Welcome
Welcome to the final SEND update of the term. As always, this term has felt long and very busy, and there are still lots of Christmas activities in school to come which, although can be lots of fun, can also be particularly challenging for some of our CYP with SEND. As always, planning and preparation is key, ensuring there are no surprises and the children know exactly what, when and how things are happening. Read below some strategies to help.
Thank you for all your hard work this term. It has been great to work with so many of you in school and through the SEND network meetings. Don’t forget to book onto the Spring term network meetings and secure these in your diaries before you get too busy!
I hope you have a wonderful and relaxing festive break
Hannah
This one hour, online workshop, held after school, will support primary and secondary schools how to use this document. It will provide an overview of the tool and its new features which include visual graphs, attendance/exclusion data, progress/attainment data and a personalised school SEND overview section.
Devon’s popular Autism and Us free programme for parent-carers returns in the new year, with a combination of four-week courses and one-off workshops.
The Autism and Us programme offers support for families of children and young people who have an autism diagnosis or who are waiting for one. It is designed for parent/carers of primary and secondary school age children in Devon. It gives families an opportunity to develop their understanding of autism, looks at practical solutions to managing and supporting children and young people’s needs.
Life Support Productions publish a range of relationship and sex education resources suitable for CYP with SEND that support the current RSHE curriculum. All packs are include lesson plans and cover a wide range of topics suitable for all ages. Click below to view the range.
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With bright lights, unfamiliar noises, smells, food, routine changes, and over-excited peers, Christmas can be an overwhelming experience for children with autism. But the communication and interaction team have created top tips to help you and keep the Christmas magic alive. Click below for top tips. |
Sensory and Physical team
For children and young people with hearing impairments, for school events consider:
- Using tablecloths to absorb sound from clattering cutlery.
- Trying to reduce background noise!
- Thinking about positioning – can the child see everyone clearly to lip-read or sign? A round table is ideal so that everyone can see each other.
- Allowing the child to choose where they sit. They may prefer to sit with their back to the light (so that they can see other people’s faces), with their back to the wall (to help with acoustics), or beside a friend who they find easy to understand.
- Speaking one at a time.
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Lets Sign have created a Christmas Bundle of resources
- And finally, a word on beards! Beards make lip reading tricky. If Father Christmas visits your school, a smaller or tidier beard is best if not use a helpful elf!
For children and young people with physical difficulties, Christmas can be a good time to practise fine and gross motor skills with a sparkly twist!
Try salt dough tree decorations (rolling, chopping, pincer grip to add sparkles etc), Christmas Tree hole punch (pushing down on hole punch and cutting coloured paper to sit behind it); snowflake
cutting out, printing hand made present labels with potato printing or picking objects out of sparkly Christmas goop…enjoy!
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