Wokingham Borough Connect
 Welcome back to school all of you. We hope that the new term has got off to a good start. A special welcome to anyone who is new to Wokingham Borough.
The Area SENCO Team is delighted to share with you the first edition of our SENCO newsletter which aims to keep SENCOs updated about national and local developments.
Future editions will be sent out on the second Monday of each month during term time. You will notice our fantastic new SEND logo following on from our Local Offer logo competition.
This edition includes:
- Update from Jamie Conran, Head of SEND
- Update from the Area SENCO Team
- Details of available training and outreach support
- A link to the Wokingham Borough SENCO survey
- A request for SENCOs to share a survey with young people aged 11-19
- Dates for your diary
 Update from Jamie - Head of SEND
Welcome to the new academic year. I hope you all had a good summer break and managed to get away somewhere warm!
I am delighted to read this first edition of our new SENCO newsletter. Your role is crucial in ensuring our children and young people are well supported and I hope this regular update will help to keep you informed of all the development activity across Wokingham Borough.
Our SEND service has been very busy working over the holiday period as we continue to drive fantastic outcomes and experiences for our children and young people with additional needs and disabilities.
There isn’t enough space in this newsletter to detail all the work we are doing as a local area (a good reason to come and join the next SENCO network meeting!), however I have provided our key updates below.
SEND Team Staffing – we have continued to experience significant turnover with our interim staff and will unfortunately be saying goodbye to a couple of our permanent staff as well at the end of this month.
Alongside this, we have been in consultation with the team about a restructure and different way of working. I can’t say too much more at this stage, however communication will come out through our Area SENCO Team as soon as I am able to.
EHCP Audit Programme – keep your eyes peeled over the next few months for invites to participate in our exciting new audit programme! The quality of our EHCPs is so important for children, young people and their families.
Having SENCOs engaged in this programme will be a huge asset to our audit work and will be absolutely key in ensuring our plans are of the best possible quality.
Our new SEND and Inclusion Strategy - we hope will be finalised in the latter part of the autumn term. Co-produced by the partnership (schools, parent/carers, children and young people, social care and health), this strategy will set out how all of us in Wokingham Borough will support children and young people with additional needs and disabilities to feel visible and included, and achieve fantastic outcomes and experiences.
I hope your term has got off to a fantastic start and look forward to continuing to work closely with you moving forward.
Area SENCO update
SENCO network meetings
SENCO network meetings will now be held regularly every half term. We aim to have a mixture of online meetings and in person events. The first one on October will be online and will include updates on the SEND team, the annual review process, the EBSA toolkit and the new process for autism and ADHD referrals.
We hope to see you all there. You should have received a calendar invite to the meeting, if you haven't had this please contact helen.jackson-brench@wokingham.gov.uk.
SENCO Induction Programme
We are delighted to be able to offer a SENCO Induction Programme for new or nearly new SENCOs or for those who are new to Wokingham. The programme includes six sessions across the year and covers all aspects of the SENCO role. It will also be a great opportunity to network with other SENCOs.
If you haven’t yet signed up to the programme and are interested, please contact helen.jackson-brench@wokingham.gov.uk.
New and improved SENCO Hub
We have updated the information on the SEN section of the Wokingham Hub and changed the name to SENCO Hub. You will find a range of information to help you in your role as SENCOs. Please take a look and let us know if there is anything else you would like to see on there
 Training and outreach
New outreach prospectus for Foundry College
Foundry College have launched their new outreach prospectus for the coming academic year. Foundry College provide education and support to pupils who have been permanently excluded or are at risk of permanent exclusion, as well as those with medical needs who cannot attend school regularly.
In addition to a full-time education provision at its premises, Foundry also provides a range of outreach services to support pupils from the borough's mainstream schools who have social, emotional and mental health issues, special educational needs and disabilities, poor attendance and those benefiting from alternative provision.
You can find out more here:
Foundry Primary Prospectus
Foundry Secondary Prospectus
Training and support from the Learning Support Services
The Learning Support Services are able to offer a range of support to schools. This includes:
- A 12 week online course (approx.16 hours) on Dyslexia and Significant Reading Difficulties from Online Training Ltd. The next course will begin 9 October 2024 and is free to all Wokingham schools
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Bespoke training offered to any Wokingham Borough primary school on subjects related to learning difficulties within Literacy or Maths
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Bitesize Training on a variety of topics requested by SENCOs and delivered online on the first Wednesday of every month (term time only) at 2 pm. These are recorded and uploaded onto the hub under the LSS pages accessible by all Wokingham schools. You can access the drop-in sessions using the following link: Join the meeting now
ASSIST Team (Autism Spectrum Service for Information Support and Training)
The aim of the ASSIST service is to work in a proactive, supportive and preventative way with families and providers, so that autistic children and young people living in the Wokingham Borough can be the best they can be.
ASSIST offer training courses that parents and school staff can attend and can also deliver training sessions to school. See their website for more details.
SENCOs can support families of children and young people who have been diagnosed or who are on the pathway by signposting them to the ASSIST Team page.
 Have your say
Wokingham SENCO Survey
We would be grateful if you could complete the SENCO survey that was emailed to you last week. This will help us to make sure we are designing a service that meets the needs of local schools and will also help us to evaluate the service we offer. Please complete by September 30 and ensure that your voice in heard. All responses are confidential.
Youth Future Focus Survey
Each local authority is required to provide a Youth Offer for ages 13-19 and up to 24 with SEND. The Youth Offer includes ensuring sufficient activities, volunteering and enrichment opportunities to improve young people’s well-being outside of school or college.
WE NEED YOUR HELP TO HEAR DIRECTLY FROM ALL YOUNG PEOPLE
To understand what it is that young people want and need in the local area we are carrying out consultation to hear straight from young people in the borough. We have partnered with Berkshire Youth to run a survey which will help influence the Youth Offer as well as future work, strategies and plans.
The survey will be live until the 25 October 2024 and is aimed at anyone aged 11-19 who lives or goes to school within the borough. The survey asks young people about their wellbeing, leisure time, growing up, worries and concerns, safety, support networks and volunteering opportunities.
The survey is made up of 30 questions and will only take between 5-10 minutes to complete. If you could encourage and support all students you work with to complete this survey it would be greatly appreciated.
If you require an easy read version or have any questions please email sarah.desson@wokingham.gov.uk
We will also be in contact with a poster next week for you to put up on any notice boards you have.
Link to share: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/RHLLFB/
 Dates for your diary
Monday 30 9.30am to 2.30pm September SENCO Induction Session 1
Tuesday 1 October 3.30pm to 5pm SENCO network meeting 1 (online)
Thursday 28 November 3.30pm to 5pm SENCO Network Meeting 2 (in person, venue tbc)
 Get in touch
You can contact the Area SENCO Team by emailing helen.jackson-brench@wokingham.gov.uk
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