Special Education and Inclusive Learning
Teaching Resources, Sensory Stories and SEND Information
Year Six into Year Seven Every secondary school runs a year 6 to year 7 transition programme of some sort, comprising a few visits, summer holiday events and open evenings. Children with EHCPs and on the SEN register generally get something extra. Fran from Square Peg shares her thoughts and led an SENexchange discussion. Read our… Continue reading Transition: Primary to Secondary
A Sensory Recipe/Poem for Pancake Day Just a little bit of fun for Pancake day. a sensory story/recipe for encouraging messy play or adding a little bit of literacy and fun into food tech lessons. As always written with SEND children in mind this is a simple recipe with poem/Sensory story to go with it.… Continue reading Pancake Day Sensory Story
Monitoring wellbeing using a food and mood chart We developed this food and mood chart when working with a non-verbal young man who had multiple but unclear food intolerances. This led to a highly limited diet that felt unethical. It was also felt this led to behaviours i.e the child will take food from others,… Continue reading Wellbeing: Food and Mood Chart
AAC Games for Communication Our next review for a game suitable for AAC users is Shark Bite. I bought this reduced at a supermarket. Shark does does tick the boxes for being suitable for use in communication and interaction sessions. It has a surprise movement to make you jump. The game has multicoloured accessories and… Continue reading AAC Game: Shark Bite
The Birth of BackPocketTeacher Hands up, who returns from school with a bizarre range of things in their pockets? Stickers, symbols, bubbles, raisins, latex gloves…. they’ve all been found in my pockets and also been seen spinning around my washing machine! As a SEND teacher I learnt very early on that however amazing and detailed… Continue reading BackPocketTeacher: Bereavement and Grief in SEND
This was my first attempt at writing a sensory story. Heavily influenced by this book by the fantastically creative Joanna Grace
Here you will find all the Special Education books listed in the database but with clickable links. these are all recommended by SEN teachers and professionals.
Class changes in September are a huge source of anxiety for all involved. There is a range of activities you can undertake to make this transition easier. I have written a blog about supporting learners with day-to-day general transitions and this one on supporting Autistic children with class transitions.
Rethinking Assessment for PMLD learners. In 2015, Cherry Garden School decided their assessment and reporting procedures were no longer fit for purpose. Although we had just received our third consecutive Outstanding judgement from Ofsted, we were aware that our assessment 'data' wasn't always meaningful, and that many of our children didn't make typical linear progress.… Continue reading Assessment for PMLD
Why sensory Learning? Sensory learning - Sensory activities are those designed by educators to facilitate exploration encouraging children to use all their senses while they, create, investigate and explore. This is usually conducted through play although in the settings I have worked in also through structured planned learning activities. The sensory activities allow children to… Continue reading Sensory Learning Activities: An A-Z.
Every successful placement requires the best possible communication and working relationship between parents and carers and schools
Written for us by an Early Years leader, this post outlines a suggested phonics session, the activities and routine will be appropriate for all mainstream settings, and with a little imagination to any SEN setting. The phonics session mirrors what I taught to my class. Keeping the same routine really helped my autistic learners and is the key takeaway from this post.
Recognising your own emotions and identifying effective strategies for managing these is a key skill for any child.
Symbols can be used to support both receptive and expressive communication. They support word recognition in pre-readers and can be used in times of increased stress to communicate a need when word recall is impaired, for example showing an exit symbol for time out instead of having to ask or explain why.
You can call it challenging behaviour but these events really demonstrate is a highly anxious,frustrated or traumatic reaction to stress, Autistic children are not any more prone to behavioural incidents than other children so we need to look deeper if our interactions or environment is leading to issues.
f teaching is a vocation then working in the field of special needs is a calling.
It is that time of year when trainee teachers are finishing their placements and looking for a school to begin their teaching career in. I hope some of you consider moving into the SEN sector. It is a great opportunity to build so many essential skills. It is also a great way to get to know the child behind the label, behind the stereotypes and textbook generalisations.
Many "Sensory" resources can be created from free or existing material, bubble wrap, packaging foam, a little dot of oil on a radiator. Food is easy and usually cheap, rainbow rice or spaghetti. I am a fan of getting outside, feel the breeze, listen to the waves (my school is just above the beach). Sometimes you want something a bit different. These can be used in a sensory room or individually to encourage calming or even concentration. I would love to hear your ideas as well.
I am aware this blog is quite niche to special education settings but I hope teachers from all settings will be able to find use for these suggestions.
This is part two of our post on making sure your classroom is accessible to all learners. Part one looks at making the environment right for all learners. This post looks at the essential human aspect that changes a room into a learning space that your children want to be in. Remember the biggest influence… Continue reading Making your classroom Inclusive for all learners: Approach
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