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.

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

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

This week’s show is on How to Become a Dyslexic Grade Riser. An approach to help students with dyslexia to learn and prepare for exams.

Our guest is Dr Susie Nyman, the Curriculum Manager at The Sixth Form College, Farnborough. She is passionate about discovering how children learn and supporting them in ways which enable them to succeed. She has provided training to PGCE students at Kingston University, and in a number of local schools and colleges on teaching strategies. She also delivers talks on multi-sensory techniques around the world.

Susie is amazing, she has spent her teaching career really looking at how people learn. In this episode we discuss how students can become dyslexic grade risers. This approach is designed to help students with dyslexia, but as many things it will benefit all students.

Useful Links:

On this week’s podcast we will be discussing understanding and managing anxiety in children and young people with guest Dr Tina Rae. Tina is a consultant psychologist with over 30 year’s experience working with children, adults and families.

A recent survey undertaken by the charity Young Minds in March 2020 revealed that the current coronavirus pandemic is having a profound effect on young people with existing mental health conditions. Although they understood the need for the measures taken in response to the virus, the report says, this did not lessen the impact.

Many of those who took part in the survey reported increased anxiety, problems with sleep, panic attacks or more frequent urges to self-harm.

Resources and Useful Links:

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., Walshe, J. & Wood, J. (2020) Supporting Adolescents with anxiety and stress: Evidence based strategies Buckingham Hinton House Publishers

Rae, T. (2020) Motivation Matters Buckingham: Hinton House Publishers

Rae, T. (2019) Sensory Activity cards 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

Rae, T. & Such, A. (2019) The ASD Girls’ Wellbeing Toolkit An Evidence based Intervention Promoting Mental, Physical & Emotional Health Buckingham: Hinton House Publishers

Rae, T. (2019) The Well Being Tool Kit for Teens London: NurtureUK

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.

As well as this podcast, B squared also run the Virtual SEND Conference and Parent Talks. The Virtual SEND Conference is a conference for schools that runs twice a year. It is a virtual conference, so the conference comes to you, over the internet. We record every session, this means you can watch the videos whenever you need to. You can purchase access to future or past events. For more information visit www.virtualsendconference.com. At the end of the episode I will be giving you a discount code so you can save some money when you purchase access.

In this week’s podcast we are talking about managing the SENCO Workload. Our guest is Natalie Packer, an independent education consultant, specialising in SEND and school improvement. Natalie develops and delivers a wide range of training and support to schools, multi-academy trusts and other organisations. She is a member of nasen’s 0-11 Advisory Group, and also supports the Whole School SEND review process. On top of this and being a Governor and Trustee Natalie has also found time to write books The Perfect SENCO and The Teacher’s Guide to SEN.

Useful Links:

https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/media/bathspaacuk/education-/research/senco-workload/SENCOWorkloadReport-FINAL2018.pdf   - original Bath Spa / nasen workload survey report

https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/media/bathspaacuk/education-/research/senco-workload/National-SENCO-Workload-Survey-Report-Jan-2020.pdf - follow up report

SENCO Induction Pack – available on https://www.sendgateway.org.uk

SENCO Forum for questions – https://www.sencoforum.com

Focus On training for staff available at www.nasen.org

www.ipsea.org.uk - courses available on knowing the SEND law

https://www.provisionmap.co.uk - provision mapping software

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Perfect-SENCO-Natalie-Packer/dp/178135104X - Natalie's book!

For over 20 years, Kate Browning has been passionately committed to championing the SENCo role in schools. Over this time, she has worked as a class teacher, SENCo, Local Authority School Improvement Officer for SEN and most recently as Education Development Officer for nasen.

This week Kate joins Dale to discuss the intricacies of identification of SEND and the common mistakes made by all parties in this process.

If you want to get in touch, let us know your thoughts, suggest topics or anything else, please send an email to [email protected]

If you have enjoyed the SENDcast, why not look into the Virtual SEND Conference, this is a conference that like the SENDcast is run by B Squared, but it covers all aspects of SEND. What makes this conference different is that it is accessed across the internet. The conference runs twice a year, in March and November and each conference has 12 highly valuable sessions designed to help you, with each session having something you can take away. You can buy tickets for future events or past events, the videos are always available. The cost for each conference is £60 and this covers the entire school, not per person. As a listener to the SENDcast, we are offering you a 10% discount, just use the code Sendcast10.

Thank you for listening, we will be back next week with another episode of the SENDcast.