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Hi, my name is Jordan. I am a special education teacher from the UK. I share my passion for

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everything communication, sensory regulation and fun lesson ideas for my classroom of disabled

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pupils aged 4 to 11. Each week I am joined by experts in the field answering your questions

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and sharing our knowledge and experience working alongside our beautiful young people. Let's get started.

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Hi everybody. Now is the time to talk all things transition and classroom setup,

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timetables, curriculum, planning, resources, where children sit and how I organise it.

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Let's get on to talking about classroom setups. So as my children are a range of ages and a range of

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abilities, learning styles, sizes, disabilities, a huge range. Age 4 to 11, I've got children with

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PMOD, so profound multiple disabilities. Some use chairs, some have cognitive learning disabilities,

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some have autism, some have Down syndrome, and some have a mixture of a few different things.

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So when I'm thinking about my classroom, I need to make sure firstly that is everyone safe. That's

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my first thing. So more vulnerable children away from children that like to grab wires or jump on

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them. For example, I think that's the basic needs. If you get education and learning styles for a

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second, first thing has to be safety, doesn't it? And I've got the luxury of having a few

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different rooms as part of my classroom. So I can do that quite easily by rotating and separating

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them into those rooms. But if you don't have that, and I have had classrooms with

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classrooms with, you know, much smaller classrooms, just one room, I like to use dividers and furniture

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to separate the space, to make it much clearer where children should be at any one time and

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then rotate around that. It makes it safer in a way to avoid any unnecessary incidents, I suppose.

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I also just think it's more aesthetically pleasing as well, rather than pushing all the furniture

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around to the edges and having a big space in the middle. I kind of push it all in the inside and

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make little group areas. I do have a sensory corner with calming lights. So I actually have

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a sensory room. We're very lucky in my classroom. My classroom tour is actually on my grid on TikTok

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and Instagram. Right at the top is pinned. So if now or at the end of this, you want to check out

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my classroom, then head on over and it's pinned to the top of my grid. But yes, I do have a sensory

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room with lights on. But even when I did have just one single classroom, I always had a sensory

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corner or at least a sensory dark den. I mean, one of my classrooms was so small, I couldn't even,

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you know, get a corner out of my classroom. So I had a, well, at one point I had one of those

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like dark tents, you know, it's like a cube and that worked really, really well until a child came

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in that liked to lay on the cube and broke it. So then we used a more like a metal kind of framed

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thing and then put fleece blankets over and lights inside and kind of made up our own one

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that they couldn't then lay on and break. But yeah, a sensory corner is fantastic. Just make

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sure that it's not overstimulating. Sometimes sensory rooms, I walk into them and their lights

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are on, the music's on, there's textures out, there's a whole range of toys all on view all at

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once, which looks beautiful, most people. However, when if you're using that room to calm, having it

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actually quite under stimulating could be quite good. So having a white noise on and one light

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or having just two toys out to choose from rather than the whole arrangement is a really good

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practice. So yeah, don't think you have to have it all whizzy and amazing and expensive actually.

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Sometimes it's just a few soft cushions, a fleece blanket to snuggle in and some Bluetooth speaker

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playing could be can be perfectly fine. It depends on what your children find regulating. As well as

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a sensory corner, we also have a sensory diet area and this I find actually just as useful

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if you haven't already heard me talk about it. I use the three-step approach when regulating my

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children in a sensory way. So rather than just having a sensory calm down corner or just having

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movement breaks, I use a three-step approach. So the first step is getting your heart rate pumping.

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So that could be outside, that could be at playtime, that could be just jumping up and down,

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that could be doing dancing in front of the whiteboard. We have a sensory diet area with

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exercise balls and peanut balls and rocker chairs and what else got of exercising and mat, gym mats.

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So we can do jumping and running, get our heartbeat racing. Then number two is organizing. So we're

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organizing our bodies. It could be balancing, it could be fine motor activity, it could be sorting

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and organizing by color or in alphabetical order or doing puzzles. Something that's you're still

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moving, you're still active but it's not as heightening as step one. It's more calming

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because you're organizing, you've got to think a little bit harder about negotiating your body.

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That's the organizing step two. And then step three is grounding. Now that's where your sensory

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corner might come in, that's where weighted blankets might be useful. You might do some breathing

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techniques, you might do squeezes or a foot massage or head squeezes because it's really lovely.

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Lots of my children like head squeezes. Just laying in a dark room with lights on and that's your

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grounding. So yeah those three step approach is really useful. So for us having a sensory room

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for the grounding and a sensory diet area for the first two has been amazing because they're both

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out of the classroom so any child that isn't ready to learn and needs those things can do it and then

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they come back into the classroom to learn. I know that is a huge luxury, I have not had that before.

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I've been in this classroom and before we had to very much do our sensory diet stuff outside

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and then grounding in a quiet room or a cupboard or you know go for a walk maybe that might be quite

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grounding for them. I once had a child carry Argos books upstairs to another teacher as a job when

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he needed grounding. I've had children with rucksacks with water bottles inside for a bit of

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grounding. Whatever works for your children really and whatever they enjoy and are motivated by.

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Yeah that was a long answer to a very simple question and hopefully that was helpful. How did

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you become an SEN teacher? So I trained in 2009 so about 15 years ago and back then there wasn't

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teacher apprenticeships or SEN teacher degrees otherwise I would have gone that route. So I had

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to just get a standard degree which was not very standard at all actually it was an acting degree

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and then I spent one year transferring that into teacher training. While I was doing my degree

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because it was no it's full-time I didn't do full-time hours I was a supply teaching assistant

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at my local special education school and that's where I got all of my experience from. I worked

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there for a couple of years whilst I was doing my degree and then I did my teacher training year

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and then that same school offered me a teaching job once I'd finished my degree. So I worked there

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for 10 years so that's how I became an SEN teacher but I believe now there are SEN teacher degrees

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out there which is fab which is fantastic because I walked into the first day of my SEN

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teaching career and I hadn't got a clue. My teaching year spoke about phonics and spoke about how to

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teach maths and how to I don't know do all these things but nothing to do with the class that I

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had my first year so my TA's very much dragged me through my first year so I'm very pleased to see

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that there are now degrees that specialize in that subject so that you can yeah get a head start

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really where compared to compared to what I did. Will this be appropriate for mainstream teachers?

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Yes this chat is appropriate for mainstream teachers hopefully. I think autism practice is

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good and supports all children actually and mainstream teachers are SEN teachers now. I mean

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it's just the fact in the UK that I don't think there's one class in the UK that doesn't have

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SEN in it. I would be very surprised if that is the case. So all teachers are SEN teachers

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even if you don't feel like a specialist you are an SEN teacher even if you are teaching mainstream.

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I think this could be really handy and hopefully there are bits that you can either use for your

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whole class because autism practice is a good practice for all children or you can use it for

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specific children in your class and maybe you can maybe you're an LSA or a teacher assistant you can

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bring this forward to your class or a teacher and you can set it up for particular students in your

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class. We're setting up a new class. What would your first few days look like? Students are already

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in the school but are first time together as a class. Yeah I've got this in the DMs quite a lot.

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We've got four new students starting this year. Normally our students stay in our class for seven

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years but we've got four brand new ones this year. First of all we're doing a phase transition

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so not all children will be in on the same days as we start because we want them to get to know us

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and us to know them but we don't want their first few days to be anxiety provoking or stressful

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or stressful we want to avoid that as much as possible because we want their first few days to

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be building trust with us and having lots of fun because kids that are having fun learn better.

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So we want them to know the systems and yeah be having fun getting to know us trusting us

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us getting to know them and what motivates them and then we can go we can hit the ground running

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on week two once everybody's in full time. So that's the first thing have a look at

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starting time starting days do you want them to be doing full days do you want them to be doing

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part time just so that you can prepare resources and things like that. Before they come we will

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also have asked parents what they love what they are motivated by what their favorite things are

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and make sure that we have resources or visuals or stuff on the whiteboard that is loved by them

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and that will be motivating to them so they want to join the areas and and so that we have something

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to offer them that that is of interest and then it feel lost or unsure basically. So that's before

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they've even set through the door is a lot of work that's gone through just to get to day one and

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then the first few days we try to get into them into transitioning areas quite quickly depending

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on ability I suppose is fair to say so most of our class we're trying to transition into areas

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quite quickly however what they're doing in the area we know or think they'll probably enjoy so

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it's really motivating fun tasks that aren't very heavy on demand to them at all quite um maybe lower

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than their ability and really fun and motivating and meet their sensory needs but what we are

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teaching them is the systems how to match a symbol how to check their schedule how to leave an area

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how to go to an area where to sit how to negotiate working in a small group so if they were having to

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do that and actually learn at the academic level I just think that would be really unfair on their

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first few days they've already taken in so many much different information so don't try and worry

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about pushing them too hard or adding unnecessary demands or triggering them in any way just try

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and keep it really fun and motivating if they want to leave that's fine show them we use a countdown

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count them down and then they can go and and meet their needs and and whatever as well and then

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around that we do a load of intensive interaction and what morning routine do you do and how do you

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promote independence so when they first come in we don't have anything we have stuff on offer but

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we don't have to do anything so they can kind of choose how they want to transition into class and

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regulate themselves so some for some that will be going outside and using our physical equipment

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for some that's playing in the mud for some that's using a bike swings trampoline going on a walk that

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kind of thing what other children like to go to a quiet area and read or do puzzles or just be in

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the quiet space they can do that other children like to get straight on with their work so they've

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got some little work tasks table tasks to do all set up for them other children like to wander and

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pace and kind of ground themselves in the class and get used to you know shake home off and take

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the car off and and get into class others go straight into snack time so we have about half an

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hour to 45 minutes really of that children just regulating themselves transitioning into the class

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grounding themselves and they'll show you if you leave them you know they will show you how they

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want to regulate themselves and then it's your job just to facilitate that and make that as safe as

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possible and then we gather all together for a small group hello time so we're going to be

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so I play the ukulele play the hello song to each child and they tap a tambourine to say hello or

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they use their aac or a symbol to say hello and we do that pass the trampoline pass the tambourine

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around the classroom they'd love passing a trampoline around the classroom pass the tambourine

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around the classroom each say hello and sing the hello song and then we do go straight into our

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sensory diet exercises and then into lessons and it's a really lovely start that is very

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unstructured at first but then as they're grounded and transitioned and into the class mode it's then

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into the structure and routine that they they feel secure in and know very well and how it helps with

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independence well obviously first of all they're showing us what they want to do they have free

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access to that it's not scheduled and they can just choose what they want so that's you know them

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showing us what they would like and then they check their own schedule if they can they check

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their own schedule and match it to the whatever area we want to go to and settle down if they

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can't access schedules and match like some of yours might not be able to and some of mine can't

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then we show them the object of reference or a symbol of where they're going and we support them

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to get there how long do your intended lessons last for great question um we're currently doing

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activities weekly which to me feels very rushed and is heavy on resources and planning way too

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much printing and laminating yes this is why i created my curriculum so i only plan once every

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six weeks or for some lessons once every 12 weeks a whole term and we just repeat the same activities

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on that day every week for six weeks or 12 weeks so english and maths is changed every 12 weeks

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and science is changed every 12 weeks but something like psh e or re or p e um will won't change for

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the whole term we'll just repeat and just add on learning as at their pace because it's really hard

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to know if they're just going to get it straight away if they're going to be bored by it if they're

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going to be motivated by it and how soon to move them forward so we make it completely bespoke

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and we start off where we think they're at or just below where we think they're at and week by week

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we kind of add to it move on if they enjoy it we carry on if we adapt it you know broadening their

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skills because it's not all about learning something and then moving on to the next thing always and

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having it quite linear sometimes it's about breadth of knowledge for example say one of your targets

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or learning objectives is for them to build block of four bricks you know build a tower with four

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bricks so week one they could build a tower with four bricks well that's great but can you do it

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in a different area of the classroom can you do it with different bricks can you do it small bricks

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no spiky bricks big bricks outside you know outside can you there's a breadth of knowledge there it's

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not just about right they did that once or a few times for the week let's move on it's about the

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breadth of knowledge um so yeah that's what we would work on over those six weeks is trying to

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um really embed those skills how long do your intended lessons last for for some children 30

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seconds for other children on other days it could be up to 45 minutes traditionally we leave about an

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hour to 45 minutes to an hour for the lesson but within that they are going to a number of different

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areas and doing a number of different activities so for example english is an hour long but within

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that we go to the group area for a sensory story we go to the computer area for teaching macathon

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science and doing some songs we go to the workstation do some independent work we go to the

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teaching table to do some one-to-one intervention work we go to the group area to do some small

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group work and some turn taking and in between maybe all of those or some of those they will

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also have the opportunity to do their sensory diet stuff so that's why it takes an hour it's almost

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like six separate tiny little five minute lessons within that hour but it's all english and some of

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our children literally spend 20 seconds in an area do one thing done that's that section done

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because that in the moment they were in or for this child in particular that is what they need

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to do that is where they're at and that is perfectly fine then they go and regulate themselves and they

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go back to another area and then do another 20 seconds and then back again what's other

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children are quite happy to sit in the group area they love it it's how they learn best and they

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would be there for 20 minutes listening to a story and engaging and taking turns and then check their

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own schedule and then go and do something else so and we have all of that in in my classroom

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planning weekly is incredibly heavy on resources and planning and i don't feel like children

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benefit from the time you spend you doing those resources and planning i feel like if you're

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spending longer on making resources buying resources let's remember and planning than they are doing

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the activity you need to repeat that activity you need to create it over and over again until it is

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well worth your time and resources planning for it because i can spend two weeks in the summer

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holidays creating resources i can spend 101 pounds like i did the other day on resources because i

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know they're going to be used for the whole 12 weeks and it makes for such um way more fun

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curriculum way better resources and embeds learning way better so that's my little tidbit

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and if you'd like to see my curriculum it's 10 pounds we're setting up an se and classroom

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in september on a very limited budget what would you prioritize great question there are loads of

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things you can do for free first of all i've got loads of tires from a car garage they love giving

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them away because they have to pay to get rid of them and you can stack them you can push them

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over you can roll them they're really heavy they are a great resource and that's tires i would be

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i would want you to have an exercise board or a peanut ball you know one of those like

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block things that pregnant women have they are fantastic you can bounce on them roll over them

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roll b roll on top of them you know that can be a three-step approach just with an exercise ball

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and lots of children benefit from that i suppose the thing is is that you want lots of children

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to benefit from the things that you're buying a weighted blanket just a weighted blanket that is

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suitable for the size of all of your children um for safety reasons weighted blankets have to be 10

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percent of your body weight so try and get one that's 10 percent of the smallest person's body

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weight and then it would suit everybody vibrating massages are great but you can also get an

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electric toothbrush that's great you know just that kind of vibration is really important a

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really good laminator is really important for resources and priorities yeah i guess the

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priorities are sensory regulation i think over because unless your child children are regulated

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they're not going to learn anything so if you've got a limited budget then i would

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prioritize sensory regulation and communication i suppose which is why i've said exercise stuff and

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an laminator communication and sensory stuff any exciting lesson activity ideas for pml d my

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usuals involve attention autism sensory stories and tac pac that's my usual too i do do some

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massage stories i've created some kind of tac pac style massage stories myself using music from

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spotify trying to link them to our topic they're rather lovely um you can find those on my google

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drive the curiosity approach is really nice as well that's by the same people as attention autism

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and um there's lots of parts to it but one of the sections i love in it is you have lots of lovely

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pretty pots and lots of lovely interesting little bits inside and and they seem to really like that

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um and then generally like their usual physio is a lesson and their communication targets are a

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lesson um so just to in order to prioritize those and then obviously hygiene needs and and um

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and intensive interaction intensive interaction i would add to that because that's free no

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resource which requires just an adult so yeah add intensive interaction to that a bit of

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that a bit of curiosity approach and then and then their physio stuff i would say but it sounds like

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everything i would do any ideas for a small sem classroom in a mainstream school yes obviously

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the fact that it's in a mainstream school my school my classroom is in a mainstream school as

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well remember and so that doesn't really make too much of a difference it's just about the needs of

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your children um a small sem classroom i would try and break it up into sections as much as you can

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even if it's just two sections it makes such a difference to the anxiety of your children and

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um not taking in everything especially if they've got autism because for autistic children they take

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in everything all at once and they will see it all so if you're sectioning it off into really quite

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calm and plain like if it's uh separator boards or furniture and it's all quite plain and everything's

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closed off with either curtains or lidded or whatever opaque boxes then that will be much more

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calming and you'll find um they're regulated and more grounded than not than otherwise rather make

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it like a a free flow early years classroom when everything's out like that can be really anxiety

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provoking for lots of autistic children my nephew has said my son no longer needs the sensory room

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however he likes to make noise but to control the noise yeah okay he also does not like messy play

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play dough shaving foam or creative play um it's a shame that he can't no he can no longer use the

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sensory room i wonder if he could get just as much out from sitting outside if they've got a swing

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or for something often nature is its own sensory room you've got the dappled light in the trees

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you've got the wind you've got the birds it's actually an incredible sensory space so maybe

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you could suggest i mean nurseries usually have an indoor outdoor kind of situation so

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hopefully he's getting lots of outdoor time and that might also help his um his opposition to

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sound and dirt and certain noises because he might get used to those kind of things i don't like

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hearing that children can't use sensory rooms if they need it have you created your own alternative

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curriculum how do you manage to equate that with the national curriculum yeah so what i did

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is i took the national curriculum and i took the equals curriculum which is a curriculum created

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for sen and i looked at i wanted to make sure that we had full coverage of all the subjects

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all the learning all the learning objectives so i spread that over four years because my children

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are with me for seven years and made sure that every year we were covering all the basics in

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math all the basics in science all the basics in english every year and then across all four

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subjects we made sure we're covering everything in re and and other subjects like that psat and

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that kind of thing so yes it is based on the national curriculum there's also bits from the

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early years curriculum in there and equals curriculum it's suitable from developmental age

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zero to six no matter what age your children actually are if they're working between

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newborn and six years old then it will be suitable for them incredibly sensory it works very well for

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autistic children who that like to have a completion of an activity or a task

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and it works very well for children that like to have physical activities rather than on paper

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yeah you can either use it in the order that i suggest or there's an edit editable button on

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there so you can edit it however you like suitable for your children in your class my short term

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planning is slowly being added to it as well i will be adding more and more to it it's £10

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it is a huge document i should be selling it for a lot more but i don't want to because

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i want it to be accessible for everybody i was going to do it anyway i've done it anyway for

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my class so why be greedy basically is my mind i feel like £10 is really fair i feel like lots

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of people can buy that without having to beg permission from their school that's what i wanted

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to avoid you doing you know if a teaching assistant sees it i don't want them to have to beg their

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teacher or beg their head teacher for the budget for it because i just don't want these children

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to miss out so yeah £10 i figured you can probably just get it yourself and then use it and print from

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it and and use that to adapt your curriculum so yeah that's my sensory curriculum i'm incredibly

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proud of it it's a very thorough document and yeah i found it really useful personally

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hi jordan do you ever find it difficult to teach in a sensory way but only because it's what i've

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always done i've always taught sen and even as a teaching assistant i was only ever an sen

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teaching assistant so i don't struggle to teach in a sensory way however what i do do because i've

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also just started this year doing some phonics tutoring for mainstream key stage two naturally

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i find opportunities to build sensory stuff into that as well even though they're mainstream key

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stage two kids i could see some sensory needs in there i could see some boredom or they were sitting

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too long or they were struggling to concentrate or their eyes were getting tired and naturally

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we got up we started moving we started doing things a slightly different way i gave them fidgets

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or that kind of thing i think it's just good practice i think teaching in a sensory way is

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just simply good practice for all we all have sensory regulation needs we all like i'm crossing

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my legs right now i'm rocking i'm fidgeting i'm moving my hands i'm you know i'm sitting on the

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floor i'm sitting on the carpet um we are all meeting our needs all the time the difference with

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children sometimes in special education classes is they sometimes struggle on how they reading

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that what their body actually needs and meeting their needs in a safe way so that's that's why

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we would do that and or maybe they can't access writing tools and paper because of their physical

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needs or their cognitive ability so they're still learning the sensitive way sensory way but we're

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all very sense sensory beings so yeah it's a good practice to think about all learning and teaching

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in in a sensory way even when i'm teaching and training my team of adults i think all

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they've been sitting a long time or or we don't just want to be watching the whiteboard the whole

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time i'm going to get them up moving and doing something physical you know it's just good

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teaching practice i have so many questions what if they're finished have you guide you've guided them

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to use the areas so not all children need guiding to the areas they each have their own visual

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schedule um which could have objects of reference or symbols or photos on it sometimes they need

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guiding to go and check their schedule and then guiding to go and match but eventually once they

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get it the children i just say check your schedule and then they know to go and find a schedule

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take them top finger and go and match the area and then find their chair we practice it every

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lesson every time and also because the lessons are so motivating so linked to their needs so sensory

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they love it that they want to join the area i always say that if they're like oh my child

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doesn't want to go to the area they're avoiding the area i'm like it's because your lessons are

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boring just make it so fun add some light add some sounds add some color add some drama be entertaining

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make it like an attention autism session and then they'll want to join it um and even if you don't

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have any budget i just don't feel like that's an excuse i feel like just a bit of creative thinking

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you can make anything really fun and because you're only planning once every six weeks or

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once every 12 weeks you can afford to make it really really fun put loads of time and effort

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and resources and budget into these single lessons because you know you're going to repeat them

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and you're meeting your kids perfectly where they're at also if you're doing a three-step diet

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approach before and after every lesson then they're going to be regulated and they're going to be

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focused and ready to learn and so they are going to do that what if they're finished so if they've

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finished their lesson after 30 seconds then they go off and go and meet their needs even if you've

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got two or three children under you um like like you're the adult and you've got two children say

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and one of them's finished and one of them hasn't great the other one could just go and meet their

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needs you know go and use a bike going on the swing go and stim in the corner like however it

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meets their needs there's still adults around supervising them it's perfectly fine then you

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can focus one to one on this child usually in that situation we try and time it so that one

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of them's doing the independent work while one of them's doing the intervention with a teacher and

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then we switch so at least there's not too much waiting around but yeah the kids get used to it

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they're really adaptable and as long as they're being safe and they're supervised there's no

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reason why they can't be meeting their needs it's about um embedding independence into our

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classroom we don't like belcoring adults to children all times that's not realistic that's

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not real life um i trust my children to make good choices and safe choices and we're there just in

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case they don't i suppose how do you plan the student support in the classroom with your

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assistant do you base the support ratio on the student's behavior or or skills it's more about

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pairing students together that tolerate each other and work well together if i'm honest

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um and the kind of similar size similar learning style so i list my adults and i'm in rotation as

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well so i list me and my adults and then i think and then i think about what children i can pair

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together what children can't be paired with anyone because of their needs their medical needs

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for example and so they're the one-to-one children and then what children can i pair together that

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will be safe if the adult isn't watching them all of the time you know what what children need

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can cope with some not supervision at some points in the day or what children do i trust to make

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safer choices if they are in a small group rather than be one-to-one and then after that i pay yeah

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learning style so what children need lots of sensory diet breaks they can do that together

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or what children are using an aac and learning at a similar kind of level on that let's put those

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two together because then they're they're doing a similar thing what children have similar ieps to

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each other great that makes the ta job much easier because they can work on the same skill with both

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children but we're all in the room all together they don't have to be stuck to that adult we can

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have a couple of adults outside and then one inside and and they're all watched they're all

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safe it's all fine and we're all still focused and and learning and don't think just because it's not

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a typical lesson that a child isn't learning sometimes my best learning moments happen in

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free time when the children are choosing what they want to do what can i do as do home as a parent

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for homework i don't send homework home but what i do hope that they um are just preparing their

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children for the school day i suppose i think the parents it works very different and i don't

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ever put any pressure on parents to use our communication methods use our behavior strategies

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use our schedules timetables whatever because homework is really differently and it should be

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respite from the stresses of the outside world it's okay that the children are decompressing from

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school just like we do from work home life looks very different from my work life if it looked the

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same then i would feel completely burnt out and exhausted um so i would hope that home is a safe

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environment that their needs are met they feel heard and understood and loved and cared for

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and if that looks like meeting their basic needs um then that's great as a parent your job um is

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to do that there's also things that you can teach them that we don't have the opportunity to

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for example uh maybe cleaning their teeth going to the hairdressers um knowing if it's a weekend day

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or a week or a weekday preparing for holidays um social gatherings going to the park going swimming

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going out in public in on public days you know weekend busy days and maybe cooking

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being safe in the bath yeah all of those things we can't teach our children our students so that's

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down to you guys and i would i think that is the homework that i would want to see is is them

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learning those home skills seeing what a family dynamic looks like sharing with their siblings

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tolerating sharing a parent with their siblings you know all of those things i think are amazing

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learning experiences that a child is getting at home i wouldn't then expect anything from school

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to be on at home yeah that's just that's my little opinion i'll stop my ted talk cut on homework now

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we're starting nurture group september in mainstream how would you introduce these

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um i'm not part of a nurture group actually i wonder if this is i guess they're part of a

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mainstream school and then when they are then they need it they go to the nurture group maybe

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so it's like inclusion um like self-contained kind of thing or is it for social skills then

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i would do something like lego therapy or parachute games where it's really like or

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attention autism where it's really supportive um supporting the group work well together but

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in a really structured way or is it nurture group where they kind of can decompress and

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regulate themselves and calming and it's probably more more like a sensory room so i'd have a think

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about what your focus is for this nurture group and and think about activities around that that

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would support you to reach that goal hi jordan where do you get your toys from typically i go

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through amazon and or just it's so easy isn't it i hate that i do but i just do it's here in a

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couple of days i don't have the patience to wait i also love facebook marketplace if i see something

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on instagram or tiktok or amazon that i love before buying it on amazon i always look on vintage

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or i look on facebook marketplace to see if i can get it cheaper because they are so much better

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deals and we know it's never it's not going to last ages with the kids like as often so i get

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less upset about it when it typically gets broken if i bought it from facebook marketplace or vintage

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so that's really good and then boot sales boot sales are amazing the prices that people sell

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amazing toys and books and for is crazy to me so yeah i love a boot sale but yeah if not amazon

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and my amazon storefront has everything that i have ever bought and ever want to buy on it there's

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hundreds of resources on there for classrooms and uh parents as well how many times during the week

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do you do a sensory story we have english twice a week at the moment so we do it as part of our

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english lesson twice a week and then we also do a different sensory story for drama so they do

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yeah sensory stories three times a week in total but i don't think it would hurt if you did it

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every day i used to do phonics as a sensory story every day we used to do jolly phonics in my last

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school and i had a sensory story for each sound and i did the same story for that sound every

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day of the week and i changed the different sound i'm just creating a core word curriculum at the

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moment so we're doing learning a different core word every week for the whole for every week of

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the school year and their sensory stories linked to the core words that have the core word coming up

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again and again throughout the story and i would want to read that every day and so it just depends

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on what you want to do really but i think sensory stories are really fab and really great and it's

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a really accessible and structured way of offering your children sensory and structure and being in

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a group area and folks you want to lead adult in a very safe and accessible and easily resourced way

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because once you've created your sensory story you can just keep it in the bag and hang it up

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and it's always ready then and often it's just made of stuff that's what you've already got in

390
00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:53,200
your classroom okay there's lots of teachers asking about um uh teaching in a pmld setting

391
00:37:54,480 --> 00:38:00,240
so i'll talk more on that i don't talk enough about that lots of you are starting new roles in

392
00:38:00,240 --> 00:38:08,800
in pmld and i'm very proud of what we do in our in our room um yeah but typically at first off

393
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:14,880
it looks like basic care needs maybe feeding maybe peg feeding toileting making sure they're in and

394
00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:20,400
out of the chairs and it's physio it's the most next best most important thing so like sometimes

395
00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:26,400
the school day just looks like meeting basic care needs and physio and then that's perfectly fine

396
00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:32,080
and then obviously added into that we also do tac pac intensive interaction sensory massage

397
00:38:32,080 --> 00:38:38,720
stories sensory stories sometimes some mark making or some like sensory room like kind of play

398
00:38:38,720 --> 00:38:45,200
there's a songs called tuned into learning that's really lovely and we've got a cd of it so it's

399
00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:49,760
probably really old but tuned into learning i think it's on youtube as well but search

400
00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:56,320
tuned into learning that's really lovely we're just about to start uh tassels which is um signing

401
00:38:56,320 --> 00:39:02,960
so it's tactile signing which is great for pmld uh learners uh yeah there's loads of beautiful

402
00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:09,440
things there's one of my ex colleagues is on instagram called and she's sensory shakeup and

403
00:39:09,440 --> 00:39:13,680
she's got loads of ideas on her so some beautiful pmld stuff and i've seen some other people in the

404
00:39:13,680 --> 00:39:18,720
comments talking about offering their plans as well so that's awesome thank you so much for

405
00:39:18,720 --> 00:39:22,880
helping each other we've got such a lovely community i'm so proud so proud of our very

406
00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:27,520
generous community with your workstations do you repeat activities or have the same three all week

407
00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:30,640
i don't have the same three all week because i want it to be really motivating and interesting

408
00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:35,520
to the children so i typically choose for those that don't know workstations is their independent

409
00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:42,400
tasks so they go to a separate table and they have three or four or five a task that i know

410
00:39:42,400 --> 00:39:50,240
they can do independently so typically they are i pitch them below what they're working out on their

411
00:39:50,240 --> 00:39:54,000
teaching tables on the intervention tables because i don't want them to be learning

412
00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:58,320
new skills here the skill they are learning is being independent and completing a task

413
00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:03,440
independently so just make sure for the workstations that they are tasks that you know they can do

414
00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:08,560
independently like absolutely to build confidence self-esteem those kind of things i do change these

415
00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:15,040
workstation tasks every day they repeat them throughout the day so they might do it they

416
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:19,760
might do them two or three times in the day but then then we switch them up because otherwise

417
00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:23,600
they're just going to be they're not going to be um they're just going to become mind numbing and

418
00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:28,400
it's been like you know work in a factory or prison like we don't want to replicate prison in schools

419
00:40:28,400 --> 00:40:32,880
we want to be very far away from that so actually we want them to be motivating want them to be

420
00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:38,320
um fun for them if you're children are particularly into color sorting or organizing or puzzles then

421
00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:42,240
make it that and then they're really motivated to do those independent tasks and they feel really

422
00:40:42,240 --> 00:40:47,520
great about they've done it by themselves with no adult help it's um it should be really rewarding

423
00:40:47,520 --> 00:40:53,680
and fulfilling for the children um and yeah i change it up every day my child is starting in a

424
00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:59,360
SEND school this year my son's current school has been in a battle and i'd love to know how you

425
00:40:59,360 --> 00:41:04,560
communicate with home and what it's like to know from parents and caregivers yeah it's really

426
00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:08,160
communication is really really important for a SEND class it's really important for any

427
00:41:08,160 --> 00:41:12,640
class it's really important for a non-speaking SEND class because the child can't talk about

428
00:41:12,640 --> 00:41:15,920
their day not that lots of children do talk about their day but they absolutely can't they don't

429
00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:20,560
even have the option to if they wanted to so it's really really important and also lots of our

430
00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:25,760
children go to and from school in a taxi so we don't even see the parents at the gate it's really

431
00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:30,800
important to um to have a good communication with parents this could look like emails or phone calls

432
00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:36,400
from myself uh to and from but typically it looks like a home school book we have a handwritten book

433
00:41:36,400 --> 00:41:41,840
that is sent to and from home and school every single day and it says the basic things in there

434
00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:48,480
like how much snack they eat um when they've been to the toilet how general mood and any

435
00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:53,200
triggers anything they found difficult anything they found um they really enjoyed that day and

436
00:41:53,200 --> 00:41:58,720
anything like super amazing that we want to share with them and then like we need more wipes we need

437
00:41:58,720 --> 00:42:05,040
more pads we need more whatever can you bring sun cream in whatever so that's a really useful

438
00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:10,640
thing and then they say you know they didn't sleep well last night or i think they're getting a cold

439
00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:18,240
or can you check this for me you know it's really important to have that like daily record really

440
00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:24,800
and then yeah anything else that we want to do it's phone calls and and emails or or they can

441
00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:31,760
come in does your sensory curriculum cover relationship education not exclusively it doesn't

442
00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:40,080
have that as a separate topic however under pshe it's covered and under um we have certain topics

443
00:42:40,080 --> 00:42:45,440
like the first one in year eight is all about me the topic and we also have another one called

444
00:42:45,440 --> 00:42:52,240
communities and cultures so rshe will be covered within that oh at some point within the four years

445
00:42:52,240 --> 00:43:00,000
but yeah pshe covers it um but just not discreetly uh i would say do you visit schools for cpd

446
00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:06,640
training sessions i would love for you to come to my school i do offer it um if you search training

447
00:43:08,160 --> 00:43:14,320
then on my website then it will come up and you can read more about it and most of it's virtual

448
00:43:14,320 --> 00:43:19,120
because i'm in cornwall and i don't live very near anybody off sometimes in the holidays i

449
00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:26,960
travel around and can visit he was working to teaching two days a week this year next year i'm

450
00:43:26,960 --> 00:43:32,000
teaching four days a week because i have a key stage one key stage two and key stage three classes

451
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:41,120
to teach um next year so i will be even less able to train people face to face but if you would like

452
00:43:41,120 --> 00:43:48,640
virtual training then search training on my website if you would like to use my training

453
00:43:48,640 --> 00:43:54,480
powerpoints to educate yourself and share with your team they are available on my website i've

454
00:43:54,480 --> 00:44:00,400
got one for five pounds on intensive interaction which i'm very proud of and i've also got one all

455
00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:05,360
about sensory regulation and creating a sensory profile for all the children in your class or

456
00:44:05,360 --> 00:44:12,560
children in your care at home or yourself uh let's face it we uh it's good to have a profile around

457
00:44:12,560 --> 00:44:17,680
your own since we need sometimes as well and that is 10 pounds on my website so you can do your own

458
00:44:17,680 --> 00:44:23,360
training and um train your team using those powerpoints as well i'm fine with you doing that

459
00:44:23,360 --> 00:44:29,200
that's absolutely great or you can search uh training on my website and it'll come up and

460
00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:34,960
you can see everything i can share with you guys i hope you this has made you feel a little bit more

461
00:44:34,960 --> 00:44:40,160
prepared and what you need to do over if you get anything from this live i think it's don't feel

462
00:44:40,160 --> 00:44:47,440
like you need to do all the resources all the planning every week repeating is absolutely fine

463
00:44:47,440 --> 00:45:00,320
if that's your takeaway from this live then that's great i'll see you next week bye