Welcome
It was lovely to see so many of you at this term’s SEND network meetings. We hope you found them informative and enjoyed the opportunity to chat with colleagues and various members of Devon County Council's advisory teams.
A brief update of Devon’s SEND transformation plan was given, along with a summary of the information gained so far from the Ordinarily Available Inclusive Provision workshops.
The new SEND Advisory team was introduced. They are working with all schools across Devon to provide regular, focused support, guidance and advice around whole school approaches to SEND. All LA mainstream schools have been offered an introductory visit, as have all MAT SEND leads. If you haven’t yet had an initial visit, please get in touch.
We heard from Devon Information Advice and Support (DiAS) about how they are working with parents and children and young people. Their website has lots of very useful information on it – do check it out and share information and resources with families. Home - Devon Information Advice and Support (devonias.org.uk)
We also heard about the need to raise the profile of Learning Disability Annual Health Checks from Dr Rachel Gaywood. You can find out more about these here PlymouthPCV - Preparing For Adulthood
Finally we had some input from the SEND advisory team around sensory processing and how to meet these needs through appropriate use of sensory breaks – do they need an espresso or a green tea?! If you missed this and would like to know more, please contact your area SEND advisory teacher.
As always, we want to ensure that these network meetings are useful and relevant to you, so please get in touch with any topics or themes you would like to hear more about next year.
Best wishes, Hannah.
Hannah Chamings, SEN and Disabilities Adviser, Devon County Council
hannah.chamings@devon.gov.uk
Join us for our annual SEND conference at Sandy Park, Exeter. The day of informative and inspiring talks and networking opportunities will explore how we can all build and strengthen a collaborative approach to leading, supporting and transforming SEND provision for our children and young people, and their families, across Devon.
We are thrilled to have two fantastic keynote speakers Natalie Packer, author of 'A Teachers Guide to SEND' and 'The Perfect SENDCo', and Mikey from Mikey’s Wish Foundation.
Natalie will be sharing her knowledge and experience of strategic leadership for SEND and giving practical insights into what it means to create a whole school approach to SEND and Inclusion. Mikey is an inspirational young man who will be telling us his personal experience of verbal dyspraxia, sharing what and who helped him along his journey.
This conference will provide all school leaders, including SENCos, Head Teachers and Trust SEND leads, working across all settings, with the opportunity to reflect on their current practice and provision and consider how we can all work together to develop our practice and achieve the very best for our children and young people.
Multi-agency School Review Consultations
The EP service has been delighted to be back out providing early intervention support for targeted schools. We have had positive feedback from schools regarding our multi-agency School Review Consultations which focus on school’s strategic SEND strengths and challenges. We continue to welcome feedback on these meetings. Please complete this online evaluation https://forms.office.com/e/YiDLy1BRPY or email the evaluation form to your EP.
Cognition and Learning: Executive Function
We recommend the FREE online training resources available at the National Association for Special Educational Needs (nasen) website, here Online CPD Units | Whole School SEND. You can cultivate the ethos that all staff are teachers of SEND, by encouraging colleagues to join nasen for free via About nasen | Nasen.
The free online training on executive function skills and their impact on learning explores ten key executive function skills and suggests strategies to support executive function. Strategies include checklists, learning strategies (e.g. visuals, mnemonics, communicating the need for change), routines, modelling and reinforcing executive function skills, practising self-reflection and self-monitoring, creating a comfortable environment and supporting children to manage transitions.
Update from Sensory and Physical Team
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Are you supporting children and young people who have physical difficulties?
The physical difficulties team offer two practical courses, (initial and refresher), designed to give all school staff an overview of the relevant legislation and practical handling techniques.
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The courses are especially relevant to SENCos who may be required to complete paperwork, such as Risk Assessments, Handling Plans and PEEPs.
The Sensory and Physical Team have made a series of videos for parents and carers of children and young people who are deaf, and their school settings.
They are about how to use and look after cochlear implants (speech processors) and show how to change the batteries, change the batteries (rechargeable and disposable), do a listening check of the microphones, change a coil and magnet, and how to use them with an ALD.
We have made videos for three brands of cochlear implants (speech processors); Cochlear Nucleus 7/8, Med-El Sonnet 2, and Advanced Bionics Naida.
Using and looking after cochlear implants (speech processors) can be tricky, so these videos will help to build confidence to carry out these tasks, alongside support from a Teacher of the Deaf.
These videos are free to access, and over the coming months we hope to produce more videos for Bone Anchored Hearing Aids (BAHAs), and other assistive technologies.
Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) affects about one in 15 people – two children in a class of 30. Despite being as common as ADHD and much more common than Autism, DLD does not have the same level of recognition. This is particularly frustrating because DLD has a huge impact on many areas of life, not just a child’s access to learning.
Engage with DLD – E-DLD - aims to connect people with DLD and their families to academic research and they hold regular online events for both professionals and families.
We would kindly ask all SENCOs to signpost the upcoming Family and Friends Information and Q&A Event on Tuesday 19 March 2024, 7 to 8pm. This free online event aims to help families to understand what DLD is and what it means for them/their child. Stephen Parsons (a speech and language therapist and chair of NAPLIC) will join the E-DLD team for an easy-to-understand explanation of DLD followed by a Q&A. Please find event details here.
The E-DLD website additionally hosts a huge amount of research and resources about DLD that will support SENCOs in the understanding of this area of neurodiversity as well as supporting children within their settings.
Click on the course link below for more information, including how to book
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