We need to give people the tools to be empowered to help themselves and their family – looking inside themselves and not having to look elsewhere for help.

This week's guest Alison Knowles. Alison is the author of Ollie and his Super Powers series of books and creator of the Ollie Model. 

Ali has her own private therapeutic practice in Cambridgeshire where she works with people of all ages, helping them to remove limiting beliefs, fears and phobias, and negative emotions. More and more parents began to bring their children to Ali because of her easy and relaxed approach.

Our aim is to be in every school, so we also empower teachers and support staff.  Kids become mentors themselves as they learn the Ollie Model and use it on themselves and others.

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 week’s podcast, Dale Pickles from B Squared is joined by Lana Grant to discuss Autism and Coronavirus – The new normal for children and their families

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 aritcles, podcast and delivers talks at various shows and events.

We recorded this episode on the 1st of September 2020 and over the next few days the majority of students across England are returning to school. Everyone has responded to the pandemic and the lockdown differently. For people with autism in particular there have been some positives of lockdown and returning to normal or a “new normal” could cause a lot of anxiety.

In the podcast, we discuss the outcome of the pandemic and what it means for our children and their parents/carers.  How have autistic people coped going into lockdown and then coming out?  What are the concerns for the future and how can we support families to move forward in these seasons of change and unpredictability?

For autistic people in particular there have been some positives of lockdown. A parent had commented to Lana that it was if the whole world now knows what autism is like…needing to socially distance, the need for routine and rule-following, less crowded places, not being able to read people’s expressions due to face coverings.  Then we came out of lockdown and this increased lots of people’s anxiety and mental health as things began to change almost back to normal.

Website – www.lana-grant.co.uk

Email – [email protected]

Twitter – @LanaGrantAutism

For more podcast episodes from the SENDcast click below… https://www.thesendcast.com/sendcast-episodes/

In this week's show Dale is joined by Carol Allen and John Galloway to discuss utilising modern technology to enhance the class room experience.

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:

Carol Allen on Twitter - @caroljallen

John Galloway on Twitter - @Johngalloway

There is nothing worse than the loss of someone who is important to you whether you loved them or not. and many of our children will have experienced that pain, whether in their own families, or in their wider social circles. What can we do, as the adults who support them to make sure that we are helping them as they grieve without adding to their pain?

In this week’s podcast Dale is joined by Sarah Jane Critchley to discuss how best to support children and staff to understand death, bereavement and loss.

Useful Links:

1. Sunderland, M., Hancock, N., Armstrong, N. (2003). The Day the Sea Went out and Never Came Back. London: Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315172934 and Sunderland, M., Hancock, N. (2003). Helping Children with Loss. London: Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315170862
2. Rankin, H. (2019). Supporting Children through Bereavement and Loss & When the Sun Fell Out of the Sky. London: Routledge, ISBN 9780367179663 https://www.routledge.com/Supporting-Children-through-Bereavement-and-Loss--When-the-Sun-Fell-Out/Rankin/p/book/9780367179663
3. Books Beyond Words – When Someone dies from Coronavirus & other resourceshttps://static1.squarespace.com/static/551cfff9e4b0f74d74cb307e/t/5e9578851288b77c2683f29a/1586854025277/When+someone+dies+from+coronavirus+V1.pdf
4. Books beyond words – When Mum died - https://booksbeyondwords.co.uk/bookshop/paperbacks/when-mum-died?rq=bereavement and when Dad died https://booksbeyondwords.co.uk/bookshop/paperbacks/when-dad-died?rq=bereavement  
5. Great resources for teenagers from Young Minds https://youngminds.org.uk/find-help/feelings-and-symptoms/grief-and-loss/
6. Child Bereavement UK https://www.childbereavementuk.org/
7. Newsround - Coronavirus: What to do if someone you love has diedhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/52283247

How to contact Sarah-Jane:

Twitter: @SarahJaneCritch

Instagram: www.instagram.com/sarahjanecritchley/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/differentjoy/

This week's guest is Dr Susie Nyman. Susie is passionate about discovering how children learn and supporting them in ways which enable them to succeed and is the Curriculum Manager for Health and Social Care at The Sixth Form College Farnborough, where she has strived to raise students’ achievements and support them in a way which enables them to succeed. This episode is a lively discussion of easy-to-replicate Multi-sensory Techniques which have been developed on a shoestring, inspiring students with dyslexia to become grade risers and ultimately achieve stellar results.

Susie will discuss innovative tried and tested Multi-Sensory Techniques she has used in the classroom setting at The Sixth Form College, Farnborough as well as in Curriculum Support at The Oratory School. These are published in the latest ‘BDA Dyslexia Friendly Schools Good Practice Guide’ and ‘The Multi-sensory Toolkit’ by Oaka books.

Find Susie on https://www.drnymanconsultancy.co.uk/

Useful Links:

•   Eastap, L. and Gregory, J. (Ed’s) (2018) Dyslexia Friendly Schools Good Practice Guide 2nd Edition, British Dyslexia Association - https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/shop/books/dyslexia-friendly-schools-good-practice-guide-2nd-edition

•   Nyman, S. (2019) The Multi-Sensory Teaching Toolkit. Chichester: Oaka Books - https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.oakabooks.co.uk%2Fproducts%2Fdr-susie-nymans-multi-sensory-teaching-toollkit&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFxrU-D5KzFR3CrynYVuv_L4kR17Q

•   Nyman, S. (2019) Sensory Support for Dyslexia. Clitheroe: SEN Magazine - Issue 103 - https://issuu.com/senmagazine/docs/sen103

•   YouTube BDA ‘Dyslexia teaching points: Multi-sensory techniques for teaching science’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIzZzbrlK9c

YouTube ‘Multi-sensory’ Oaka Books videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r5i4c7OLDk

If we are really going to make a difference to pupils with SEND in our schools, then the development and organisation of provision needs to be led from the top. No matter how good an individual SENCO or SEND team in a school might be, they will only ever be able to make real improvements if the senior leadership team are on board. This is why a whole school approach to developing SEND provision is so important.

This week on the show our guest is Natalie Packer, author of The Perfect SENCO. Natalie has extensive experience as a trainer and can offer specialist training and advice that is flexible and tailored to the needs of your school.

You can find Natalie:

on Twitter - @NataliePacker

http://www.nataliepacker.co.uk

Useful Links:

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

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Expectations-Leading-Effective-Strategy/dp/1911382489 - Great expectations by David Bartram (a book on leading SEND strategy)

https://www.bathspa.ac.uk/media/bathspaacuk/education-/research/senco-workload/National-SENCO-Workload-Survey-Report-Jan-2020.pdf -  Bath Spa / nasen workload survey report updated

SENCO Induction Pack – https://www.sendgateway.org.uk/whole-school-send/sencos-area/

WSS SEND Review - https://www.sendgateway.org.uk/whole-school-send/find-wss-resources.html

This week we welcome Lana Grant to the show. Lana is a specialist advisor and advocate for people with autism and their families.

COVID has changed many things and children have been out of formal education for many months.  There is talk of catch up lessons, extra homework etc but how does this look for our most vulnerable pupils?  Is it time for a new way of teaching and learning?

The curriculum introduced in 2014 is not fit for purpose, particularly for our SEN/neurodiverse children.  The future of schooling is uncertain in the current time with the pandemic still amongst us.  We need to act now to ensure that we are not caught out as we were in March.  We need a living curriculum that doesn’t measure success and worse failure on if you pass a phonics assessment in year 1 etc.

This week on the show Fintan O'Regan returns to discuss good mental health and the power of mood.

Fin is one of the leading behaviour and learning specialists in the UK. He is currently an SEN and Behaviour Consultant for the Schools Network and an associate lecturer for Leicester University, the National Association of Special Needs, Tribal Education and the Institute of Education.

Contact Fintan:

https://www.fintanoregan.com/

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 Sarah Jane Critchley to discuss the Recovery Curriculum, designed to help heal the trauma of COVID 19.

This is the second part of this episode, so if you missed the previous episode, please go listen to that one first.

In a post-COVID world, many children in our schools will have experienced a number of losses and the schools they are returning to are not the same as the places they left.  They have lost routine, structure, friendship, opportunity and freedom.  How can listening to them and their parents help their academic as well as emotional recovery?

Useful Links:

1. Recovery Curriculum Think Piece by Professor Barry Carpenter and Matthew Carpenter - https://barrycarpentereducation.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/recovery-curriculum-loss-and-life-for-our-children-and-schools-post-pandemic.pdf
2. Tina Rae. A Toolbox of Wellbeing - Helpful strategies & activities for children, teens, their carers & teachers. Hinton House, 2020. http://hintonpublishers.com/isbn_template.php?isbn=978-19-12112-55-5&x=65&y=39
3. Happiness Box – Beverley Cockbill - https://www.evidenceforlearning.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Rationale-for-the-Happiness-Box-Bev-Cockbill-Recovery-Curriculum-LearningShared-Ep-7.pdf
4. Books Beyond Words – Coping with coronavirus https://booksbeyondwords.co.uk/coping-with-coronavirus
5. Mental health Journals for 4 stages  KS1/2 KS2/3, KS3/4 and KS 4/5 from Butterfly Print UK  https://www.butterflyprint.co.uk/product-category/mental-health/mental-health-journals/

How to contact Sarah-Jane:

Twitter: @SarahJaneCritch

Instagram: www.instagram.com/sarahjanecritchley/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/differentjoy/

In this week’s podcast Dale Pickles from B Squared is joined by Sarah Jane Critchley to discuss the Recovery Curriculum, designed to help heal the trauma of COVID 19.

We ran a little longer than normal, so this show has been split into two parts, but don't worry the second part will be available as soon as you've finished this one.

In a post-COVID world, many children in our schools will have experienced a number of losses and the schools they are returning to are not the same as the places they left.  They have lost routine, structure, friendship, opportunity and freedom.  How can listening to them and their parents help their academic as well as emotional recovery?

Useful Links:

1. Recovery Curriculum Think Piece by Professor Barry Carpenter and Matthew Carpenter - https://barrycarpentereducation.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/recovery-curriculum-loss-and-life-for-our-children-and-schools-post-pandemic.pdf
2. Tina Rae. A Toolbox of Wellbeing - Helpful strategies & activities for children, teens, their carers & teachers. Hinton House, 2020. http://hintonpublishers.com/isbn_template.php?isbn=978-19-12112-55-5&x=65&y=39
3. Happiness Box – Beverley Cockbill - https://www.evidenceforlearning.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Rationale-for-the-Happiness-Box-Bev-Cockbill-Recovery-Curriculum-LearningShared-Ep-7.pdf
4. Books Beyond Words – Coping with coronavirus https://booksbeyondwords.co.uk/coping-with-coronavirus
5. Mental health Journals for 4 stages  KS1/2 KS2/3, KS3/4 and KS 4/5 from Butterfly Print UK  https://www.butterflyprint.co.uk/product-category/mental-health/mental-health-journals/

How to contact Sarah-Jane:

Twitter: @SarahJaneCritch

Instagram: www.instagram.com/sarahjanecritchley/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/differentjoy/