WEEK 3 – Staff SEN CPD

SEN CPD session – SEN graduated response for our school and the differences in the different phases followed by a session on where they can find SEN information

Where did last week go?  This week I’m delivering staff SEN CPD.  I was dreading this; an all-through school makes it quite difficult to tailor a SEN CPD session that everyone will get something out of.  The last thing I want is to bore everyone! Fortunately, (sort of) the session is over two nights with the primary and nursery on one evening and the secondary/post 16 on the second.  It makes for twice as much work but means I can really speak to and tailor it for the audience. As a new recruit to the school I’ve introduced some changes and I want everyone working with these as soon as possible.  So, the SEN CPD session will be about the SEN graduated response for our school and the differences in the different phases followed by a session on where they can find SEN information. Of course, that means I’m introducing EdukeyProvision Maps to them all!

Freya has been setting up the accounts for all the staff for me.  At the moment we’re going with Read Only access in the secondary sector.  In the primary sector we are asking the class teachers to complete the plans (with support) so they have slightly different access.  This just meant setting up some custom roles in the admin settings.

Primary School SEN CPD – 

I have a separate session with all the TAs and support staff as well…Three twilight training sessions in a week (and I have an SLT and Safeguarding meeting too!)  So, we will be looking at creating provisions and how to monitor, track and review them. I’ve set up most of them to start with, based on what they told me was going on in school a few weeks ago, but it’s time to let them loose on the information!  Adrian is a little technophobic, but he quite likes the click and go features of the Edukey program Provision Map, so he’s up for supporting everyone with setting up the provision mapper tool. He has a real talent when it comes to identifying the ways to measure impact. We are on a similar wavelength when it comes to outcomes.  They need to be SMART outcomes! I hate seeing, ‘to improve reading’ as the outcome, and Adrian is great at getting staff to think about what ‘improved reading’ looks like.

Back to the staff CPD, though.  I’ll be talking about our SEN graduated response (death by PowerPoint I think – with a few pyramids) and then putting up Edukey.  It’s a shame we can’t get everything on in time, but with such a large school, it’s important not to rush things and do it right. Fortunately, Freya has made good progress in uploading relevant information to pupil files and the provision information is there too.

In the primary sector I’ll be showing them how to log in and how to complete a plan for the students at the review meetings over the next few weeks.  We’re not creating plans for the sake of it. Freya has uploaded their current word document version and the teacher will review this and then create the new plan on screen with the parent.  They can share the access code and help families create their account at the same time. This of course means I need to train the teachers to do it first! Adrian and I will be on hand at the review evenings, and we will take the lead with the EHCP students.  But the Code of Practice says that class teachers should take responsibility so that is what we are going to help them to do.

Secondary Schools SEN CPD –

In the secondary sector, it’s trickier.  Some of my students have 17 different teachers!  Adrian and I will tackle the EHCP pupils and have the parents in for a formal review meeting.  The teaching staff will be shown where to find information about all the students. As far as writing plans for our status K (SEN Support) students, we are tasking form tutors alongside TAs, Year Heads and Key Mentors to create these at the settling in evenings.  We looked down the list, and although we have lots of students to get through, by spreading it out, no one has more than 4 pupils (we have vertical tutor groups). For these, Freya has uploaded any current information and when it comes to writing targets we are asking for 3.  We are not stating they have to be academic, that’s not appropriate for some of our pupils, but they do need to be appropriate. We also ask that one target is something that can be achieved at home or with the support of the family (we do this in the primary sector too). This is so that at the review meetings we can ask the family how things are going as well, rather than it being one way.  Fortunately, these evenings are spread over a few weeks, so it will mean a few late nights, but we’re not trying to do everything at once. By Christmas, every child on the SEN register will have a plan on the system. This process will only work if the form tutors really step up to their role in ‘knowing’ their children. They will do a lot of the liaison with the subject leads. So, to help them with that we also need to show them how to use School Robins to collate the information.

Initially I wrote our SEN graduated response to reflect across the whole school, but there are such massive differences between nursery and key stage 4 that it didn’t feel appropriate, so I have one overarching document and then two more bespoke ones.  They are not vastly different but it would have been really off putting to our nursery parents to read about examination concessions, or for our Key Stage 4 parents to read about our toileting and nappies policy.