The SENDcast

This week, Dale is joined by Alison Knowles. Alison is an emotional therapist who supports emotional resilience. In this episode we are talking about self preservation as a parent of a child with SEND. Alison is the creator of the Ollie Model, the author of the series of Ollie and his Super Powers books, trainer of Ollie coaches and an emotional therapist. Useful Links: https://www.facebook.com/OllieandhisSuperPowers https://twitter.com/bemoreollie https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWDj-PRjboIg2cu-KZsEMVA https://www.instagram.com/ollie_and_his_super_powers https://www.ollieandhissuperpowers.com/

This week Dale is joined by Al Start to discuss some helpful tips to help teachers use music and songs in the classroom. Al has worked with children for over 20 years in a variety of ways and over the last 15 years she has been creating, teaching and performing songs for children. Singing with children can be a scary idea if you're not musically trained, but introducing music and singing into children's daily learning routine will open up so many opportunities for learning, creativity, behaviour management and wellbeing. With some handy tips, anyone can use singing and music without a musical background. There isn't enough support for teachers to try music in the classroom - but the benefits are plentiful - for both pupils and staff. Music is always way down on the curriculum and thought of as a specialist subject. However it should fill your classroom throughout the day, whatever subject you're teaching. Resources: Go Kids Music – https://gokidmusic.com/ Where you can find songs and albums, songbooks and membership Sing Up - https://www.singup.org/

Joining Dale today is Lorraine Petersen. Lorraine is an educational consultant with 25 years experience working in schools. Since 2004 she has been supporting Special Needs in a variety of ways: She was the CEO of NASEN and she is currently a consultant, director of a teaching school alliance and Governor. Being a SENCO now, more than ever is extremely challenging, so much to do with so little time and so few options. Today Dale and Lorraine discuss the SENCO Survival Guide to help you through these times. Just to be clear we are not going Bear Grylls. Resources: National SENCO Workforce Survey 2020 - https://nasen.org.uk/news/senco-workforce-survey

Every week on the SENDcast, Dale is joined by different guest to talk about a specific area. This week our guest once again is, Fintan O'Regan. Fintan has been a headteacher, lecturer for Leicester University and now works as a trainer and consultant for schools and school support systems. In this episode we are talking about how you don't need to wait for diagnosis to make a difference for children with SEND. The SENDcast is created and produce by B Squared. Over the last 25 years B Squared have supported schools to support students with SEND. Over the last few years, we have diversified, for years we have focussed on assessment and this will always be our main focus, but we have seen a lack of high quality, easy to access training and CPD for schools around SEND. Our online CPD offering, Training for Education, started 2 years ago with the Virtual SEND Conference, but now includes a range of training courses as well as our conferences. You can find out more about our conferences and training courses, including Fintan's training course by going to the Training for Education website – www.trainingforeducation.com. At the end of the episode I will be sharing an exclusive SENDcast discount code, so keep listening! Resources/Links: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25 https://www.theschoolrun.com/SEN-code-2014 https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/2020/08/31/supporting-children-with-special-educational-needs-and-disabilities-to-return-to-school/ https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/rona-tutt%E2%80%99s-guide-to-send-inclusion/book250123 O'Regan F (2018) Successfully Managing Children ADHD Second edition :Routledge Falmer Press O'Regan F (2020) Supporting behaviour in the classroom: Sage publications limited https://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Guide-Teachers-Supporting-Behaviour/dp/1529718554

The SENDcast is a podcast we started in 2020, to help improve knowledge around SEND. Every teacher is teacher of SEND, yet the training isn't there to support them. We created the SENDcast to try and help solve that problem, help make schools more inclusive. My guest this week is Alison Knowles. Alison is an emotional therapist, she supports emotional resilience. In this episode we are talking about supporting foster or adoption families and the specific issues those children might be facing. Useful Links https://www.facebook.com/OllieandhisSuperPowers https://twitter.com/bemoreollie https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWDj-PRjboIg2cu-KZsEMVA https://www.instagram.com/ollie_and_his_super_powers https://www.ollieandhissuperpowers.com/

On this week's podcast we will be discussing how to support children with emotionally based school phobia/avoidance. For this conversation, Dale is joined by Dr Tina Rae. Tina is a consultant psychologist with over 30 year's experience working with children, adults and families. We know that our children and young people who already have existing mental health issues will be finding the current lockdown experience particularly stressful and increased levels of anxiety will be the norm. However, it is probably also the case that every child will be experiencing higher levels of stress and anxiety at this time and that when they do eventually return to the school context there will enormous emotional and psychological hurdles to overcome. The need to provide support for increased levels of anxiety and managing the transition to a 'new normal' will be on-going. Resources: Rae, T. (2020) A Toolbox of Wellbeing Helpful strategies and activities for children, teens, their carers and teachers Buckingham: Hinton House Publishers Rae, T., Such, A. & Wood, J. (2020) The Well Being Tool Kit for Mental health leads in schools A comprehensive Training Resource to Support Emotional Wellbeing in Education and Social Care Buckingham: Hinton House Publishers Rae, T. (2019) The Transition Tool Box Nurturing Effective Transition to Secondary school London: NurtureUK West Sussex County Council Educational Psychology Service (2004) Emotionally Based School Refusal: Guidance for Schools and Support Agencies. West Sussex County Council, West Sussex Educational Psychology Service. Anxiety UK 03444 775 774 (helpline) 07537 416 905 (text) anxietyuk.org.uk Advice and support for people living with anxiety. Childline 0800 1111 childline.org.uk Support for children and young people in the UK, including a free 24-hour helpline.

In this episode we are revisiting anxiety and simply asking the question what is anxiety? Alison Knowles returns to help us explore this. Alison is an emotional therapist. This does not mean that she often cries during therapy. She supports emotional resilience. In this episode we are talking about the reality you created and the impact this has on you. Useful Links https://www.facebook.com/OllieandhisSuperPowers https://twitter.com/bemoreollie https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWDj-PRjboIg2cu-KZsEMVA https://www.instagram.com/ollie_and_his_super_powers

In this episode Dale is joined by Natalie Packer to talk about how to support NQTs to meet the needs of pupils with SEND. With very little Initial Teacher Training around SEND, they have a lot to learn in supporting pupils with SEND. Yet, they will be supporting pupils with SEND from their first day of teaching. Schools need to provide support and training. This is a special episode, it is our first birthday! We are a year old!!! I would like to thank everyone who has been involved with the SENDCast, all our guests and our team who produce the podcast, manage the social media and help make this podcast happen. And finally, thank you to all of you, our listeners. In a year we have had over 30,000 listens!! This is abosultely phenomenal and all the feeback we have received has been amazing and it is great seeing it shared on social media so thank you everyone! Useful Links: Effective SEND practice in ITT - https://www.sendgateway.org.uk/whole-school-send/send-research/ Teachers' Standards: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teachers-standards Early careers framework - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/773705/Early-Career_Framework.pdf SEND induction checklist - Natalie Packer (to send) SEN Support and the graduated approach nasen mini guide: https://www.sendgateway.org.uk/r/sen-support-and-the-graduated-approach-nasen-miniguide.html Special Educational Needs in mainstream schools, EEF guidance report - https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/tools/guidance-reports/special-educational-needs-disabilities/ SEN Support: Research evidence …document by DfE: https://www.sendgateway.org.uk/r/sen-support-research-evidence-on-effective-approaches-and-examples-of-current-practice-in-good-and-outstanding-schools-and-colleges.html My book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Teachers-Guide-SEN-Natalie-Packer/dp/1785830252 Focus On training for staff available at www.nasen.org SEND Reflection framework - https://www.sendgateway.org.uk/send-review/ SEND videos for NQTs (coming soon) – will be available at https://www.sendgateway.org.uk/whole-school-send/find-wss-resources.html Contact Natalie Packer Website – www.nataliepacker.co.uk Email – n.packer174@btinternet.com Twitter – @NataliePacker For more podcast episodes from the SENDcast click below… https://www.thesendcast.com/sendcast-episodes/

In this week's podcast, Dale Pickles from B Squared is joined by Lana Grant to discuss supporting mental health in primary aged children. There has been a history of a lack of support for children's mental health. It needs to change. Lana has a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome and is also a parent of children on the autism spectrum Lana is a specialist SEN advisor and an advocate for SEN children and their families. Lana has worked Lara's first book "From Here To Maternity, pregnancy and motherhood on the Autism Spectrum" was published in 2015. Lana also contributes to various articles, podcast and delivers talks at various shows and events. Over the last 5 years, as a country we have started to realise the importance of mental health, but we aren't always following through. We talk about how important mental health is, but are we making changes to support each other and especially children? There is lots of discussion in the media about how many children are suffering and will suffer due to COVID. There is limited support for those young people. Increasingly the responsibility is being pushed to school staff who are not trained to offer this support and feel that they don't get enough support themselves to deal with this topic. This is a timebomb waiting to explode and with the current pandemic is likely to increase. Mental health should be everyone's business. We need to empower people to know how they can help, what to look out for and when to involve specialist services. Useful Links Young Minds - https://youngminds.org.uk/ Mental Health Foundation - https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/c/children-and-young-people NHS - https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/youth-mental-health/ Childline - https://www.childline.org.uk/ MindEd - https://mindedforfamilies.org.uk/young-people Contact Lana Grant Website – www.lana-grant.co.uk Email – enquiries@lana-grant.co.uk Twitter – @LanaGrantAutism For more podcast episodes from the SENDcast click below… https://www.thesendcast.com/sendcast-episodes/

On this week's show Dale welcomes back Dr. Tina Rae. Tina is a consultant psychologist with over 30 year's experience working with children, adults and families. Dale and Tina discuss self harm, how we can understand and support our children and young people. Self-harm is an area of concern for all of us who support CYP in order to foster well-being and mental health. There are many myths and general misunderstandings about this topic so it is essential given the current pandemic and increased levels of stress for our CYP that we all feel able to support them effectively. Useful Links: Rae, T. (2014) Optimus Safeguarding Hub 19.9.14. Listening to children: What helps children to disclose? Rae, T. (2015) Optimus Safeguarding Hub 10.4.15 Supporting the well-being of the DSP for child protection: listening to traumatised children Rae, T. (2015) Optimus Teaching and Learning Hub 16.4.15 Helping pupils to manage stress Rae, T. (2016) Introducing the topic of self-harm in schools: developing an educational and preventative support intervention Education and Health. 34(2) Rae, T. & Hershey, G. (2019) Mental health and girls on the autism spectrum, in Carpenter, B., Happe, F. & Egerton, J. (eds) Girls and Autism Educational, Family and Personal perspectives. London: Routledge Rae, T. & Walshe, J. (2017) Understanding and Preventing Self-harm in schools Effective Strategies for Identifying Risk and Providing Support Buckingham: Hinton House Publishers Rae, T. & Giles, P. (2018) The Essential Guide to using cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) with children and young people Buckingham: Hinton House Publishers Rae, T., Bunn, H. &. Walshe, J. (2018) The Essential Guide to using Positive Psychology with children and young people Buckingham: Hinton House Publishers Rae, T., Such, A. & Wood, J. (2020) The Well Being Tool Kit for Mental health leads in schools A comprehensive Training Resource to Support Emotional Wellbeing in Education and Social Care Buckingham: Hinton House Publishers