The SENDcast

School INSET is definitely a topic that divides staff in terms of whether they believe it adds value or is a waste of time and money. In this podcast we will consider what makes a great INSET in terms of not just the content and presentation but whether the INSET provided should achieve in both short term and long term Impact. This week's guest is Fintan O'Regan. Fintan was the Head teacher of the Centre Academy from 1996 -2002, which was the first specialist school in the UK for students between the ages of 7-19 specialising issues related to ADHD, ASD and ODD. He is an associate lecturer for Leicester University, the National Association of Special Needs, the Institute of Education, the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre and the former Vice Chairman of the UK ADHD Network and of the European ADHD Alliance. Fintan now works as trainer and consultant for schools and school support systems including, Social Services, Health, the Police and Foster carers with regards to providing behaviour management strategies for children and families struggling with SEND and behaviour issues. Resources: The teachers toolkit: Paul McGinnis When the adult changes everything changes Paul Dix Successfully Managing Children ADHD Second edition : Fin O'Regan Supporting behaviour in the classroom: Fin O'Regan The Defiant Child: Dougles Riley Mood Mapping Liz Miller Mindset Carol Dweck SEN L. Peer and G. Reid

The practise of mindfulness has become increasingly popular over the last few years. With the ever-increasing challenges we are facing and busy lifestyles we rush through life without stopping to notice the world around us. Mindfulness allows us to pay attention to our thoughts, sounds, reconnect with our bodies and the sensations they experience. Basically it's about becoming aware of the present and living in the moment, which can have a positive impact on mental health and wellbeing. In a school environment learning has to take place in the moment and often children are unable to focus on the task. So how can you use mindfulness to benefit your pupils? In this week's podcast, we're discussing the use of mindfulness to support emotional literacy with my guest Dr Trisha Waters. Trisha is an educational therapist who began her career supporting pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties. After that she led the MA in SEN & Inclusion at the University of Chichester and is now a director of the Centre for Therapeutic Storywriting. Listen now to find out how to help children come into the present, help them let go of their worries and improve their wellbeing and emotional literacy as a result. Resources: storylinkstraining.co.uk (video on home page) Therapeutic Storywriting: A Practical Guide to Developing Emotional Literacy in Primary Schools by Trisha Waters Research papers: https://www.therapeuticstorywriting.co.uk/research/research-story-links Video: Introducing Therapeutic Storywriting Groups - https://therapeuticstorywritingtraining.co.uk (video on home page) 'Therapeutic Storywriting: A Practical Guide to Developing Emotional Literacy in Primary Schools' by Trisha Waters - https://www.therapeuticstorywriting.co.uk/book Therapeutic Storywriting Research Papers - https://www.therapeuticstorywriting.co.uk/research/research-tsw-groups Contact Trisha: Website: www.therapeuticstorywriting.co.uk Twitter: @TherapyStoryhttps://twitter.com/therapystory Facebook: Centre for Therapeutic Storywriting

The lockdowns imposed during the pandemic have presented immense challenges for all, especially teachers. Everyone has been affected in a multitude of ways and it has had a profound impact on children, particularly those that are vulnerable. A lot of lessons have been learnt along this rollercoaster of a journey and in this week's episode, my guest Wendy Lee, discusses the impact of school disruption due to COVID, on children's speech, language and communication skills. It has a significant impact on children's learning and future outcomes, but there is also a very high correlation with mental health. Wendy is a speech and language therapist with over 30 years' experience in a wide range of settings. We explore her experiences, looking at how speech and language therapists worked together with schools during the past 18 months and share what she has seen in terms of children's language and communication and what has worked to support children with language difficulties. Useful Links Potential Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Communication and Language Skills in Children - Sara A. Charney, Stephen M. Camarata, Alexander Chern, 2021 (sagepub.com) Lockdowns hurt child speech and language skills - report - BBC News Report (ican.org.uk) Microsoft PowerPoint - APPG presentation - December 2020 - FINAL (rcslt.org) Helping your school age child and toddler to talk – Afasic Coronavirus resources for children and families - Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust (sheffieldchildrens.nhs.uk) Coronavirus: 'Concerning' impact on language development and PSED among four- to five-year-olds | Nursery World Private and voluntary settings will be able to access early language catch-up scheme | Nursery WorldImpact of Covid-19 disruptions in primary schools: attainment gaps and school responses | Projects | Education Endowment Foundation | EEF

Over the next few years, over 25% of the school population is projected to be on the SEN register! Teachers are under increasing pressure to be experts in multiple diagnoses, and many are feeling overwhelmed. This is unsustainable and this pressure can result in a retreat from inclusion, with an increasing number of children being positioned outside an ever-shrinking idea of a 'mainstream child'. Dale Pickles is joined by Clare Ward and Dr Jamie Galpin in this week's podcast. Clare has worked in the world of SEN for the last 30 years in a variety of roles and Jamie also has a long career in SEN. They have both come along to discuss this burning question - how do you become an expert in every area of SEND? Is it even possible? Resources: The Anxiety Workbook for Supporting Teens Who Learn Differently – published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers 21st April 2021.

A classroom can be a terrifying place for a child with autism, but you might not know this and instead witness a child that's aggressive, defiant, and disruptive or a child that's passive and not engaging. Anxiety and Autism go hand in hand. Helping an autistic child understand what is happening in their body helps them gain self-control and self-awareness. Working with your own heartbeat rhythms can reduce anxiety for you and your pupil as your energy levels can directly affect them. This week my guest is Tessa Morton, a founder of Act for Autism and is the passionate mum of an autistic boy. She has spent over 15 years supporting autistic children in her community through drama workshops. Tessa talks about autism and anxiety and how to help children to self-regulate. Listen to this episode to discover the power of the heartbeat as a therapeutic approach to support your pupils and find out how to enable them to thrive in an educational setting. Resources Connecting and Communicating with Your Autistic Child For more podcast episodes from the SENDcast click below… https://sendcast.wpengine.com/sendcast-episodes/ Contact Tessa Morton: Website: Act for Autism Twitter: https://twitter.com/actforautism1

We enjoy listening to and telling stories, they often reflect our own experiences or emotions and we use metaphors to express ourselves. Particularly so in young children, it's almost as though metaphor is their natural language. Very young children tend to imitate the adults around them and they try to make sense of their experience through their make believe play. Pupils with social, emotional and mental health difficulties need to be able to share their personal narrative in a safe way in order to make sense of their experiences. Story metaphor is ideal for doing this whilst supporting the pupils' literacy skills. During today's episode I discuss the use of metaphors within stories to support emotional literacy with my guest Dr Trisha Waters. Trisha is an educational therapist who began her career supporting pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties. After that she led the MA in SEN & Inclusion at the University of Chichester and is now a director of the Centre for Therapeutic Storywriting. Listen to find out how you can support your pupils' emotional literacy and wellbeing through story metaphors. Resources: storylinkstraining.co.uk (video on home page) Therapeutic Storywriting: A Practical Guide to Developing Emotional Literacy in Primary Schools by Trisha Waters Research papers: https://www.therapeuticstorywriting.co.uk/research/research-story-links Video: Introducing Therapeutic Storywriting Groups - https://therapeuticstorywritingtraining.co.uk (video on home page) 'Therapeutic Storywriting: A Practical Guide to Developing Emotional Literacy in Primary Schools' by Trisha Waters - https://www.therapeuticstorywriting.co.uk/book Therapeutic Storywriting Research Papers - https://www.therapeuticstorywriting.co.uk/research/research-tsw-groups Contact Trisha: Website: www.therapeuticstorywriting.co.uk Twitter: @TherapyStoryhttps://twitter.com/therapystory Facebook: Centre for Therapeutic Storywriting

Joining Dale today is Ginny Bootman. Ginny is currently a SENCO of 2 Primary schools, but has been a teacher for a very long time (in her own words), a senior manager and headteacher. She has also found time to write articles for TES and speak at a number of events. There is often a huge divide between how a child with additional needs presents themselves at school compared to how they are at home. This discussion looks at this 'seesaw' situation. Too often there is a breakdown of communications between home and school as the child is presenting themselves so differently in these different environments. Resources: Alis Rowe - The girl with the curly hair - Aspergers and Me. Emma Kendall - Helping you to identify and understand autism masking Dr Andrew Curran - The Little Book of Big Stuff About the Brain Contact Ginny Bootman Website – www.ginnybootman.com Twitter – @sencogirl

Did you know that our brain is actually a kind of prediction making machine? We essentially see the world by guessing it. What we're constantly trying to do is to stay one step ahead and the sensory information we're going to receive. We do this in order to conserve energy so this predictive processing takes less effort. The moment where learning happens is when you come across a prediction error, when you're surprised by something you weren't expecting – this is uncertainty. We don't like it because we don't know what to do and over the past 18 months we have all lived through uncertainty with the pandemic and all the new challenges this has brought us. In this week's episode we're discussing whether we need to support every pupil in every need differently, or are there approaches that support everyone? My guests this week are Clare Ward and Dr Jamie Galpin. Clare has worked in the world of SEN for the last 30 years in a variety of roles and Jamie also has a long career in SEN. They talk about a growing move towards transdiagnostic approaches to mental health and SEN and their development of a new model to support all children and young people. Resources: The Anxiety Workbook for Supporting Teens Who Learn Differently – published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers 21st April 2021.

Neurodiversity is a term which describes conditions such as Dyslexia, Autism and ADHD as variations or differences of the human brain, not deficits or disorders. Neurodiversity is a term that everybody in the school community should be aware of, not just the teachers but the students and the parents as well. There can be a lot of misunderstanding, because the wider community is unaware and this can cause issues, such as bullying. Our guest this week is Fintan O'Regan. Fintan is one of the leading Behaviour and Learning specialists in the UK. He is currently an ADHD, Neurodiversity and Behaviour Consultant for number of schools and organisations and an associate lecturer for Leicester University, the National Association of Special Needs, The Helen Arkell Charity and the Institute of Education. Listen to this podcast to find out how to open up conversations and create awareness of how and why students think and act differently. By creating an open minded, more tolerant and understanding school for neurodiversity, you will improve learning and socialisation. Fintan is a regular here in our studios, he has recorded a number of episodes of the SENDcast, he is a regular speaker at our Virtual SEND Conferences and has recorded a training course for us around Exclusion. Find out more about the CPD certified sessions Fintan has hosted with us: Virtual SEND Conference 5 - www.trainingforeducation.com/product/virtual-send-conference-5 Session - Neurodiversity 'traits' for children and adolescents with learning, behaviour and socialisation – challenges and opportunities Managing Behaviour and Reducing the Risk of Exclusion Training Course - www.trainingforeducation.com/product/managing-behaviour-and-reducing-the-risk-of-exclusion Is Persistent Disruptive Behaviour causing problems for staff and pupils at your school? Behaviour expert, Fintan has a proven strategy to manage PDB in the classroom. His online course explains this strategy and how to implement it at your school. This course is CPD certified. It includes 4 videos specifically tailored for different groups at your school: - Senior Leadership Teams - Teachers and support staff - Parents and Carers - School Governors

Children always write stories and poems, but have you thought about songwriting? It can be a fantastic activity to enhance speech and language skills, communication and literacy. It makes a great alternative to creative writing as it's more inclusive and collaborative. Singing songs and music in school engages children in a different way. It levels the playing field with children with different abilities and is a really accessible way to get into a topic. Al Start is a singer-songwriter who specialises in music for children and schools through her company Go Kid Music. Al joins Dale Pickles to show us how you can write songs for your own topics and class to reinforce concepts, behaviours and learn basic skills.