september news round up
All the latest SEN news
Special offers for nasen members
Barrington Stoke have recently launched two new series Solos and Go! These are specifically for students with a reading age of 6 and 6.5.
Go! Entry level fiction for struggling secondary students: great variety of stories, high quality, extensively trialed with students in the target age group.
Solos A fresh start for the seriously struggling reader, who has tried and failed on other series.
Barrington Stoke are offering all members 15% discount on all orders placed before 31 December 2009. For more information about all their titles visit www.barringtonstoke.co.uk
Yellow Door are offering all members copies of free downloads from their Come Alive Phonics series. To access the downloads for the letter group i,n,m,d visit http://www.yellow-door.net/free_downloads.html and receive your free resources today.
Yellow Door are also offering 10% discount on all their products. Just quote your nasen membership number when ordering. http://www.yellow-door.net
The National Award for SEN Co-ordination
It is pleasing to announce that the National Award training has finally got off the ground with 7 providers offering courses from this term and another 6 starting in January 2010. For full details of all the confirmed providers visit: www.nasen.org.uk/national-award-for-sen-co-ordination/
If any nasen members are taking part in this training we would be delighted to hear from you. We would like to share SENCO experiences across the country so if anyone has any relevant information, articles or resources that you think would be of interest to others then please let us have them and we can share them through the pages of Special. Please send to Lorrainep@nasen.org.uk.
Nasen Research – The Role of the Governing Body in relation to SEN, with particular reference to the SEN Governor
Over the last two years nasen has met with a large number of SENCOs and has carried out research into the role and responsibilities of this post. One of the issues raised by many SENCOs was that of the role and responsibility of the Governing Body in relation to SEN. The SEN Code of Practice (2001) outlines the responsibilities of the Governing Body and indicates the need for a ‘responsible person’ on the Governing Body who will ensure that all those teaching children with special needs are aware of their individual needs. This can and often is the Head Teacher. It is also recommended that Governing Bodies appoint a governor or establish a sub–committee to have specific oversight of the SEN provision within a school. Nasen’s previous research indicated that some schools did not have an SEN Governor or if there was a named person there was little or no contact between them and the SENCO. This latest research investigates further the role of the Governing Body and their relationship with the SENCO and can be found at http://www.nasen.org.uk/sen-research/.
Deployment and Impact of Support Staff in Schools
An extensive research report on the Deployment and Impact of Support Staff in Schools was published in August this year. The research was conducted by the Institute of Education, University of London and had two main aims:
• To provide an accurate, systematic and representative description of the types of support staff in school, and their characteristics and deployment in schools, and how these change over time; and
• To assess the impact or effect of support staff on teaching and learning and management and administration in schools, and how this changes over time.
For a copy of the full report visit: www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/DCSF-RR148.pdf
Progression Guidance 2009/2010
The Progression Guidance has been developed by the National Strategies and the DCSF as part of the commitment in the Children's Plan 2007 to provide better data for schools on how well learners with special educational needs, learning difficulties and disabilities (SEN/LDD) are progressing. In addition to the materials below, RAISEonline is being improved to support the analysis of data for pupils with SEN/LDD who are working below age-related expectations. In 2008 special schools were included for the first time into RAISEonline. As it develops, more special schools will benefit from its analytical capacity and all schools will have access to improved data on the progress of these learners.
For more information visit: http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/190123
The National Strategies Special Educational Needs Newsletter - Summer 2009
is available from http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/189071
New Products
New publications from Rising Stars
Survival – A brand new range of real – life fiction for teenagers at KS 3 & 4, offering an extended read at a low readability level. Successfully trialled with teachers and pupils the series has proved to:
• Engage and motivate reluctant readers with relevant and contempory issues
• Develop reading confidence and stamina
• Encourage consolidation of existing reading skills
• Stimulate discussion and debate around PSHE and citizenship issues
Interact – A dynamic new series of plays to engage the student by focussing on issues that the pupils will relate to. Each play consists of short, snappy scences with boy and girl parts and humorous dialogue.
• All parts written to the same reading level and similar length
• Colour coded names encourage reluctant readers to follow their parts
• Short, bit sized scenes ideal for 15 – minute reading sessions.
All Rising Stars titles can be found at www.risingstars-uk.com
All nasen members receive 10% discount on all Rising Stars publications.
Finally
Requests for help/information
Nasen member Anita Devi, an education consultant, lecturer and trainer is writing a book to support professional/teacher well-being. If you have any personal stories/anecdotes or useful strategies/tips which she could include, please e-mail Anita directly at anita.devi@virgin.net.
QCA research
Richard Rieser, a nasen member, has been commissioned by QCA to collect examples of the ways that schools are currently bringing disability into the curriculum and work with schools to develop exemplars for the QCA website. This will cover all key stages and all subjects. The Duty to Promote Disability Equality requires all state schools to promote positive attitudes to disabled people. There are already many ideas how to do this on wwww.worldofinclusion.org. If you would like to try these out and then write up what you did, how you did it and its impact on pupils or if you already have a scheme of work you would be happy to share please contact richardrieser@worldofinclusion.com.
This project has to be completed by Christmas so please send in any material and comments you have. It will be credited to you and your school if used so please also include contact details.
