Anne Jakins

IEPs – Reducing the Bureaucracy When should IEPs be used: · for students with exceptional and truly individual needs? · when students fail to make progress? · when a student has a statement or is at School Action Plus? Apparently IEPs are no longer a statutory requirement for students at School Action . However , do our students still have more targets set for them than they can realistically meet ? When visiting an American school a few years ago I was impressed by the extent to which students were familiar with their targets . Now that IEPs are being accessed via school networks as opposed to distribution of paper copies , are teachers more or less inclined to use them ? What impact do IEPs make on your teaching ?

I agree with Maggie that the cover supervisor is not expected to actually teach the class , just supervise the students while they complete the work. However, in my experience, when faced with a challenging class the most effective way of engaging their attention and keeping them on task is to teach.Students who do not have the concentration span to work independently for an hour require skilled management . If you try to explain to someone who has had little or no previous experience of the classroom the intricacies of classroom mangement , you realise what a wide range of skills teachers possess.These skills have become so instinctive that we often do not recognise them ourselves.

I read the posting about workforce reform with interest. Does anyone work in a school that successfully employs cover supervisors ? This surely has to be a very stressful job. How do people with little or even no previous experience in dealing with the dynamics of class teaching/supervision aquire those skills over a matter of weeks? Is this a pessimistic view or are there cover supervisors happily working in your school?

I agree with ChristineS that any child given Ritalin unnecessarily is one too many. I suppose behaviour modification and positive mentoring is adult intensive and therefore not as readily available as it should be. I find that students on Ritalin fo ADHD rarely seem to understand their condition and often appear puzzled and resentful when first diagnosed. Follow up appointments at clinics are infrequent and these young people rarely see the same consultant long enough to build up trust. I wonder how many continue to take medication into adulthood.

Treatment of ADHD often involves medication. Ritalin is a stimulant which has been used in the treatment of hyperactive children since 1957 and is the subject of much controversy.The specific action that stimulants like Ritalin have on the brain is unclear but it is assumed that they make children more alert by enhancing activity in the central nervous system. The end behaviour can enable the child to focus attention, control impulsiveness, decrease motor activity, improve visual - motor coordination and exhibit more purposeful goal - oriented behaviour. I am interested in any comments from teachers who work with students who take this type of medication. In my experience their main complaint is that as soon as teachers see their behaviour as challenging they are asked if they have 'taken their tablets'. They can be asked this question several times each day. Students often think that the medication impinges on their perceived cult status and that the reduction of impulsive behaviour will make them less popular with their peers. Does anyone have any comments on this subject ? Interested to hear from you.

International Visits As a teacher in a school with international status I was fortunate enough to go on an educational trip to America . The trip had a joint focus of ICT and SEN . The experience was both exhilarating and informative, providing insight into alternative policy and practice . While in Atlanta I met many interesting teachers whose hospitality I would like to have returned. The school at which I teach welcomes international visitors and I would always consider hosting visits from international members.Has anyone any views on this or had any experiences of short stay visits?

International Visits As a teacher in a school with international status I was fortunate enough to go on an educational trip to America . The trip had a joint focus of ICT and SEN . The experience was both exhilarating and informative, providing insight into alternative policy and practice . While in Atlanta I met many interesting teachers whose hospitality I would like to have returned. The school at which I teach welcomes international visitors and I would always consider hosting visits from international members.Has anyone any views on this or had any experiences of short stay visits?

There is great controversy about ADHD and I think that these students are some of the most challenging to deal with in the classroom. In fact attention deficit children were identified as early as 1902 and have been known by such names as Hyperkinetic Impulse Disorder and Minimal Brain Dysfunction. Boys are more likely to be identified as having ADHD and as a consequence girls with the disorder can be more at risk of long term academic, social and emotional difficulties. I find that these students respond to a positive and individual approach from teachers particularly during the beginning of a school year when ADHD students are coping with transition. Computer assisted learning is more able to hold their attention. Self monitoring, where students act as observers of their own behaviour usually results in students achieving better self control. Ignore minor negative behaviour but praise the student when your expectations are met. Maintain a close proximity to the student and spend a few minutes each lesson having a brief conversation with him. The work should be in bite-size chunks with careful monitoring to ensure that the ADHD student does not get left behind and feel discouraged. There are a range of strategies discussed in publications such as The ADD Hyperactivity Handbook for Schools(ISBN O-9621629-2-2) and The Attention Deficit Disorders Intervention Manual (pub-Hawthorne) I can understand a parental reluctance to give a their children Ritalin. However, without medication some ADHD students are unable to respond to behaviour modification and face long term exclusion from school. Anne Jakins

Community Support for Students with Learning Difficulties Where is the community support for students with special needs? In parts of America businesses show meaningful commitment to raise achievement in local schools in order to produce potential employees with an awareness of citizenship, positive self esteem and improved job skills. Does anyone have experience of the following? · Extensive after school programmes for disaffected students financed by local businesses · Collaboration between local employers and schools to provide valued job skills , particularly for those on reduced curriculum courses · Local business people involved in school projects not just providing financial support but giving up their own time to help students. Can the community help to improve the calibre of students coming on to the local job market? Anne Jakins

As a SENCO in a large comprehensive school I enjoy mentoring trainee teachers. I particularly value the informed and flexible approaches that the majority of trainee teachers show towards the SEN students in their classes. Making lessons accessible by creative differentiation seems to be part of a trainee teachers lesson planning. Trainee teachers also seem to ensure they are well informed about their students by reading the student profiles issued by SEN. Could it be that some of our more experienced colleagues should adopt the same approaches?

Pastoral Care in Atlanta Georgia During a visit to North Springs High School in the Fulton County area of Atlanta as part of an educational trip funded by the TCT I was impressed by the efficiency of the pastoral care. Students were assigned to trained counsellors who were responsible for monitoring progress, helping students with time management and planning, careers advice, reporting to parents and contacting outside agencies on matters linked to the students wellbeing. This system left teachers free to teach without the time consuming constraints of pastoral work. I have always thought that the roles of the form tutor and particularly that of Year Head are particularly demanding when in addition to a teaching timetable. I would be interested to hear more about systems of pastoral care in other countries.

Rise in Autism may be a Myth – main points taken from the article by Jonathon Carr-Brown for The Sunday Times 18th January 2004 · American epidemiologists Hershel Jick and James Kaye of the Boston University school of medicine say they have proved that the rise of childhood autism is explained by a change in the way doctors diagnose behavioural disorders. · Their research is based on 280 GP surgeries with 3 million patients · They say that the data shows the rise in autism cases corresponds with a decline in the diagnoses of other developmental disorders. · They do not rule out the link between the MMR and Autism but do not hold it responsible for the large rise. · Their theory is that the children have not changed but the diagnosis has. · From 1993 to 2000 the number of children diagnosed with autism rose 25% a year while the number diagnosed with behavioural disorders fell by 25% a year. · Outside causes were ruled out by the examination of all the drugs and illnesses of 126 children diagnosed with autism and compared them to 624 healthy children. · It found no significant difference except that half the autistic children had been previously diagnosed with a behavioural disorder. · Dr Paul Shattock director of the Autism Research Unit at Sunderland University and autism pressure groups have dismissed the survey and would like a new co-ordinated study.

Understanding Students with Autistic Spectrum Disorder Teachers will be increasingly aware of the growing numbers of students being diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder. This is due in part to greater medical awareness and an understanding of genetic predisposition. There also seems to be an increase in the condition possibly due to a greater chemical onslaught from the environment – toxins, viruses, bacteria, pesticides, allergies and additives. What is ASD? · Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects the way a person communicates and relates to people around them. · The exact cause or causes of autism are still not known but research shows that genetic factors are important. · Autism acts as a continuum. · People on the continuum do not necessarily present all or many of the features traditionally associated with the disorder in its classic form. There are many incorrect assumptions made about children with ASD but these particular characteristics/difficulties have been identified: · Predicting another’s behaviour · Reading the intentions and motives behind another’s behaviour · Explaining their own behaviour · Understanding their own and others’ emotions – leading to a lack of empathy · Understanding that behaviour affects how others think or feel · Anticipate what others might think of their actions · Inability to deceive or understand deception · Understanding social interaction · Understanding fact from fiction · Understanding sarcasm, idioms – taking language, exaggeration literally It is the final point that can cause ASD students the most confusion in school. Luke Jackson in his book Freaks Geaks and Asperger’s Syndrome ( ISBN 1 84310 098 3), himself someone with the condition gives the following advice to teachers: · Give clear and specific instructions about what you want the child to do. · Avoid using similes and particularly metaphors unless you explain them accurately. · Never presume that the child can pick up the rights and wrongs of certain behaviours. · All things need to be spelled out clearly to a student with ASD – in a way they are like foreigners in their inability to access spoken and written language. · Where appropriate ASD students may need to be taught social rules - personal space, giving and receiving compliments, when to be entirely honest versus giving a polite response. · It may need to be explained to an ASD student that others will be angry or sad if their property is taken and use concrete illustration to enable the student to identify with those feelings. Perhaps people with ASD should not be seen as disordered but as having a different way of thinking. I am interested in any examples to support the following- · Through their behaviour ASD students are often trying to solve a problem not create one · A crisis reaction is not an abnormal reaction. It is a normal response to abnormal circumstances. · Students can only be seen as having problems when they become a problem to others · The teaching environment should be altered to meet the needs of the ASD student rather than expecting the ASD student to adapt. For additional material see my recent presentation at: http://www.wsgfl.org.uk/schools/sackville_...resentation.ppt

I am head of a large Special Needs Department at Sackville Community College East Grinstead West Sussex. Iam interested in looking at ways of adapting these online matierials for less able students.

I am head of a large Special Needs Department at Sackville Community College in East Grinstead West Sussex. I am interested in looking at ways these online matierials can be adapted for less able students.