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SEND News
This newsletter is about changes and developments to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in Sheffield.
It is for professionals, parents, carers, and anyone with an interest in SEND in Sheffield.
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Supporting children and young people during Covid-19
Guidance for Early Years settings, schools, and FE colleges about attendance during the national lockdown was published on the 7th / 8th January. Guidance has been sent to education providers via regular updates from the Director of Education and Skills, Andrew Jones.
The guidance states that children should be at home where they can and only vulnerable children and children of key workers can attend school and college. Early years settings remain open for all. The guidance describes how providers can support children during the national lockdown.
Services are offering all the support that they can to Early Years settings, schools and colleges during this time. This includes:
- All schools being contacted to establish where parents of children with EHC Plans have taken up a school place or not.
- SEND advisory services continuing to offer support, including face to face where appropriate and where support cannot be done remotely.
- The SENDSARS team continue to process EHC Needs Assessments and Annual Reviews. All legislation in regard to SEND remains in place at this time.
Useful resources
These resources were produced during the first lockdown or before pupils returned to school in September. But the advice and learning points remain relevant:
To support the future return to school:
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New online EHC Plan annual review training
Education Health and Care plans must be reviewed every 12 months.
This essential new training is for all SENCOs and Education, Health and Care professionals involved in annual reviews. It is suitable for providers and advice givers working with children and young people of any age.
The training will be delivered virtually in three parts.
- Training video: Arranging, delivering and completing annual reviews
- Training video: Roundtable discussion about what makes a good quality annual review
- Virtual session. Further content on the annual review process plus a Q&A session
Sessions run throughout February. You need to watch the two training videos before attending a virtual session.
Click on the SEND improvement core training tab to book.
Please note: The Annual Review template has also been updated to support improved practice. It is available on the Learn Sheffield website
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Other training during Covid 19
All training has moved online. Please see the SEND core training offer on the Learn Sheffield website.
New online resources are also being developed. This includes an introduction to ASD which covers:
- What happens at The Ryegate Children's Centre
- Diagnostic Criteria for autism
- An understanding of how people with autism perceive the world
- Partner Levels - what they mean and why they matter
- Ideas for wave 1 support - adaptations to whole-class teaching and learning
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New guidance on Preparation for Adulthood
We have developed conversation aids and a transition plan template to help young people with SEND prepare for adulthood. We have also updated the EHC Plan annual review template to support planning.
Resources are on the Learn Sheffield website – click on the Prepare for Adulthood tab. We will share them directly with secondary schools, special schools, and post-16 providers.
Watch our 10-minute training video about how to use the new paperwork and support young people to prepare for adulthood.
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Supporting Independent Living
We have heard positive feedback about National Oak’s curriculum on Independent Living. It is available free of charge and can be used in school or at college, or by families at home.
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Sleep support
Support is available to help children of all ages with sleep problems.
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Speech and Language support
Videos for parents and carers
The Speech and Language Therapy service has created videos for parents and carers. These provide ideas for supporting communication and interaction at home.
Watch now.
Support in the Early Years
Did you know Family Centres help young children and their families with speech and language development? Support is virtual and by phone during Covid-19. We want more families to be able to use this, as well as support through the Speech and Language Therapy Service.
If you work in early years, please help make your families aware of the support and refer them to family centres.
Find out more.
Schools: Purchasing additional Speech and Language Therapy Time:
Schools are able to buy additional Speech and Language Therapy services from SALT at the Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust. Find out more.
LEAP training:
Training for staff wanting to run the LEAP (Language Enrichment Activity Programme) for foundation stage children in need of language nurturing is now available.
You can purchase this on a flash stick for £120. Once bought, the training can be accessed by all staff in school.
Please contact Alice Woods to buy the training or for further information.
DLD webinars:
ICAN is hosting webinars on practice to support students with DLD. There are sessions for primary school teachers, secondary school teachers and SENCOs.
Find out more.
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Supporting children with autism in mainstream settings
Sheffield’s multi-agency SCERTS partnership enables innovative and sustainable support for children with autism in mainstream schools.
The approach has led to:
- Increases in children working independently
- Greater teacher confidence
- Increased skills within and across schools.
There are plans to adopt SCERTS city-wide. The local authority has committed to funding SCERTS training for education, health and social care professionals. Training sessions in January and February are fully booked. New sessions will be added this year.
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Useful links
Response to local area SEND inspection
In 2019 we published a local area SEND action plan following our local area SEND inspection.
We have recently published a progress update. Read more.
Other links:
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