum	Key Indicators (Rees and Rivalland, 1997)
Preliminary	Uses writing like symbols to represent written language Uses known letters or approximations of letters to represent written language
Semi Phonetic	Uses left to right and top to bottom orientation of print Relies on sounds which are most obvious to him or her Represents whole word with one, two or three letters. Uses mainly consonants.
Phonetic	Chooses letters based on the sound without regard for conventional spelling patterns Sounds out and represents all substantial sounds in a word Develops spelling for certain sounds often using self -formulated rules
Transitional	Uses letters to represent all vowel and consonant sounds in a word, placing vowels in every syllable Beginning to use letter patterns and critical features of words
Independent	Uses a multi strategy approach and has the ability to recognise when a word doesn’t look right. Will have accumulated a large bank of words which can be automatically recalled

 

The National Curriculum (2014) recognises a continuum of spelling development, but has placed it within age defined stages. For spelling, Billy would be assessed as not meeting age related expectations, but Billy needs additional intervention to support his spelling development, and for it to be effective, the intervention needs to match the assessment of what he can and cannot do.

Spelling difficulties, such as Billy’s could be assessed in two ways, and then thoroughly analysed. Firstly, through a standardised spelling test, with a test such as The Single Word Spelling Test (SWST) which is a common choice for a diagnostic assessment, and then secondly within the context of a written piece of work.

Both the standardised test and spelling within context can help identify the types of spelling errors being made and highlight which groups or errors can be re- taught (see table below for some suggestions). Spelling in context is particularly important as it can show which words are used frequently by the speller, as poor spellers can often avoid words they cannot spell and use alternative words instead.

 

Millstone	Name	Example
1	The impossible trigram	Cwiyatly for quiety
2.	Misrepresentation of sound	Cet for get & cot for cut
3	The wrong boundaries	a-another or halfanhour
4.	Wrong Syllabification	Sundly for suddenly and rember for remember
5.	Inconsistent spelling	Same word spelt in different ways on the same page
6.	Wrong letter doubled	Eeg for egg and beel for bell
7.	Mistaken recall of order	All the letters have been written but in an incorrect order
8.	False match for the order	Sitser for sister
9.	Omission for one or more sounding letters	Amt for amount
10	Duplication of one or more sounding letters	Piyole for pile
11	Phonetic attempt misfired	Yuwer for your
12	The instructive vowel	Miy-yils for miles
13	b-d substitution	Bady for baby

 

(Miles, 1993, summarised by Ott, 1997, p.104 – 106)

As well as a targeted spelling intervention, reasonable adjustments will be needed in the classroom, to reduce stress and support the writing process. These suggestions were made for Billy as a result of his diagnostic assessment and might help other poor spellers:

• Don’t always mark for spelling, mark for content only
• If a piece of work is marked in a pupil’s absence, mark in two colours, one for content and one for spelling and presentation
• Use pictures as a precursor to writing, rather than a follow up
• Scribe when longer pieces of writing are required so that vocabulary can be experimented with and spelling is not the focus of the task
• Teach word processing skills and use as often as possible, so that use of a spellchecker can be developed. In external examinations, for example GCSE, access arrangements can be requested where pupils can type their responses, for poor spellers this could be a valuable skill to develop and may help them make less errors
• Use charts and diagrams rather than writing directly on to plain pieces of paper
• Redrafting and correcting a pupil’s own, other pupil’s work or a fictional piece of work
• Create individual activities such as bingo, tracking activities and sorting (correct and incorrect words) which can be played as games and are personalised for the pupil
• Develop a set of class mnemonics for subject specific words and/or an independent list
• Limit copying from boards, as this can lead to miscopying and errors

There may be many pupils like Billy and although it should be acknowledged that their poor spelling might be an indicator of other learning difficulties, it may be simply that they need additional and different support with this one aspect of their learning.

By assessing using a continuum of development rather than an age related one, and then developing a suitable intervention with some classroom reasonable adjustments Billy may in the future be considered in the half of Britons who can spell common words when The Telegraph next asks.

 

References

Daily Telegraph (2014) Half of Britons can’t spell common words Available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11142501/Half-of-Britons-cant-spell-common-words.html

Department of Education (2014) Statutory Guidance: National Curriculum in English: English Programmes of Study https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study

Miles, T, R (1993) Dyslexia – The Pattern of Difficulties, Whurr Publishers Ltd, London

Ott, P (1997) How to Detect and Manage Dyslexia – A Reference & Resource Manual, Heinemann, Oxford

Rees, D and Rivalland, J (1997) Spelling- Developmental Continuum, Rigby Heinemann (on behalf of the Education Department of Western Australia) Melbourne, Australia

Single Word Spelling Test (SWST) GL Assessment https://www.gl-assessment.co.uk/products/single-word-spelling-test-swst/

Undercover recruiter (2016) Why Spelling and Grammar can ruin your job hunt Available at http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/spelling-grammar-ruining-job-hunt/

 

More information about diagnostic assessment can be found on the British Dyslexia Association (BDA) website

http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/dyslexic/getting-an-assessment-for-dyslexia

 

 

 

 

Ednex sponsored our ResearchSEND Conference in Sheffield on the 17.11.2017. I wrote this for them for a marketing piece they were putting together.

Michelle Haywood argues that the Education Sector needs modern recruitment solutions such as Ednex – The Education Career Network
Teachers like to collect things.
They collect powerpoints from conferences and training events they have attended.
They collect leaflets of resources they might want
They collect downloads from resource sites.
Teachers like paper copies of things and they like to store them in boxes, they have boxes of resources and lesson plans and staff meeting minutes. Some of this is no longer useful and can be culled every so often, but that’s not quite true of my career history, which I regularly need to refer to for new positions, conference speaking and consultancy work.
As a teacher I stored my career history firstly in a box and then lately on memory sticks and cloud storage, and every time I want to apply for a new position, I have to go through the box and sort out the relevant experience, I then have to find the correct memory stick and see if I have already typed it up, and if not re type. For example recently I wanted to mention a project I undertook to gain my National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH), as I have had several laptops since I undertook this, I spent a considerable amount of time searching through memory sticks and piles of paper to find the information I needed.
I have recently discovered Ednex, a platform which can store my career history, in a chronological form, so that it is easily accessible. I especially like that it keeps hold of the lesser examples of my career, which I may not refer to in a letter of application for a new position, but may require, for example, if I am commissioning a new piece of work as a consultant.
For teachers, all CPD can be added, such as the maths mastery staff meeting, the half session on PREVENT and the full day INSET day when Ruth Miskin introduced Read,Write, INC, as well as CPD which may have been undertaken in a teacher’s own time, such as Post Graduate Certificate or Masters’ Qualification.
Ednex are asking all teachers to register initially to record their career history, this will be easier for final year students on Initial Teaching Education (ITE) courses and Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) than the more experienced amongst us, but once a career history is uploaded, and a teacher is looking for a promotion or is relocating or returning from maternity leave, they can open their profile and connect with all the Schools registered on Ednex who are looking for staff to fill current vacancies.
The Key State of the Nation, Survey Report (2017) found that staff retention is suffering due to negative portrayals of the teaching profession across social media and the popular press, and publicised workforce issues within Senior Leadership Teams (SLTs)  which are preventing teachers from applying for promotions to leadership positions. Sometimes a match made by Ednex, which had not been considered before, may gently persuade a teacher to take on a more senior role and go one step further to filling the growing number of unfilled leadership posts.

Ednex therefore not only supports Teachers to grow and develop their professional profile, but by linking the profile to Schools and Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) in the Ednex network it can broker the career profiles of teachers seeking new positions, and can provide details such as Key Stages, Sectors and Specialisms, as well as providing Schools and MATs with the assurances that staff have not only got comprehensive career history, but that Safer Recruitment checks such as Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and Identification have taken place prior to shortlisting .
A Teacher’s Career history can be completed and further details of the benefits for Senior Leadership Teams (SLT) can be found at http://www.ednex.co.uk

Michelle Haywood Is a SEND Consultant, a Senior Lecturer for Primary Education at the University of Wolverhampton and the Co-founder of @ResearchSEND