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Welcome to the ninth edition of the Shropshire SEND and Inclusion Newsletter. This newsletter is aimed at practitioners and professionals who work with children and young people with SEND in Shropshire. Through this newsletter we hope to keep you informed about developments and opportunities in SEND, act as a point of reference for key information, share best practice and develop supportive professional networks.
This newsletter is sent directly to the inbox of anyone who has subscribed, at the end of each half term. To ensure you don't miss out, please subscribe by clicking on the 'Sign up to this newsletter' link at the end of this page and update your preferences in the Schools section to include the SEND and Inclusion Newsletter. In addition, a web version has been uploaded to the Shropshire Learning Gateway.
Regular meetings and briefings run through the year that allow the communication of key information, resources, support and training to schools and settings. These are a mix of face-to-face and online sessions which are often duplicated to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to attend.
Details of all of these meetings is on the Shropshire Learning Gateway CPD page.
SEND and Inclusion Network Meetings
Free half-termly network meetings for Shropshire SENCOs and Inclusion Leads.
This half-term's network meetings were held on Teams on 2nd and 3rd February and the slides are available on the Shropshire Learning Gateway here.
| 9th March, 13:30-15:00 |
Alliance of Leading Learning, Oswestry |
click to book
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| 10th March, 13:30-15:00 |
London Road Campus, Shrewsbury College, Shrewsbury |
click to book
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| 17th March, 13:30-15:00 |
Lacon Child School, Cleobury Mortimer |
click to book
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Online SEND and AP Change Programme updates for Shropshire schools and settings
These free short (20 minutes) online meetings are an opportunity to hear updates on the work of the Change Programme and to provide feedback. There is no need to book and you can join the meetings from the Teams links below.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Last year's Inclusion conference was hosted at Shrewsbury Town Football Club where Gary Aubin delivered the keynote speech. Headteachers, senior leaders, SENCOs and inclusion leads had the opportunity to network and participate in workshops to develop inclusive practice.
We are planning to repeat the Inclusion Conference this year and would like your feedback as to when would be the best time to hold it. Please can you submit your preferred date using this quick one question survey.
All CPD and booking links are listed on the Shropshire Learning Gateway.
We are in the process of moving from Eventbrite to Microsoft Events to organise our CPD bookings and training. This should not affect you in anyway but there will be a short transition period where some CPD events are booked via Eventbrite and some via MS Event.
Upcoming highlights next half term:
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AET Good Autism Practice (GAP) - on demand
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Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) training - on demand
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Complex Needs Training (pre-funded by the SEND and AP Change Programme) - 319th March 2026
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AI to support SEND. Key messages and Resources (pre-funded by the SEND and AP Change Programme for Shropshire schools) - 3rd March 2026, 4th March 2026 (two separate dates)
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Shropshire Annual Review Training (mandatory for SENCOs) - 5th March 2026
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Understanding Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (£40 - subsidised by SEND and AP Change Programme, click here for flyer) - 10th and 17th March 2026
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Shropshire Training for SEND Governors and Trustees - 25th March 2026
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LEGO Think Bricks Therapeutic Intervention - 21st April 2026
The Sensory Inclusion Service (SIS) has produced advice on how to support a child with Glue Ear. This can be found under Resources to Support Inclusion in the Inclusive Practice section of the Shropshire Learning Gateway.
The SEND Portal is not intended to be a SharePoint for storage. It is only for secure exchange of information. Once you have uploaded documents, we download them on our side and save them in the appropriate area - we then delete them. You should be doing the same thing on your side - your SEND documents should all be stored securely within your own school IT systems please, not on the SEND Portal.
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Ellesmere Primary School are coming to the end of the Partnership for Inclusion and Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) Project and have kindly shared three case studies highlighting successes that have come from the project. |
The three case studies cover:
- Work with the Parent and Carer Council (PACC) to strengthen home-school partnerships.
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Work with Occupational Therapy (OT) to support staff in meeting the needs of children with SEND.
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Work to address mental health and anxiety among pupils, particularly focusing on the inclusion and support of neurodiverse pupils.
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To clarify, children who have EHCPs or who are in the ECHNA process can still be considered for a placement at TMBSS if the SEN processes have been followed. |
This could be either a meeting with the SEN Case Officer (EHCP team) or an emergency interim annual review so that the SEN team are in agreement with the referral to the Inclusion Pathway.
Click here for the Shropshire Inclusion Pathway.
The Assistive Technology Lending Library (ATLL) is a SEND and AP Change Programme pilot designed to give schools and settings the opportunity to trial and evaluate the impact of assistive technology before committing to purchase.
Products available for loan
Shropshire schools are currently enjoying free extended trials of Widget Online (Widget), Clicker, DocsPlus (Crick Software) and Proloquo (AssistiveWare).
We are currently in the process of setting up laptops, Chromebooks and iPads that will be available for loan shortly. These will have Clicker and DocsPlus pre-installed.
As part of the ATLL, we are working in partnership with Scanning Pens to directly supply loan reading pens for schools and settings to trial. These reading pens (including JCQ compliant exam readers) can be requested directly from Scanning Pens.
Scanning Pens need primary schools for case studies
Scanning Pens carried out a case study with Staffordshire schools on the use of C-Pen Reader 2 in SATs (case study can be found here). They are hoping to build on the success of the 2025 case study by expanding the data gathered from primary schools already using the C-Pen Reader 2.
Scanning Pens's goal is to better understand how the device is being used in assessment settings and to highlight the impact it has on learner confidence and independence.
They would be grateful for your support in scoping out a potential for primary schools in your area to:
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Use the C-Pen Reader 2 during SATs where appropriate.
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Share either usage data, general feedback, or take part in a full case study with us.
We are very happy to provide all supporting materials, templates, and guidance to make this as easy as possible for schools.
Any level of participation—whether a few insights or a full case study—would be incredibly valuable.
If you would like your school to take part in this case study, please contact Robert Court. Partnership with AmazingICT and training opportunities
We are also working in partnership with Richard Smith from Amazing ICT who is helping to support schools in using assistive technology to support the inclusion of children with SEND. Richard is producing a library of short video clips demonstrating the software available and how to use the accessibility features of Microsoft Office 365 and Google Chrome OS. The latter will help schools access the features that are already available through their IT systems. The video clip library can be accessed from the ATLL page. If there are any features or areas that you would like video clips for then please contact Robert Court.
As part of the ATLL, Richard is also working directly with schools to provide training in the use of assistive technology to support inclusion. He will be running an online course on using Artificial Intelligence to support children with SEND on two dates (3rd and 4th March). This course will be pre-funded by the SEND and AP Change programme and free for Shropshire schools. The courses can be booked through the Shropshire Learning Gateway CPD pages or ATLL page.
Working with Meole Brace Primary School
As part of the SEND and AP Change Programme funded ATLL we have been working with children, parents and staff at Meole Brace Primary School. Sian Bowdler (SENCo) arranged for Richard Smith (AmazingICT) to run a session where he delivered some tips on how staff and students can use the Clicker Word processor (Crick Software) to support Dyslexic students be more fluent and imaginative in sentence and paragraph creation.
"Richard was a great help in supporting with the session, especially the assisted technology part. The parents and children have a better understanding of how to use Clicker to support their writing. It was so successful that we are running future sessions!" Sian Bowdler, SENCo.
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One parent commented, "The automatic inclusion of pictures validates my child’s writing."
A word predictor and word bank is also available. There are a series of support videos on our YouTube channel.
The project has great potential as it is supporting the children, increasing links with families and encouraging staff to use assistive technology to support learning.
A trial of the latest version (Clicker 8) with associated training is available by contacting Robert Court.
 For full details of the ATLL and to make a request, please see here.
The Local Inclusion Support Offer (LISO) is another strand of the SEND and AP Change Programme. The LISO will comprise all of the support, provided through Shropshire Council, that is available for schools to support inclusion of children with SEND.
The LISO will broadly provide support in the following three areas:
- Training
- Advice and guidance
- Direct delivery
We would also like to hear from schools and settings so that we can identify areas to develop and would be grateful if you could complete the Local Inclusion Support Offer Scoping Survey.
The deadline for this survey is 27th February 2026.
GSP guidance is being updated and will be added to the Shropshire Learning Gateway over half-term. This information was shared at the SENCO Network meetings on 2nd and 3rd February. The slides are available on the Shropshire Learning Gateway here.
For details of upcoming SENCO network meetings and how to book, see here.
We are looking for headteachers and SENCOs to serve on our GSP panels. You will need to be free one Thursday per month. If there are sufficient attendees for the panel to be quorate, then you will only be required for morning or afternoon.
Please fill in this form if you are interested in joining the panel.
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The neurodiversity practitioners are continuing to work with schools and other services to support neurodivergent children and young people. The latest newsletter can be accessed here.
There are a range of local support providers that can be accessed by children, young people and their families, the majority of which are needs-led and do not require formal diagnosis. More details can be found here.
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The Specialist Outreach Pilot has launched and support is now being delivered in schools. Funded through the SEND and AP Change Programme, outreach is free of charge for the duration of the pilot this academic year. The overall aim of the pilot is to build capacity of schools to meet the needs of children with complex SEND needs within their mainstream setting. For this pilot year, the Specialist Outreach offer is open to pupils from Reception to Y11.
Full details and the link to the request form are available on the Inclusive Practice section of the Shropshire Learning Gateway.
NB: the outreach pilot will be closing soon as we have nearly reached our capacity for this academic year. This was a pilot project funded through the SEND and AP Change Programme. We are currently considering if and how specialist outreach may continue in the future. If you have received specialist outreach via this pilot or would like to but have missed out, please ensure you provide your feedback through the LISO scoping feedback survey so that we know what you want to have available in the future.
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The ELSEC team are continuing to work with many of Shropshire's primary schools and nurseries.
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Impact of phones in schools, settings and homes
In recent weeks, the impact of phones, and other electronic devices, has been hitting the headlines. It is widely recognised that increased screen time by all children, from toddlers to teenagers, is having a huge impact on children’s development, most notably their speech, language and communication skills.
This means that every interaction we have with children must count. The ELSEC team continue to work with settings and parents across Shropshire to highlight this and some of our key messages are aligned with the ShREC approach, from the EEF. Click on the link to find out more: The ShREC approach | EEF
Update on waiting times and trackers
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A reminder that Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust (SCHT) children’s Occupational Therapy (OT) and Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) services have a waiting time tracker on their websites which help in letting people know how long the current waiting time is. See the Children's Occupational Therapy web page. For OT this is the average waiting time across all our pathways, for SLT it is an average of the 3 longest waiting pathways. See the Speech & language therapy web page. We recently found out the SLT tracker had not been working effectively.
That problem has now been fixed. The Child Development Centre’s (CDC) waiting time tracker for the 0-5 ASD assessment pathways is due to go live in February, and will be found here on Child Development Centres in Shropshire and in Telford and Wrekin web page.
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The Physiotherapy, SLT and CDC ASD assessment team are working hard to reduce waiting times. There are now 0 children and young people on any of the pathways in these services waiting more than 52 weeks. There is still a long way to go to bring waiting times down to our target, which is 18 weeks. Children and young people in high priority groups, for example where there are high or very high risks, are importantly seen more urgently. The children’s OT team is meeting the target of 18 weeks and is working hard to reduce this to 12 weeks.
The following updates are adapted from the EHCP Team's recent communication with parent-carers regarding transition from year 6 to year 7. We have included it here to help schools provide support during this time.
Key Dates
- For Year 6 → Year 7, the legal timescale is 15 February 2026. Where a plan is not yet final by that date, we will continue to prioritise remaining plans and keep parent-carers updated.
- National Offer Day for secondary this year falls on Monday 2 March 2026 (because 1 March is a Sunday). Children with an EHC plan do not receive a separate admissions offer that day: their placement is the school named in Section I of the final EHC plan.
If a child’s final EHC plan already names a secondary school
- That is the child’s school for September 2026. Parent-carers will not receive another confirmation from the Admissions Team on National Offer Day.
- The current primary school and the new school will work with parent-carers to plan a supportive transition (visits, handover of information, reasonable adjustments).
If a child’s final EHC plan is not yet issued
- The child’s plan is being prioritised by our EHC plan team. We will continue working beyond 15 February where needed until the final plan is issued.
- For day-to-day support or transition activities, parent-carers should speak with the school’s SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co‑ordinator) first.
- If parent-carers need to contact the EHC Plan Team after 15 February, please note this is during half term and we will have fewer staff available. If the query is urgent, they should call 01743 254267 on Monday 16 February 2026 only, when case officers will make themselves available if required. For non-urgent queries, parent-carers should email their named case officer directly.
Parent-carer choices and rights
- Parent-carers can request a particular school. We will consult with that school and must name it in the plan unless one of the specific legal exceptions applies (for example, if it would be unsuitable for the child’s needs, incompatible with the efficient education of others, or the efficient use of resources). If parent-carers disagree with the school named in the final plan, the plan letter explains mediation and appeal routes.
What parent-carers can do now
- Keep in touch with the SENCO about transition planning.
- Make sure the EHCP team have current contact details.
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