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10th Annual MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING in Schools Conference 10th November 2016, London NEW FOR 2016 Additional resources to help you share your learnings back at school! OPTIMUS UNLIMITED CPD MEMBERS CAN ATTEND THIS EVENT FOR FREE!* DO YOU HAVE A WHOLE-SCHOOL APPROACH TO SUPPORTING MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING? The flagship mental health conference to equip you with the strategies, knowledge and skills you need to ensure early identification, early intervention and appropriate action to fully support pupils with mental health needs. KEY TOPICS BEING COVERED ON THE DAY: • Anxiety • Building Resilience • Self-harm • CAMHS • Depression • Parents PLUS, hear an inspirational address from Laura Nuttall, blogger and winner of the MIND Media Awards 2015 on the important role schools play in supporting young people and, using her first-hand experience, what really works. For more information and to register visit www.healthinschoolsuk.com SUPPORTED BY *Optimus Unlimited CPD members are entitled to book one delegate per conference. Additional delegates can be purchased at a discount of 50% off the standard rate. Contact us on 0845 450 6404 for more information.
Editorial Special Children is published by Optimus Education, a division of Optimus Professional Publishing Ltd. Registered office: Optimus Professional Publishing Ltd, 2nd floor, 5 Thomas More Square, London, E1W 1YW. Registered in England and Wales, reg no. 05791519 ISSN 0951-6875 Editors Alison Thomas alison.thomas@optimus-education.com Sophie Chalmers sophie.chalmers@optimus-education.com Managing editor Evelyn Prysor-Jones evelyn.prysor-jones@optimus-education.com 020 7265 4140 Production manager Craig Young Design Charlie Thomas – Number Six Design Senior marketing executive Martin Thomas martin.thomas@optimus-education.com Advertising sales executive Chris Bell chris.bell@optimus-education.com To advertise with us, call 020 7265 4127 The paper used within this publication has been sourced from a Chain-of-Custody certified manufacturer, operating within international environmental standards such as ISO14001 and EMAS. This is to ensure sustainable sourcing of the raw materials, sustainable production and to minimise our carbon footprint. Printed in the UK by PENSORD PRESS www.pensord.co.uk www.optimus-education.com/special-children ITT and SEND It is happening at last. After months of campaigning by national charities, parents and teachers, the education secretary has indicated that autism training will be a core component of the new teacher training curriculum due out later this year. Following a statement by chancellor George Osborne during Prime Minister’s Questions on 24 May, Nicky Morgan confirmed the news the following day. ‘As outlined at #PMQs, we want Initial Teacher Training to include a focus on SEN, including specifically supporting children with autism,’ she tweeted. The National Autistic Society hailed the decision as a breakthrough. ‘Today’s announcement is very promising,’ said chief executive Mark Lever, ‘and, if followed through, will transform the prospects of generations of children on the autism spectrum.’ It’s not just teachers who need to understand these children’s needs, however, but the whole school community. One of the ways the NAS highlights good practice is through its annual Autism Professionals Awards, and the finalists featured on pages 34-36 are a shining example of what can be achieved when staff and pupils work together to foster an ethos of understanding, acceptance and inclusion that sends ripples beyond the school gates into the wider community. One condition amongst many Nasen was equally enthusiastic about Ms Morgan’s announcement, with the caveat that there is more to SEND than autism. ‘There is still further work to do as the scale and complexity of SEND in schools is much broader than autism alone,’ the organisation notes on its website. ‘Nasen would like to see a significant proportion of initial teacher education content allocated to supporting the full range of individual needs of children and young people.’ This sentiment chimes with several articles in this issue. In her advice on co-producing personal plans (pages 8-10), Barbara Ball observes that if inclusive teaching and learning is embedded across the school, only a few pupils will need more than a couple of ‘additional and different’ strategies. Meanwhile, the article on pages 40-43 introduces a new tool that helps teachers to evaluate and support children’s social and emotional development, while the impact of underdeveloped sensory processing systems on behaviour and learning is the focus of the article on pages 16-19. Social disadvantage and attainment In research to evaluate how well pupil premium funding is targeted, Stephen Gorard of Durham University demonstrates that the attainment gap affects children from severely impoverished families far more than those on the threshold of poverty or who occasionally fall on hard times. Meanwhile, writing in Schools Improvement (http://bit.ly/sc231-17), Professor Sonia Blandford of Achievement for All says that her extensive experience in settings nationwide shows that ‘all parents want the best for their child, they do want to have a positive relationships with their child’s school, they just don’t know how.’ These two issues come together in the profile of a School-Home Support practitioner (pages 12-15) whose multifaceted role in a primary school covers everything from helping parents with homework issues, to obtaining food and furniture for families in need or accompanying victims of domestic abuse to court. In the same article, a practitioner working with a secondary school talks of the work she does with young carers – a vulnerable group who can all too easily escape detection, as indicated by recent data from the Young Carers in School programme (https://youngcarersinschools.com/). And, of course, these very same children are at greater risk of being permanently excluded, especially if they face the double challenge of poverty and SEND. See pages 21-24 for insight into how one school takes preventative action and some of the resources it uses on pages 25-28. Equal opportunities The government recently announced the creation of a new task force to help more people with learning disabilities gain access to apprenticeships as part of its goal to create three million apprenticeships by 2020 and halve the disability employment gap. That is certainly ambitious, but the achievements of a student with learning difficulties on pages 38-39 show just how much young people with SEND have to offer potential employers given appropriate adaptations and support. Meanwhile, pages 30-32 demonstrate that a physical disability does not have to exclude people from competing in top-level sport, and the magazine concludes on an equally high note with the writing exploits of a young boy with dyslexia (page 52). www.optimus-education.com/sc231 231 Special Children 1
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