Practical teaching strategies and adaptable lesson ideas designed to meet the diverse needs of all learners. This category covers differentiated instruction, multisensory learning, curriculum adaptations, and behaviour support techniques to help educators create engaging, inclusive classrooms.
Whether you’re a teacher, teaching assistant, or SENCO, these resources aim to inspire confidence and creativity in everyday teaching practice.
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. The extent … Read more
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. … Read more
School Anxiety, Signs, Causes, Support and Resources. The subject of school anxiety is often a source of frustration and conflict between schools and parents. This is unnecessary and unhelpful and does nothing to provide support to the child. Children are often labelled as being school refusers. Pressure from local authorities may be put on parents … Read more
Blitz: A WW2 Sensory Story Adventure To celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE (Victory in Europe) Day this sensory story focuses on the Blitz experience. By writing A WW2 sensory adventure we ensure that the needs of all learners are being catered for. Lots of thought went into this story and the multi-sensory experiences it … Read more
AR Phonics and SEND Developed by two teachers, who kindly sent me a pack to use at school these cards are pretty good as simple flashcards for use in your phonics lessons. Clear, well made and easy to use. However it is the innovative use of AR (Augmented reality) that brings these cards to life. … Read more
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 … Read more
I couldn’t resist this for £7 at Wilko. A fun little AAC game especially for children that find anything to do with Poo hilarious. This requires 2 aaa batteries for the moo or fart noises. The premise of the game is that each player chooses a boot colour. You then spin the spinner to decide … Read more
An Autumn Sensory Story This is due to be the first in a series of 4 stories (1 for each season). Check out he winter sensory story – Snow Bear. Please take a few minutes to watch the video of my daughter reading it! The idea that each sensory story will have a unique feel … Read more
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 … Read more
This was my first attempt at writing a sensory story. Heavily influenced by this book by the fantastically creative Joanna Grace
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. … Read more
This guide will hopefully provide an insight into some of the questions you can expect to face when undertaking a student panel interview, remember that this part of the interview process is designed to compliment the other parts. Remember to ask questions back. If you have a student council – What do they think of you?
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 … Read more
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.
The appraisal process is an essential part of not only a member of staff’s professional development but also in the process of school improvement and review.
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.
World Book Day Teaching Activities As a parent, I am starting to dread the yearly costume hunt that World Book Day has become. This year in Sainsbury’s the dressing-up display was 10 meters followed by two small shelves of books. However, I do think that World Book Day has the potential to inspire creativity and … Read more
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