Using Snack Time at School to Enhance Communication Snack time at school can be a great opportunity to develop a number of key skills for our pupils. Given the regular nature of mealtimes in school settings and the inherent positive nature of mealtimes for most children, this activity is an outstanding context for social communication … Read more
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
An Egyptian Sensory Adventure This sensory story is for our Ancient Egypt topic. Pharaohs, pyramids and camels all feature in our Egypt sensory story. As with the other stories it is written with a certain need type group in mind. I am fortunate enough to have access to a Multi-Sensory room. This means I can … 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
Trauma-Informed Behaviour Management in Schools To give you context as to my potential bias in choosing and responding to these questions I am a special education teacher. This means I have a huge amount of flexibility and support when supporting children with a range of additional needs. I do not generally support reward or sanction … 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
This post on sensory processing was inspired by a talk I attended by Olga Bogdishana. You can find the slides from her presentation on “Making sense of Sensory Needs and Challenging Behaviour” here. She has also written this book which gives a deeper insight into sensory perceptual issues. Sensory processing is a key part of … 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
Making use of your sensory garden. Outdoor learning is an essential part of all children’s education. Getting out of the classroom provides endless opportunities for academic learning and personal development. This post will outline key possibilities provided by creating a sensory garden or even through utilising an existing outdoor space for learning opportunities. Whether that … Read more
This winter themed Sensory Story has been written for our “Time” topic where we are exploring the seasons. Snow Bear provides plenty of opportunities for exploring the cold of the Arctic. I have included a subtle message about climate change which depending on the age group you use it with may be useful to tie … Read more
The UK SEND Policy Guide This document captures the discussion between, parents, carers, educators and people with SEND about the state of special education in Britain in 2019 and the messages they want to send to politicians. We asked 6 questions to include in the #SENexchange SEND Political Manifesto. The answers to which we have … Read more
AAC and Interaction Games There are many ways to inspire and motivate children to communicate. One way I have found effective is structuring a game/play session. It is important to enable reluctant communicators or those who rely on AAC to fully engage with their peers. AAC means Augmentative and Alternative Communication and can range from … Read more
When I was younger I was enraptured by a storytelling by Tony Robinson. The story was that of Odysseus. Told solely by Tony running around old ruins and weaving the narrative between ancient blocks of stone. My memory is as worn as the ruins but it was this that I wanted to relive (Not even … 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
Over 30 suggested strategies for effective behaviour management. #Education #Teaching.
ECT Advice: Flipping the Narrative on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. Collated by the inspirational Elly Chapple this list of top tips and ECT Advice (Early Career Teachers) and those working in education is essential reading. It features contributions from top educational authors, teachers, parents, SENCOs, school governors and caring passionate people. All of the … 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
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