Workshop on how to act your way into thinking like a Teaching Assistant for #TLT15 . #SENchat #SEN #SENReform

1. What steps did Greenford High School
take to be ready for SEN Reform?

2. Plan
Lead teachers: Autism, Nurture,
Literacy, Dyslexia, Reading
External Professionals: Educational Psychologist,
Clinical Psychologist (CLiPs), Speech and
Language Therapist, Art Therapist.
SENCO on leadership team managed by AHT –
Inclusion; HLTAs and Achievement Workers
SENPlan meetings, and Focus Group meetings
for teachers & professionals to discuss key students.
Meetings with families,
supported by Pastoral

3. FOUR ACHIEVEMENT WORKERS ???
To initiate and sustain an active
engagement with families of identified
students to help them explore issues and
make changes in areas which may be
affecting their child’s development. This
will involve home visits.
TWENTY FOUR students with statements or EHCPs,
plus one EHCP application pending

4. Assess

5. Do
Quality Teaching First
EVERY teacher is a teacher of children with special needs
Differentiation is a big focus for CPD, led by Lead Teachers,
HLTAs attached to depts, HODs/TLRs & External Professionals
Tried and tested interventions
Groups and one to one provision
Working closely with alternative providers
Key workers: HLTAs and Achievement Workers

6. Teaching Assistants: what does the
research say?

7. Teaching Assistants: what does the
research REALLY say?
TAs should not be used as substitute teachers for low-attaining pupils
Use TAs to add value to what teachers do, not replace them
Use TAs to help pupils develop independent study skills and manage
their own learning.
Ensure TAs are fully prepared for their role in the classroom through
out of class liaison with teachers.
Use TAs to deliver high-quality one-to-one and small group support
using structured interventions
Adopt evidence-based interventions to support TAs in their small
group and one-to-one instruction
It is important that what students learn from TAs complements what
they are being taught in the classroom.
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/teaching-
assistants-should-not-be-substitute-teachers-but-can-make-a-real-d/

8. Do
Quality Teaching First
EVERY teacher is a teacher of children with special needs

9. Do
Quality Teaching First
EVERY teacher is a teacher of children with special needs

10. Do
Quality Teaching First
EVERY teacher is a teacher of children with special needs

11. Do
Quality Teaching First
EVERY teacher is a teacher of children with special needs

12. Do
Quality Teaching First
EVERY teacher is a teacher of children with special needs

13. Do
Quality Teaching First
EVERY teacher is a teacher of children with special needs

14. Do
Quality Teaching First
EVERY teacher is a teacher of children with special needs

16. FOUR ACHIEVEMENT WORKERS
FOUR HIGHER LEVEL TEACHING ASSISTANTS,
WHO EACH ALSO TEACH 12 LESSONS A WEEK
PLUS ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIVE
students needing SEN support
School budget cut of £300,000
this financial year, £400,000
the year before
TWENTY FOUR students with statements or EHCPs,
plus one EHCP application pending

17. For years we have been training teachers
to think differently so that they can think
their way into a new way of acting.

18. For years we have been training teachers
to think differently so that they can think
their way into a new way of acting.
Yet their behaviour does not change.
If teachers need to change the way they
teach, they need to ACT their way into a
new way of THINKING.
Dylan Wiliam

19. How can you act your way into thinking
like a Teaching Assistant?

20. Quality Teaching First
EVERY teacher is a teacher of children with special needs
How can you act your way into thinking
like a Teaching Assistant?

21. Quality Teaching First
EVERY teacher is a teacher of children with special needs
How can you act your way into thinking
like a Teaching Assistant?
What makes this child tick?
How do they learn best?
What helps them in lessons?
What is their special educational need?
What does that mean?
ASK the expert:
Teaching Assistants
may not be in your
lesson, but they know
the child so ask them

22. Quality Teaching First
EVERY teacher is a teacher of children with special needs
How can you act your way into thinking
like a Teaching Assistant?
Seating plan
Marking is planning
What would you discuss
with a Teaching Assistant
before the lesson?
What would you decide?

23. Classroom strategies and tips
How can you support and differentiate for students who you think
might be in need of nurture?
• Emotional check-ins (but do something with it/routine)
• Not shouting (triggers)
• Sweat the small stuff
• Building relationships
• Being open and explaining how you feel (they can’t often read
you)
• Building their vocabulary and language so they can express how
they feel verbally (all behaviour is communication)
• Stillness…
• Relentless positivity (with a caveat…)
• Remember that you’re annoying too
Nurture

24. Classroom strategies and tips
How can you support and differentiate for students who you think
might be in need of nurture?
• Emotional check-ins (but do something with it/routine)
• Not shouting (triggers)
• Sweat the small stuff
• Building relationships
• Being open and explaining how you feel (they can’t often read
you)
• Building their vocabulary and language so they can express how
they feel verbally (all behaviour is communication)
• Stillness…
• Relentless positivity (with a caveat…)
• Remember that you’re annoying too
Nurture

25. SEMH is when a young person cannot manage
his/her emotions, and is often anxious, scared
and misunderstood.
The young person may have had early life
trauma, been a victim of abuse or even suffered
the effects of alcohol or drugs before he/she
was born.
Social, Emotional and Mental Health
(SEMH)

26. Social, Emotional and Mental Health
(SEMH)
Pick your
battles The last word
Remove the
audience
The
fidget
Changing the
way
Positive
strategies

27. Social, Emotional and Mental Health
(SEMH)

28. Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC/ASD)
Get to know the child
and liaise with their
parents
Speak literally
Be predictable
Don’t change the
classroom experience
eg where the child sits
Support organisation

29. Literacy (SpLD)
HINT and
CHALLENGE

30. Literacy (SpLD)
HINT and
CHALLENGE
(BRACKET
DEFINITION)

31. Literacy (SpLD)
HINT and
CHALLENGE
(BRACKET
DEFINITION)
VOCABULARY
building

32. Speech, Language and Communication
Need (SLCN)

33. Speech, Language and Communication
Need (SLCN)

34. Quality Teaching First
EVERY teacher is a teacher of children with special needs
How can you act your way into thinking
like a Teaching Assistant?
What would you discuss with a
Teaching Assistant after the
lesson?
How would you know?
Marking is planning.

36. Resource Bank for SENCOs and other
Inclusion SLT and school leaders

37. Speaking and
Listening (S&L)
[Speech, Language and
Communication Needs
SLCN]
Identification
Meeting
NeedsReview
and improve
Intensive
Universal
Catch-Up
•Y13 in London ESU Debate
finals , w support fr Miss
Jacobs
•Y8 w statement in rap group
to learn active listening:self-
help strategies: SaLT, key
worker, HoY10
•Y7 vocab and narrative groups w HLTAs
trained by SaLT to teach accredited
intervention (Education Endowment
Foundation EEF)
•Y7 & 9 social skills groups to meet
needs: SaLT, key workers, Lead Teachers-
Autism & Nurture
•Whole Story project: story-telling
•Y7 A period a week of S &
L, scheme of work planned
by KS3 English leader w SaLT
on “Active listening”.
•Y7 and 8:S & L one of the
Thinking Skills-IGNITE talks
in Y7, news reports and
Greenford Heroes drama Y8
•S&L skills are tracked in
planners, badges awarded
for good skills, whole school
awareness & developing
use.
Training & awareness: all Learning
Support (LS) & pastoral staff &
English teachers
Screening
Referrals incl on transition
Additional assessment
Profiling needs
Sharing results & strategies
SENCO, Deputy SENCO, Head Inclusive
Learning, English teachers
HLTAs, Achievement Workers, Lead
Teachers
SaLT: 1 day a fortnight
£40K Education Endowment
Foundation grant for S & L Catch-Up
Rooms & timetabling
Resources
Monitor impact: progress data?
Compare vs control group (EEF)
Re-assessment
Interview teachers , children,
families
Value for money? Cost v impact
Who is stuck?
Where are the gaps in
provision?
Provision Map
example

38. X Provision Map

39. Do : “tried and tested interventions”?
Speech and Language: Vocabulary Enrichment
and Narrative Intervention programmes (Joffe)
Reading Lab,Corrective Reading (comprehension)
1st Class in Number
Toe by Toe (dyslexia), Stareways, Pre-Teach Vocab
Image in Action
Social Skills, Social Stories, Circle of Friends
Comic Strip cartoons, Lego Therapy

40. Review

41. Review
Three structured
conversations with
parents/carers and the
young people:
1. Autumn Tea Party
with key workers
2. Form tutor on Raising
Achievement Day
3. Annual Review

42. Review
Monitoring impact

43. Review
Monitoring impact
Sessions
Stdts
per
session
Cost of time
staff leading
intervention
Total no
of
students
No of
students
who made
good
progress
No of
students
who did not
make good
progress
Cost £
per
studen
t who
made
progre
ss
Literacy: guided
reading/reading
lab 108 7 2700 25 18 7 150
Catch up Reading 1980 1 35,000 55 48 6 729

44. Next steps?
FUNDING CHALLENGES
& improved communication with Ealing SEN
JOINT WORKING w primary schools and colleges
Additionally Resourced Provision
FORM TUTOR training

45. LeNS IF
NS E
Put your special needs provision under a
LeNS IF you want to be outstanding…

46. LeNS IF
Leadership
Needs
Staffing
Impact
Finance
NS E
Put your special needs provision under a
LeNS IF you want to be outstanding…

47. Leadership...
SENCO on SLT
Deputy SENCO/Lead HLTA
Best teachers trained up as SEN
specialists

48. Needs
Quality Teaching First
Education, Health and Care Plan
Single school based category
Local offer provided in LA

49. Staffing
SEN Administrator
"Trained key workers" in LAs
Higher Level Teaching Assistants
How can you meet needs in your school?
Achievement Workers

50. Provision Map
Shows cost and impact of everything done for
SEN pupils, to include Pupil Premium
Targets clearly identified in IEPs
Meeting this targets=evidence of impact
Impact

51. Finance
Move from Statements to EHCP means fewer
qualify, and schools have to show impact of first
£6K of spending for all children on EHCP to get the
balance
Personal budgets
Have to account for all delegated funding
Have to detail how every pound has been spent to
support SEN cohort and what impact of spending
has been