Hi, my name is Jordan. I am a special education teacher from the UK. I share my passion for
everything communication, sensory regulation and fun lesson ideas for my classroom of disabled
pupils aged 4 to 11. Each week I am joined by experts in the field answering your questions
and sharing our knowledge and experience working alongside our beautiful young people. Let's get started.
Welcome back to another line. We're going to be joined by Anna today who is an early years and
SEND specialist and has designed her own curriculum to meet the absolute growing need and I'm sure you
guys are aware of this as well. The absolute growing need of SEND in mainstream especially
in early years because they often haven't got their EHCP yet, so haven't got you know gone to
a special school or specialist classroom like mine. So yeah mainstream are having to manage that and
she's created her own curriculum and way of working with that and I'm really excited to speak to her.
The most exciting thing I think is that she was actually nominated to be part of this podcast
by one of her colleagues and I just think that is the most wonderful thing. So the fact that her
colleagues think so highly of her that they were saying they were saying to me she's amazing,
she does such great work, she has to be on your podcast, she's got so much to share. I just thought
oh yeah of course what a compliment to have your colleague say that about you so I'm really excited
to meet Anna. Yeah let's get her on. Hello. How are you? Not too bad thank you. Yeah so I was just
saying that you were nominated by one of your colleagues to do this. Yes I certainly was. This
was the biggest compliment ever can I just say. Well I have an amazing team around me so they
could all be here as well talking it through. And how what does your team look like? How many
you know adults are in there and it's mainstream right? Yeah mainstream so we're a single form
entry school. I'm the full-time class teacher but I'm also the early years lead so I oversee our
nursery as well which takes from two so there's two rooms for me to oversee but I lead in one
because I have an awesome nursery team who just need me to check in and support once in a while.
So my classroom is myself and then I've got one full-time TA but that full-time TA might
be different on different days. We might occasionally get a third adult every now and then but very
rarely. Okay and then and how many children are in your class? So we have a pan of 30. I'm normally
sort of in the mid mid-20s. This year we are at 18 and as everyone's probably very aware the birth
rate is just dropping and dropping. So 18 is actually a really healthy number for our area.
Of those I've got five children that either have or need to have an EHCP and further diagnosis and
investigation. Okay so you're having you're managing your class you're supporting these five
children not only through teaching in your class but also with the paperwork there's a hell of a
lot of work that goes into getting that provision and getting that support isn't there? There is.
What does that look like because this is something that I don't know about. I get lots of questions
about the EHCP process. It's something that I've never been involved with. I do lots of work with
EHCPs but I'm never the one that starts the process because they've already got them by the
time they come to me which is a huge luxury. Yes. So could you just explain to me from entry what
information you're told or not told on you know maybe it's different for every child but yeah a
bit of that and then also how do you start gathering information what does that look like
what's the process of that? So like say it's different depending on the level of need of the
child or the nursery that they've come from. So sometimes children come to us with absolutely
zero done in terms of any sort of evidence gathering any sort of what would have been known as
like an IEP a few years ago so any sort of provision map that's like targeting a small
step over a period of time and then being reviewed. So if they come with none of those so if I think
back to two years ago I had three non-verbal children join me in the space of three weeks one
after the other and none of them had anything done so they had already been in a reception setting
elsewhere and then joined a part way through the academic year but had zero paperwork in place.
So it means starting from scratch so you need to start with by building a provision map so that you
can start building evidence that you are trying to target really small steps that are behind their
peers and that the high quality then the intervention that you're putting in is either showing very very
small progress or not showing a lot of progress at all. You need to get other agencies involved as
well which in this day and age is getting harder and harder so most recent speech and language
referral that was done by my nursery team only came through a couple of weeks ago so that was
about 11 months waiting for just the triage phone call so it's really important to get the other
agencies in and those referrals done as quickly as possible because you need all of the agencies
involved to actually contribute towards the part one of the EHCP. Yeah and that's even if they're
NHS if they're private then it's a whole different organising you've got to try and convince the school
to pay you know or sometimes parents are paying privately for these things just to get the
reports it's an absolute mess isn't it and ultimately what that means is it's taken 11
months that means well they've definitely gone through nursery without the financial support
and the you know the legal requirements support but often they end up in year one by the time
they get access to the school. It's not uncommon these days for a child so if I have a child join
me in reception class in September with zero evidence gathered for whatever reason it isn't
uncommon for them to be either just leaving year one or just entering year two before an EHCP
has been agreed by the county and funding provided however funding these days isn't
isn't a huge amount so of my five in my current class one child has his EHCP mainly based on a
medical need over any other need his EHCP if it's broken down in terms of how much we get funding
wise it covers about an hour and 20 a day and needs full time or needs needs a lot needs full
time. Yeah yeah so even with it there are still huge battles and barriers aren't there to learning
yeah okay definitely yeah and and you've got quite a high need I can imagine coming in as well if
if if they're non-verbal non you know non-speaking medical needs yeah um without giving we don't
want to give any personal information here but what kind of needs are you seeing in a more of generic
terms would it be similar to in line for example? I believe so it's getting more and more as though
it's like a a specialist classroom or unit based within um a mainstream school so you've got your
communication and language which we've seen over the last few years has been dipping fairly
significantly for the neurotypical children as well as our neurodiverse and that's something to
consider when you're the reception teacher is I might have some children that have got zero
speech currently and we are trying to find a way to support their development of language through
visuals or through sign language whatever sort of we feel is most beneficial to them but you also
have children that are neurotypical and are they are not meeting their age related expectations
because there's a speech and language delay for them as well so they need your one-to-one attention
just as much as your high need children so that's really complex to do as a teacher when there's
two bodies in the room and everyone needs you that's really hard to plan for and consider
because otherwise your neurotypicals begin to fall behind because you're having to put so much energy
into your diverse children who have significant need that you're gathering all this evidence for
to be able to get them the paperwork that they need to be able to get the funding that they deserve
and eventually maybe in time a place in in a special setting where they might flourish
yeah so so that's speech and language and there are probably there are lots of reasons I'm sure
why speech language is is low across the board and we're seeing similar in my mainstream school
as well I think it's across the board it's just quite poor isn't it I think um yeah it comes down
to parents ultimately not knowing how to support that language development at those early stages
doesn't it let's let's not let's not let's call it what it is and similar for fine motor skills
I'm sure you're finding as well holding pens pencils mark making are you finding similar in
that kind of area as well yeah yeah um we find that our physical isn't quite as low as our language
but it is definitely something that has dipped over time and it's very apparent which children
attend nursery settings more regularly than others because they get the high quality language they
get the bedtime stories they get the nursery rhymes all those things that are needed to help
grow that vocabulary and and model that speech which I think sometimes parents are in such a
busy stressful world these days are forgetting that actually a five-minute bedtime story has so
much potential to do so much good to your child's development that actually and singing a nursery
rhyme in the car rather than having the radio on or having the child in their tablet on will
give so much language development but it's really hard to get that across to people who are working
busy lives and maybe forget that actually they only need five minutes to do something that could
be really really positive yeah and there's also on that as well that's that's an environmental
experience isn't it but there's also lots of unnoticed or unfound you know physical reasons
why they might have a speech today as well isn't there and there's also talk and all sorts things
like that so and or they have got neurodiversity and that's just showing there yeah there's so
many different reasons but in this early years stage you've got such a huge diverse range
haven't you because you haven't been able to sort these children out into their appropriate
provisions yet with the appropriate support so if you know then right these kids have come in
we know that even if we start the paperwork even if we do an amazing job now we know we've got them
for early years like that's just almost guaranteed we've got them for early years what's the next
step we've got these kids we've only got i've only got one support in my room there's me there's one
support we've got 25 kids 18 kids what what how does what does that look like because there's a
huge diverse need yeah i mean communication language is only one of the needs we have
some different levels of um asd some have already been diagnosed which would then indicate at such
young age it was picked up at a very very young age and therefore has already been diagnosed
through the right pathways the diagnosis doesn't change anything it doesn't give them any funding
it doesn't give them a strategy moving forward so some of them have a diagnosis some of them need
a diagnosis which is again a different form of paperwork to then be starting for that family
and that child alongside trying to get their ehdp we also are seeing an increase in pda and odd
joining in that school now which has been very complex because it's a challenge in mainstream
that you have one classroom you are set in one room for me as early years i have a little outside
area that's attached to my room that we can then do inside and outside provision at the same time
but again with only two adults that means one adult outside one adult inside so it is challenging in
terms of our environments our settings traditionally old set up primary schools with the hall probably
in the middle of the school and then you've probably got the infant on one side a junior
and the other with classrooms both sides they're not designed for children that need regular
breakout spaces and they're not designed for children that need a quiet space over there but
i also could do with a dark space over there because i actually get stimulated by the lights
so i need a sensory area over here there's a lot of our teachers and teaching assistants these days
that know what needs to happen but we not only are sort of stuck with our funding we are stuck with
our space so it's about being really clever with what space you do have accepting that you might get
written on some reports from outside professionals that this child needs a blackout tent this child
needs a swing this child needs a chair that spins you're not going to be able to offer all of these
things you need to find the thing that will benefit that child the most and see what you can do in
terms of offering it a blackout space can be a table against the wall with a piece of fabric over
it it doesn't have to be anything costly to start with if you can work out that okay actually a
blackout tent really does work for this child then you can look at where you can get the funding
streams for it or you can take that to your senior leadership team and say actually i've tried this
it's reduced the amount of emotional dysregulation we've had this child clearly does need something
and then because you're able to prove that actually we haven't had any issues the child's been able to
access learning which means the rest of the peers in the classroom can access their learning then
you can target the provision that you actually need but back to your question about sort of what
what do you do apart from sitting there and panicking for quite a while and thinking oh my
goodness how am i going to do this that's where sort of my supporting program of blossom sort of
came in we've had increased sort of need over the last six years in my school but about three years
ago we had rapid increase and we were getting three or four high need children that would be
off curriculum or couldn't access the current curriculum entering at a time and in mainstream
that was not normal you would have maybe one high need and it wouldn't necessarily be every cohort
either and i found it really challenging to not know where to turn as a teacher you get two hours
of planning time a week if you're lucky and you haven't got enough time in those two hours to plan
for the rest of your curriculum and the whole neurotypical children and the adaptations that
you need in all of that that i found that i was losing at least one day of the weekend every
weekend to then plan for my neurodiverse children who were off curriculum not accessing the
curriculum not accessing the curriculum i personally find it really interesting and it's a lot of it's
an area that i research a lot about sort of how to support children with need and families with need
and what can we do because it's not going away even if i was able to get them all ehtps tomorrow
there's not enough room in settings like yours for children to go so they are going to stay in
mainstream so it was a what can we do about it and then speaking to colleagues that either work with
or speaking to other professionals online in forums like this it was becoming really apparent
that people were close to leaving the profession because they felt completely lost with what am i
supposed to do i haven't got the training to do this we might do a cpd on autism which is an
hour's long video that you have to watch in a staff meeting after a really busy day and you
actually haven't taken all of it in or you've not actually seen it in practice for me it was about
how can we help teachers with their workload how can we think that actually our profession has such
a high dropout rate and it's not because we we don't love our jobs we we love what we do
but you can't lose your weekends every weekend because you're fighting a battle of how am i doing
my planning for these children that don't fit in the mainstream curriculum and that's what blossom
is. Blossom is for staff to have a look at to be able to then say okay developmentally it's not a
curriculum it's not it's not going to give you your planning for next week but what it will do
is give you developmental steps for each area of the early years curriculum so for example at
nine to twelve months what sort of things would we expect a child to do in terms of communication
in terms of communication and language do they know their own name so do we know that do they
stop and look they don't have to look at you but they stop and look around when their name is
verbalized from somewhere else in the classroom if that's what a child needs to be doing if the
child is not doing that every time you say their name then there's a target there that you could
look at in terms of planning for them to move forward. That's great it gives you a focus
doesn't it rather than thinking well they can't do this they can't do this they can't do this
so okay well what can they do let's look at that age range of see what else a child a developmental
lead know at that developmental stage what they would be also learning and let's see our children
can also focus on those things it gives it so much focus doesn't it and and and it helps you to see
what they are achieving rather than just what they're not. Yeah that was a huge thing was being
able to take the the blossom sheets so it's a color-coded sheet that myself and my team can
track against so every half term like I do with everybody else although we're you know assessing
as you go all the time when it comes to your half term data drops like I do with the rest of the
class I can go through their blossom sheets and I can see actually maybe the child is still within
nine to twelve months in their communication however they were entering at the beginning of
this and now I'd say they're developing so we can start looking at securing some of the the steps
that they haven't got and then moving on it just gives something to look at that isn't isn't out
of their reach and it helps the parents when I show them that look at where your child's moved
it might not look very clear that they've moved but look at what they've managed to do in the
last six weeks by actually targeting a step that's inclusive to them because it's not important for
me that if a child can't communicate their basic needs or doesn't respond to their name they don't
need to come and listen to me talking about the arctic explorers and emperor penguins of course
they can join in with the provision in their own play and learn time but they don't need to know
that and I don't need to assess whether they've taken anything on board this is actually what
do they need so to be inclusive in the classroom for them what do they need absolutely someone's
said it's a bit perfectly it's all about the small steps leading to the big steps I can imagine it
also helps parents as well because yes you get sometimes get parents you know wanting to know
what's next and all of that kind of thing but you also get some parents as well that are completely
disillusioned about how disabled their children are and especially if they're only a child or
they're the oldest it's really hard because you have no one else to compare against they might
know they're struggling a little bit in reading but they wouldn't they don't know what that means
what that looks like or what to work on the other way they might perfectly know where their child's
at but again not know what to look for how to support them because it doesn't look like how
their other siblings did things you know they did phonics they did this what does it look like for
my child I want to get this right so on that sheet if they're part of it which I'm sure you do that
holistic kind of team around the child approach like early years is so good at they can then also
look for those things and and feel good about where they're at and feel fully understanding
and also when you're doing the reports for the HCP it perfectly says the aid there the developmental
stage it shows yes what they're achieving but also what they can't achieve yet and that would
definitely support the report writing process massively I can only assume yeah and that's
that's something I thought about carefully when creating it there's that the my county will only
accept the developmental journal that the county have produced so blossom again thinking about
workload I don't want it to be challenging for this information to have to fit onto the
developmental journals this transfers very easily into the developmental journal so that it can just
be a quick tick box exercise because our developmental journal for the county probably needs looking at
it's rather outdated and still uses the age brackets of the 2014 early years curriculum so
it is outdated however that's the only one they they accept they wouldn't accept blossom as a
document on its own as a supporting evidence but it helps me to write it so that's where the benefit
comes in I can use that to track them daily to create their learning tasks it goes inside their
learning journeys so from blossom I will pull out the statements that I want us to focus on so
whether it's you know turning their head when their name is vocalised or indicating that they've
heard their name I then come up with at least five steps of progression for how this might look in
terms of an activity in the classroom to make it harder and harder as it goes through that gets
stuck into their learning journeys with the blossom targets for the half term so that the
staff because I don't have the same staff every day although my main staff member is with me a
lot of the time we have a lot of complex need and people are needed in different rooms for different
reasons you can pick up the learning journey and see exactly what step they're working on and at
what level and I have something called a learning library set up which is a group of trays each
child is colour coded in my room for their independence so they go to their schedule so
if they're the red child they go to the red schedule they take off their red visual for
their tray they go and put it on their first train all their learning is inside that tray
so they don't have to then have that anxiety of oh no she's going to ask me to do maths in a minute
I really don't want to do maths but the the way I've used the schedules is to have a location
it might say red child number task number one it might have a picture of outside so we know when
you go and get your tray we're going to need to go outside to do this activity so it could still
be a reading activity but I've taken them to a location that's going to help calm them because
it might be a challenging activity for them so maybe they might become dysregulated so by removing
them to an environment where they feel calmer and a space where they can be loud and expressionate
if they need to be everyone else in the room can also continue with their learning because I have
to think about all the other learners in the room this isn't just about the high need in my room yes
supporting the high need is vital because if they can't get on no one can get on but I need to also
prioritize everyone else and remember that everyone in that room is my responsibility to get 100% of
my time and my attention so the blossom target sheets paired with the learning libraries makes
that smoother and much easier to manage this is all such music time is hearing that you're using
visuals and that it's about location that gives so much more independence and predictability to
these children doesn't it I'm just wondering though because I taught schedules in a similar
way in my room and it's so adult heavy to teach it initially they've become very independent with
it once they know it but before they know how to take it off and how to match it or whatever you're
doing with totally two adults in your room how are you teaching how to use it it's a bad question
and then they think no it was too chaotic they didn't understand it and give up on it so it's
really important I think that teachers hear you know what is the reality and how to make it work
it has been a labor of love over the last few years one of my biggest bug bears with visuals is
I love them I adore them I love my now and next board but it is so time consuming to have a visual
for absolutely everything and actually they don't need a visual for absolutely everything
so to to take it down to I just have again back to the barrier we have of space and staffing
I've got work table carpet library sensory tent outside woodland area that one's more likely to
be used if we're going out as a class anyway to do some woodlands and the hall so if it needs to
be something like with our gymnastics equipment then it will be in the hall or if they're coming
with us the PE it will be the hall symbol so I've taken it down to seven symbols of locations
so that it is easy the color coding was massively important everything that they have is color
coded in fact I've probably got one at my side yet so even their folders with their blossom targets
in are color coded so that staff can see which folder they need to grab just quickly and the
children learn very quickly that although the schedule has a picture of their face on it
they very quickly learn oh I'm orange so anything that's orange is mine their book is orange
everything that there's is there is orange it can be heavy to set up originally but it is so so vital
I also reduce the visuals that we have the rest of the time so if it's time to schedule then
on my I haven't actually got my visuals with me because we're not back at school yet that's
tomorrow but on my now and next board it would have this this schedule sign here and then it
would show just choosing so we do have a choosing board up on the wall however the children are at
a place right now where they're quite happy to go and choose from what is around in the environment
they know the room enough now that they just go and help themselves which is great isn't it
it is amazing that's the defendant isn't it yeah it's great I mean it took some doing obviously
to start with and some need a bit more guidance which is when you can then grab the choosing board
and just guide them back down to especially if you know the marble run is not out today and they're
desperate to have it out then we can take them back to the choosing board and show them what is
available but by by just narrowing it down to those key visuals of schedule choosing that's most of
your learning for the day done you'll have wash hands you'll have toilet you'll have snap those
sorts of visuals but around the room we've also got individual core boards or around my neck most
of the time because we have smaller ones as well what I found was our speech and language team are
amazing and trying really hard to help with reducing workload for us especially when there's
such a delay with seeing a practitioner but they're giving such um generic core boards and saying
try using a core board to help them with speaking it wasn't working because these symbols and signs
and words didn't match what vocabulary they already had in their minds yeah right if a child's really
into dinosaurs balls and and crisps and they weren't on there well it's not going to motivate
them to to use it is it yeah and like eating is one of the sort of things for a few of mine that
they're going to have the same food in their lunch box every day so we just started with
the food that's in their lunch box so it's now tailored to them they then learn to use the core
board independently to ask for things to be opened at lunchtime or to ask what they would like to eat
next so now i can move it on to other symbols across the classroom food is highly motivating
isn't it it's a great place to start and then they'll learn oh when i touch that it actually
makes things happen and then when they see in another area it won't be as shocking because
they'll have already practiced it over and over again and snack is such a particular environment
like you say they probably have the same things every time they eat in the same order at the same
time it's safe to practice those new skills isn't it to then take it out into the wider world of
other places in the classroom i love that you said about you know it's it's a lot to teach children
to use the schedules yes it is but i also try and lead the room as though every child in that room
is on the spectrum now i know that we don't say that about ourselves you can't say that you're
on the spectrum but if i think of everyone as being there and i tailor my room to be as though i have
every individual including staff as spectrum based then a lot of our practices meet the needs of our
highest need and just support the needs of the neurotypical so we always use our spot timers
so the whole class know the spot timers and you can have larger ones you can have smaller ones
if you need so these are tailored again for each individual sometimes you might think i only need
two spots um i've got to get through this quickly or children we're in play and learn now you have
five spots until play and learn will finish that could last an hour and a half but we're still
using that process like good good practice good orders of practice is just good practice isn't it
and a child might be particularly anxious that day or not have heard a certain um instruction that
day or feeling a bit distracted for whatever reason it might just be the day the time whatever
just having that visual reduces anxiety so much they won't feel patronized by it just supports
them my staff love the visuals and the particularity and the routine i tell you what they cannot wait to
get in tomorrow even though they're a bit nervous about getting up in the morning and getting the
kids ready but they can't wait to go back to routine because we all need that don't we we all
feel safe and secure with timetable's routine predictability structure
all of those things that a class provides i don't i don't think i've heard of any mainstream class
especially early years class that does it like you do and it is wonderful to me to know that it is
possible because i'm saying this stuff like visuals schedules and then but in the back of my mind i'm
thinking am i being completely unrealistic here is it just totally not possible is it is it
is it totally outlandish to think that a teacher could do this in a mainstream class and i cannot
tell you how wonderful it is to hear what you're saying that of course it's possible you just have
to like you say go autism friendly first yeah and it's picking it's picking what you need to do
first and sticking with that so if you haven't got spot timers in your room you can go to the
room introduce them first and just introduce spot timers and it's about being consistent with them
it is about using them every single time and that's really hard sometimes when you've got
your neurotypicals that you just want to say to them our children play and learn finish we need
to tidy up we need to get to phonics because they can't but you need to use the spot timer
every single time for every single thing that you do every transition that you do because the one
time that you're going to need it when there's a dysregulation it won't work because if you're
not using it consistently a child's not going to respond to it it needs to be there every single
time so yes it is it is doable i mean two years ago when i had my three high need join me all of
a sudden partly through the year i wouldn't have said it was possible i pretty much was swimming to
sort of just keep up and stop myself from drowning in doing so it's so rewarding working with these
children but the guilt you feel as the teacher about everybody else and have i given them
everything made you or made me think about how can i do this so that everyone gets the best of me
and the best education that they can and don't get me wrong i've had parents in even this year
concerned about the level of scn that we are receiving as a school and concerned their children
are going to be not pushed to where they need to go and i've been able to show blossom as a structured
curriculum for the children that are not accessing mainstream and then show my timetabling for the
children on mainstream curriculum and that has really helped parents to understand that i thought
this through so this is not me just going oh we're gonna just manage each day this has been thought
through and is therefore everyone's needs not just for the high need but i i do believe that if you
can support the high need the neurotypicals will be able to access their learning better but include
them include the other children in in what you do so the other children know how to use the core
boards they know where they are in the room and they can take the children that cannot yet verbalize
in words over to them to try and get them to point to me i've had children come over and say
miss i don't know what so-and-so is trying to say to me so rather than just ignoring them in play
they've they've become aware that this child is trying to communicate with me and i don't know
what to do about it so they come and sort help because they see us interact with the children
all the time a big thing i could listen isn't it it's true inclusion is starting so often it's well
how can we get these sensory learners to integrate and be included in mainstream well you're flipping
that on its head you're saying let's let's ease all of our anxiety let's build a structured and
predictable environment for all of us all of a sudden yeah we're inclusive like it doesn't
nothing else has to be done because you're modeling all of the time that we all have these
needs we all want it doesn't matter what your diagnosis is we all benefit from the visual
board we all benefit from having warnings and you know whatever it is and your children children
are so acute they're so clever they just pick her up because you're modeling inclusive practice all
the time you don't have to say we need to include we need to include because you're just doing
so then they're just doing these children are going to be very inclusive young people and
will grow up to be inclusive and carefully minded adults who have experienced this because
need isn't going away these children are especially we're under the diagnosis aren't going to
get better if that's the way to put it they they have to be in society with everybody else so it
is one of those where actually if children are exposed to it then that's great i speak to all
of my children very openly if i think about phonics if we do read write inc as a school
we are put in two different um groups based on what sounds you know i talk to the children all
the time we change their books together and i say to them remember you learn what you need to learn
when you need to learn it so don't worry if your friend has gone into a different group
they are learning something that you're not but you will learn it when you're ready to learn it
and that is how i approach everything in the classroom and it's a phrase i use with them a
lot you will learn what you need to learn when you need to learn it yeah i love it it just validates
everything doesn't it it validates your staff team as well i'm sure of that are maybe coming
to you and not feeling as confident as you are in all of this again it's you'll get there just
focus on this one job and we'll get like it's almost like you're you're embedding a whole
classroom of learners adults and and children i'm just wondering like this sounds so perfect
and wonderful what happens when they leave your room so the other teachers on board you know
because it's it sounds to me so crucial that you've kind of cracked it and it sounds incredible
do those colors stay the same when they go to the next room like do they still have time to
do they still have spot times what happens in the rest of you one so myself in year one work very
closely we have a shared outside area as well so amazingly in my school we are just a team that
just adore working together it's as simple as that and we had offset actually in october of 24 so not
long ago and even in that offset the report has been published it's very very positive about what
our school does about inclusion and sen and how children will thrive in a mainstream setting at
our school which is just it makes you so proud because we work so hard with it so every member
of staff has a spot timer on their lanyard because the time you're going to need it the most is
normally through transition time so when you're collecting them from the playground you have your
spot timer on you there are core boards up around the school so yes blossom is something that i am
pushing into year one so i've gone backwards first into sort of our nursery and looking at how do
transition from nursery into reception so that hopefully we can try and get some of the paperwork
earlier even though you know agencies do tend to push back at you and say oh there are only three
it'll be developmental so there's other barriers there but no i support heavily our year one and
our year two with ideas for how they can move on now i'm an early year specialist blossom will work
into year one because it's highly likely that they won't have met all of the developmental steps
up to the end of reception otherwise they would be on the reception curriculum so it's highly likely
that they will just take the folder up and you can continue with that the only difference once they
go into the key stage one classroom is the environment doesn't lend itself as easily so
it is something that we're now looking into so our children that currently are off curriculum are in
the classroom in their own work table and workspace by this time they tend to have that full-time adult
or at least part-time adult that they need because we've done the paperwork in reception and done the
legwork so that means that that adult can look at that planning so rather than necessarily having a
learning library set up although i would argue a learning library would still work beautifully and
it's something that as a senior leader within the school i am going to be looking to try and
introduce it means that we can still use that location and sort of process where we can say
right this child's going to come and do this activity we're going to do it in the hall or
we're going to do it in the in the hub where we can do some cooking together it is really thinking
about that inclusive curriculum of we don't need them to be learning the same as everybody else in
their classroom but they do need to be accessing the learning that they need to learn they need to
access their peers for that social they need to access what they can at at their age-related level
that you wouldn't put someone you wouldn't put a neurotypical child who can't read
into a year with reading comprehension you wouldn't do it so why would you do it to a
child that's got sen you just you don't need to yeah it feels unfair and and for the sake of
oh we always say um lots of people have heard me say this but it's not inclusion it's just
including them it's actually excluding them because you're what's going to happen they're
what's going to happen they're going to either dysregulate or zone out or learn that think that
learning is boring or the classroom isn't for them and then you're on to a lose lose there aren't you
and someone has asked do your children ever always follow their year group or might they repeat
reception sometimes have you ever had that yep so um no they follow their year group um you'd have
to apply to county to get them to stay in a year group that isn't their biological year group if i
can get in there soon enough in nursery and i genuinely feel that there is a significant
detriment to their progress to come up and you have enough evidence we can put to county and
nursery to get them to start a year later however you've got to be really sure that
that what they're going to gain by doing an extra year in nursery would be beneficial to them
catching up now we've had a few children do that we've also had a few children that maybe you would
advise would say back have come up and actually it's been beneficial for them so it's really about
those key individuals um but as far as i'm aware and i might be wrong with this but as far as i'm
aware if you're going to have a child resit a year group you have to apply to have that done
because at some point they would have to go back to their biological age right um because we've
talked about this with some of our our students before who might have to they could maybe do
primary with with the wrong age group with biological age but the secondary school doesn't
have to adhere to that decision that we made and could make them go back into their correct year
groups you've got to be really careful it's just oh let's just keep them back they can go ahead
i think sometimes it's too easy to think well let's just keep them in reception because that's
where they play no if you look at what they actually need to learn and what they need to
progress which is what blossom is is doing then actually you can target learning provision for
them because you can take them to the location that they need to be that doesn't mean they can't
come into my classroom i have a year two child that comes in for his phonics lessons with me
because we do a special um communication group which is looking more at that attention and
listening because they are all non-speaking children so yes we're teaching them reading
and lots of them can identify words and sounds but they don't use speech as their communication
tool so we're doing an act a phonics based activity group just for them which is led in my in my
classroom whilst the rest of the school is in its individual grouped areas for phonics so it means
that the right children are going to the right spaces sometimes to hold them back is that just
because it's easier space wise for adults yeah or easier planning wise easier adult organizing
wise yeah it's definitely the easier option but i totally agree with you that it seems short-sighted
that you've done all this work for their peers as well you've done all this work about inclusion and
that we all have these needs and we're meeting and then all of a sudden oh no you split now
because that doesn't mean you know they're all local kids and i'd love to think that they were
going to be teenagers and adults that live in the same community right and that support each other
beyond way beyond yeah way beyond you will ever know yeah they will see each other in the town
or in the shop and they'll know each other they'll have a really solid relationship there and and what
an equal relationship and i think that will only happen if we try to keep them together and also
that's how government are going now you know all the reports that are coming out from the government
talks about inclusion and what they mean by that is keeping the children in the classroom as much
as they can access within their actual age year group and so we're going to have to find a way
of making that work yeah early years and way beyond you know yeah up to year six with you know
we've got some of these loans that don't all get any htp and leave like you were saying right at
the beginning we have great need in our mainstream classroom children that could way be in my class
i mean we've got children in mainstream that are working at a lower level than children in my class
like let's just you know let's not assume that you know if you're a lawyer stability you definitely
get this provision it absolutely doesn't work like that at all and i'm seeing that firsthand in my
room so the only other option is to make our classrooms make our mainstream classrooms
yeah more autistic friendly ultimately and also as you were saying i have you know i've got to
think about my most able students as well let's not forget that some of those will be autistic too
you know they're they're there they're so good at language they're so good at reading and they're
so good at communication and maths maybe because they're also on the spectrum and yes they're great
academic subjects maybe but also they probably are really anxious they probably have unmet sensory
needs as well so the fact that you are meeting it for everybody also supports those high achievers
that yeah are autistic too doesn't it um someone has asked where can i find a spot timer do i need
to make my eyes if you show yours again it looks like cut up card laminated with a bit of velcro
so i'm sure you can make your own but do you know of anywhere that you can get them i can post the
template onto onto my social media or people can message me and i can post the template but it is
as simple as just some spots with velcro on either side so that when you take the spots off you've
got somewhere to keep them little hack for people because we do a lot of laminating somewhere like
hobby craft or something like that they do have circular cutters so you can just place it in the
middle and it cuts it out in a perfect circle for you saves a lot of time amazing yeah we make house
person as we're actually in a strip so that saves that circle thing but it's a bit it's a similar
thing and we just have the pictures of their favorite items on there again just anything that
tries to let them motivate them so once we engage really but yeah similar thing countdown nearly
finished really nearly finished yeah finished um i did i did see someone say that they didn't hadn't
seen spot timers before so a spot timer very basically is your timing system they can last
seconds or they can last minutes it's completely down to you i think there was one occasion where
i took my small spot timer with me which was silly on my behalf i should have taken a larger one
into a collective worship because we're a church of england school and the child who normally
manages absolutely fine decided today and really wasn't having this and kept looking at me going
home home and i had to make two spots last about 20 minutes that was rather challenging
um but i use it alongside my now and next as well so i might say two spots of uh so we call it
singing for them for our collective worship then home time because it's always at the end of the
day so they can then see that the time they've got left and they can see what it is they're doing and
what's coming up so that's why i have a smaller one attached to the now and next yeah great it
works both ways doesn't it it works if they don't like the thing like you were just saying and they
want the thing next but it also works if they're loving the thing but don't want to give it up
like this thing is coming to an end soon so you can kind of use it in both ways they're they're
fantastic aren't they i get lots of questions and concerns from adults saying oh i couldn't cope with
it not being an exact time but actually i find the benefit is you can work alongside that child or
the info or the things i say for example singing well that's not necessarily an exact time it
doesn't always end at exactly the same time it would be at the end of a song yeah um so then
you can time it perfectly to end at the end of the last song and we're out of here whereas if you use
something like a timer or a watch or a stopwatch it might be too short it might be too long it's
really hard to know the exact time and as soon as it becomes unpredictable and not consistent
you've lost them just about we build keeping that promise isn't it yeah and everyone everyone has
to be consistent with using them otherwise they just don't work on the rare occasion where i've
not got my lanyard on or a situation's come up where i need my spot timer because we use them so
consistently i was able to easily transfer it into three fingers and then finish so if you've used
that process again and again all of a sudden it doesn't take long so i advise parents i always
give parents a spot timer if we're using them in school and say show them how to use it and say i
would use it when you have to go shopping if you've got to take them with you use the spot timer so
that they know it's coming to an end but if you forget your spot timer you've got fingers you've
got five fingers so just say five spots and then shopping is finished i think so that they can see
being five and it being a circle because actually it can very easily transition to your hand can't
it it's it's quite it's quite a similar enough visual isn't it yeah to do that somebody has said
if you had a neurodivergent child who didn't get on with the ta what would you do
and i think that's an interesting one isn't it because ultimately you've got one ta you haven't
got a choice i'd like to hope that all the staff team are using the same uh systems the same
language the same voice but it's probably if they don't like them it's probably an inconsistency in
that so maybe i would look at more staff i think i think you'd need to stand back and you'd need
to see what is it i mean most of our neurodivergent children wouldn't be able to explain why they're
feeling like that i certainly know what this person means in terms of you can certainly see
sometimes sometimes it can be something as silly as your perfume is too strong so i can't be near
them because their perfume is too strong sometimes it's that the like you say the person isn't
necessarily being as consistent it's your body language as well it is really hard and i find it
especially in early years is for all children whether they're diverse or typical you are helping
them to learn what their emotions are and it's never okay for a member of staff to be hurt in
their in their workplace but we we do expect the temper tantrums and the lashing out that you need
to stand back from and you need to register that oops i caused that right let's just calm this down
let's not do that one again and reflect on your own practice but you need to be there and open
you need to it doesn't matter that you just caught me on the arm when you were crossed with me
we're going to go past that and you're going to see that i'm here and i'm not left you because
the children that need you the most will push you away the hardest and they need to know that you
are still there and that you are waiting and i'm sure that your commitment to how you've on your
classroom right you can see it all the way through this hour that i've been speaking to you can see
how passionate you are and committed you are to it that is infectious so if you're speaking to your
team that this is how we do things it works there's so much trust and belief there that that's going
to help consistency whereas if you're a bit fluffy if you're saying oh should we try this what do you
think the nose we try it or what didn't work really did it what else can we try you know if you're
just bumbling through like that that's going to give absolutely no trust to your team at all and
they're going to do it their own way and that was a real issue i think you've got to also be aware
that sometimes there's only so long you can be screamed at for especially like if i think of a
child that i've had that's had odd there's only so long you want to be shouted at or have chairs
tipped over in your direction actually you need to tag out with that ta i check in with my staff
every day how was your night the night before are you feeling okay because sometimes you're just in
a good mood yourself and you can't help regulate a child if you're not in a good place so sometimes
you can just say you take my lessons today i'm tagging in and i'm doing this because i'm not
allowing that child to upset you to a point where they have control over the situation so we're a
team i tag in you go and do something else that child will then very clearly see that they've lost
that adult and they will be very concerned about oh hang on what's happened here but guess what the
the barrier is still the same the question or the activity that you've been asked to do by that adult
is still the same i'm still going to make you do it so i think you also need to be aware that it is
normally rts that have to put up with the brunt of our temper tantrums and children that really
struggle you've got to jump in and tag in just as as regularly as they do otherwise they're going to
think that they just get all of the lashings out you don't if you're not that person you might be
asking something very unrealistic of your your team because as soon as you're in their shoes in
that situation if you're not doing what you say you should do then that's a real issue isn't it
you need to be standing there in their shoes in that exact scenario and showing them this is how
it's done this is what i mean when i say use this use this voice use this body language guide them
over this is what i mean this is what it looks like the worst thing to do as a team leader and
we do do it because again we're human but the worst thing we do is don't follow our own plan
yeah it comes down to the heat of it because all of a sudden you've lost all trust and all faith
from the children but also from your team yeah yeah absolutely and you know what sometimes you
just have to own the bad days and go do you know what today did not work as planned and check in
with your team if you think someone went home a bit quieter than normal either give them a ring if
they're someone that will pick up the phone if you think actually i just need to give them a gentle
message and i'll give them a text just to make sure that they're okay and that i noticed that you
seemed a bit down you know take that pressure off them and say it's my room it's my responsibility
please don't worry that today went wrong we are going to reflect and we are going to change this
up to it and we'll find out and we'll come up with a solution absolutely everything you're saying is
so fabulous somebody's just said it's such a great life and i completely agree i feel really
energized by this i think it's a really important conversation to have i need more people to know
about you and know about your practice where are you based don't say the school but where what
county are you in? In Cornwall. So i'm gonna come and visit that's okay. You come on in? Yeah i want
to come and visit i want to see it for myself just for my me sharing on here even more than my own
practice actually because it will really help me to explain when i'm getting the questions from
mainstream teachers that i'm getting i want to be able to confidently say this is this is what you
can do i've seen it work i know it works it just sounds it sounds fabulous um i know this is gonna
help a lot of people this this conversation so thank you so much for being here i'm so pleased
that your teaching assistant forced you on here because it's yeah you've shared some
um such great knowledge so thank you Anna.