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Welcome to the first Summer term issue of the SEN Update! We hope you enjoyed a restful two weeks’ holiday over Easter.
Don’t forget to book your place on this year’s SEND Conference on 12th June for just £70pp. We would love to see every primary and secondary maintained and academy school represented at the conference. This day is not just for SENCos, but all school leaders, to support our collective commitment to improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND across Devon
We are excited to have Mark Finnis joining us to deliver the keynote this year on Building a Culture of Belonging through restorative and relational practice. You can view the full programme for the day on Devon Education Services website.
Educational Psychology Early Intervention Traded Services Availability
The Educational Psychology service continues to balance the statutory requirements for Education Health and Care needs assessments with the demand for early intervention support. Educational Psychologists play a critical role in both areas, and while statutory assessments remain the highest priority, early intervention work contributes to inclusive school communities, as well as supporting children’s needs before they escalate.
The Educational Psychology Service has some capacity to provide early intervention services to schools for delivery from September 2025. This is available for purchase on the Devon Education Services shop.
The support includes two offers.
1. School Review Consultation:
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Focused on addressing whole-school priorities and challenges regarding SEND and inclusion.
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Includes collaborative discussions with multi-agency representatives, considering evidence-based interventions at various levels.
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Helps to identify the needs of vulnerable groups, create action plans, and outline additional services.
- Provided free of charge as part of the Inclusive Communities core offer.
2. Psychology Works Services:
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Offers consultations to address specific concerns from staff or parents linked to individual pupils or cohorts, creating shared goals and intervention plans.
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Provides tailored training on diverse subjects, designed to meet settings' needs.
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Individual or group supervision available to support staff well-being and promote effective decision-making.
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Services are purchasable (primary schools: up to 2 days, secondary/special schools: up to 4 days) at £627 per 6-hour day.
To ensure a smooth and equitable process, we ask that all schools place their orders between 22nd April and 9th May. Requests from schools currently working with us will be prioritised. Requests from prospective schools will then be considered based on availability. Orders will be confirmed by 6th June.
We will not be able to accept any more requests after 9th May.
Demand is likely to outstrip capacity meaning that we cannot guarantee that all requests will be fulfilled.
This support offer is open to all mainstream schools and Local Authority maintained/academy/ Free Special schools. Unfortunately, we cannot support the independent sector currently.
We look forward to working with you!
Ordinarily Available Targeted Support Framework
We were excited to launch the new Ordinarily Available Targeted Support Framework to support schools with their SEN Support provision. The final training date for this interactive and supportive framework is on 30th April 2025.
Our SEND Advisory Teachers would be delighted to visit your school and support you in implementing the Targeted Support Framework for your learners. We will also be releasing short training videos later in this half term.
Auditing your Learning Environment
The learning environment can have a huge impact on the ability of our children and young people with SEND to attend to their lessons and thrive in school. Our SEND Advisory Teachers can work with you to conduct a SEN Environmental Audit, to help you to prepare for welcoming new classes into school in September.
You can also do some work on auditing your environment yourselves, such as running a staff meeting where colleagues put themselves into the position of the learner and think about how the environment appears from their perspective.
Is the chair facing the front?
Does the sun shine in their eyes?
How noisy is the corridor from the seat nearest the door?
Asking your pupils to audit the environment for you is another interesting way of seeing it through their eyes!
Contact your SEND Advisory teacher if you would like to arrange a free SEN Environmental Audit or for further support around helping learners transition into the new school year.
Hannah Downing (hannah.downing@devon.gov.uk) – South Hams, West and Crediton
EHCP review training for schools
This workshop will provide essential training to schools around the statutory process of EHCP reviews. It will cover the statutory responsibilities for schools and the LA associated with this process and will provide clarity around how to carry out each stage of the process well; before, during and after a review. We hope that this training will upskill all SENCos, and other leaders in school, to be able to confidently hold an EHCP review.
This workshop will be suitable for Head/Executive Head Teachers, SENCos, assistant SENCos and other school leaders.
Aimed at Teachers, TAs, Parents/ Carers and other professionals working with and supporting Deaf or Hard of Hearing children within Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 to access the curriculum.
By the end of this course, you will have learnt more than 90 school related signs, short sentences and phrases in BSL and conversational skills.
There are 12 sections in all, including topics that cover everyday life in school, signs in context, fingerspelling practice, handshapes, BSL storytelling, inclusive behaviour in school, BSL culture and useful tips.
These sessions provide support for parents/carers resident within the DCC (Devon County Council) footprint of primary or secondary aged children (5-16) who are either on the neurodiversity assessment waiting list or who have received a diagnosis of autism.
The National Autistic Society has a range of advice for parents and teachers on their website, while their ‘Know Yourself’ Series provides an excellent overview of the concept of energy accounting which can be very helpful when approaching revision.
The latest EEF guidance around Deployment of Teaching Assistants has been published, with five recommendations drawn from the evidence base on teaching assistant (TA) deployment practices and how these can lead to improved outcomes.
EEF’s SEND content specialist, Gary Aubin, provides some useful guidance for TAs around how to use questioning to support a child to develop their metacognitive understanding which you find on EEF website.
We excited to share a fantastic training opportunity with you which supports mental health in primary school settings. Stormbreak supports schools to embed mentally healthy movement across the school day to build resilience, self-worth, and emotional wellbeing. This training helps staff confidently integrate movement into everyday practice.
There are now more junior inclusive clubs that ever before across Devon for children with special needs and disabilities to participate in.
Assessing for Dyslexia for Primary and Secondary SENDCos and their assistants - necessary in order to refer to the Devon SpLD [dyslexia] Service
Individual Reading Interventions
HAST 2 (Helen Arkell Spelling Test 2) training
Primary and Secondary Network Meetings
All SENDCos, Assistant SENDCos and teachers who lead on Dyslexia at their school are invited to attend the Primary Network Meetings and Secondary Network Meetings.
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