The SENDcast

This week's show is all about neurodiversity. What does it mean, is it a positive term or is it a negative term. Our guest is Fintan O'Regan, Fintan is a trainer and consultant for schools and school support systems including, Social Services, Health, the Police and Foster carers. He supports them by providing behaviour management strategies for children and families struggling with SEND and behaviour issues. Before this he has worked with a number of organisations including NASEN, Institute of Education, Leicester University, the UK ADHD Network and the European ADHD Alliance. And before all of this he was a headteacher of a specialist school for students with ADHD, ASD an ODD.

In this episode we are talking about the role of the Governing Board in relation to SEND with Kate Browning. Kate is an independent SEND Consultant who focuses on school improvement for SEND. She has been a SENCo, SEN advisory teacher, local authority school improvement officer for SEND and interim Education Development Officer for NASEN. She teaches the NASENCo course for the university of Northampton and lectures for the university of Warwick on their PGCE programme. In her spare time Kate facilitates the SENCo network across Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Derbyshire, supports Governors and is also a Chair of Governors.

In this episode Dale is joined by Alison Knowles to discuss breaking down limiting beliefs and how you can take control rather than be controlled by your emotions. 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

Natalie Packer, an independent education consultant specializing in SEND, shares insights on ensuring all children have access to high-quality teaching. She emphasizes the importance of teacher responsibility for SEND and the link to effective practices. Topics include assessing true learning, the balance of challenge and flow in lessons, and the pivotal role of engagement. Natalie also highlights strategies for maximizing teaching assistant impact and the need for a whole-school approach to create inclusive environments.

Joining Dale today is Lana Grant. 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's first book "From Here To Maternity, pregnancy and motherhood on the Autism Spectrum" was published in 2015. Lana also contributes to various articles, podcasts and delivers talks at various shows and events. She definitely outranks Dale when it comes to discussing autism. There have been a number of portrayals of autism in films and TV series. They portray a simplistic view of autism. They are socially awkward, or struggle to socialise, but amazing at maths or recognising patterns. For a lot of the population, this is how they see autism. But this is not how all people with autism present.

On this week's podcast Dale will be discussing building resilience in the early years with guest Dr. Tina Rae. Tina is a consultant psychologist with over 30 year's experience working with children, adults and families. Resilience is a word that some people hate, some understand and other are a bit unsure of what it means. I have met some people who think resilience is made up and dismiss it. I have also seen work in primary schools where they are helping children to become more resilient, talking about a growth mindset. Resilience has lots of different names – resilience, grit, determination and many other names, but they all have a common thread, which is being able to cope. How else can we describe resilience? Useful Links Rae, T. (2014) Building Resilience. Every Child Journal. 4(6) 31-39 Rae, T. (2015) The power of positive thinking Every Child Journal. 5(1) 44-53 Rae, T. (2016) Building Positive Thinking Habits Increasing Self-confidence and resilience in young people through CBT Buckingham: Hinton House Publishers Rae, T. (2016) Bouncing back and Coping with change Building Emotional and Social Resilience in Young people aged 9-14 Buckingham: Hinton House Publishers Rae, T. & Such, A. (2017) Emotion Coaching A resource bank for parents, carers and professionals London: Nurture Group Network Rae, T., & Wood, J. (2019) The Essential Resilience and well-being tool kit for the early years Buckingham: Hinton House Publishers Rae, T. (2019) Mindfulness Activity cards Buckingham: Hinton House Publishers Rae, T. (2019) Happy Habits Activity cards Buckingham: Hinton House Publishers

This week Dale is joined by Carol Allen & John Galloway to discuss the pro's and con's of a fixed curriculum. The curriculum in schools is supposed to be broad and balanced, but it often isn't. Schools are sometimes only focusing on areas they are held to account for. One thing that has been eating away at the over the last few years is the four broad areas of need and the lack of focus on these areas in schools, in a number of ways. We will come back to this later, lets start at the beginning with children being entitled to a broad and balanced curriculum. Where is it going wrong? Carol is an education advisor for ICT and Inclusion in particular supporting the London Grid For Learning and Hartlepool LA. She was named one of the top ten educators for 2018 in the field of educational technology. This was down to all her amazing work on inclusion. John is a specialist in the use of technology to improve educational opportunities for children and young people with special educational needs. He spends the majority of his time working with Tower Hamlets LA, but also does lots of working as a writer, consultant and trainer. Useful Links:

In this episode Dale's guest is Kate Browning. Kate is an independent consultant supporting schools make improvements around SEND. In this episode we are talking about SENCO time management, focusing on the key elements. In a world where there is less guidance, less money, more demand and continual changes, teachers, SENCos and leaders need a way to keep up, that fits in with their lives. The SENDcast is the answer!

In this episode Dale welcomes Alison Knowles back to the show. 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 why we are the way we are. We are born different, we are born at different times, different generations with different challenges. We have different experiences, different ideals, we all respond differently to situations and take different things away from events. Because of this Alison, you feel we don't fit into boxes and we don't need labels. They discuss The Ollie Model explanation of why we are different, why we believe what we believe, why we don't need labels and don't fit into boxes. Knowledge is power. Knowledge gives control and control makes us feel safe and able to cope. Understanding that everyone is different and therefore should be treated differently. 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 Keywords Everyone is individual and unique Everyone sees the world differently People don't need to stay stuck in the model of the world they have created. Why shouldn't we put labels on people Why shouldn't we put people into boxes

This week Dale is joined by Fintan O'Regan. Fintan is a trainer and consultant for schools and school support systems including, Social Services, Health, the Police and Foster carers. He supports them by providing behaviour management strategies for children and families struggling with SEND and behaviour issues. Before this he has worked with a number of organisations including NASEN, Institute of Education, Leicester University, the UK ADHD Network and the European ADHD Alliance. And before all of this he was a headteacher of a specialist school for students with ADHD, ASD an ODD. There is so much disinformation on the subject of ADHD partly as it is a relatively new term that many people still see as an excuse and not an explanation and partly as the media has portrayed the use of medication as a chemical cosh for children. Dale and Fintan look to demystify what can be a confusing term for many and will focus on traits and not the label. Useful Links/References: Cooper P and O'Regan F (2001) EDUCATING children with ADHD: Routledge Falmer Press O'Regan F (2002) How to teach and manage children with ADHD: LDA a division of McGraw- Hill O'Regan F (2005) ADHD : Continuum International O'Regan F (2005) Surviving and Succeeding in SEN Continuum International O'Regan F (2006) Challenging Behaviours Teachers Pocketbooks O'Regan F (2006) Troubleshooting Challenging Behaviours Continuum International O'Regan F (2008) The Small Change 2 BIG DIFFERENCE series Hyperactive, Inattentive and Disorganised, Special Direct O'Regan F (2018) Successfully Managing Children ADHD Second edition :Routledge Falmer Press