By Abby Williams
Abby Williams is the KS2 Special Educational Needs (SEN)
Coordinator at St Peters Church of England Primary School in
Wirral. Here she shares her advice for providing quality SEN
support in school.
I know it’s a cliche, but I've always wanted to teach. What I
didn't know is how much I would love working with SEN children
and their families from the moment I had my first class.
I have a passion for building relationships with SEN children.
When providing SEN support, whether in the classroom or across
the whole school, the most important aspect of support is being
able to create key relationships for children. They often have
higher anxiety levels and lower tolerance levels than
neurotypical children. Building relationships with members of
staff helps the child to feel safe and challenge themselves to
make progress. My belief is that a school could buy into every
SEN resource available but if they don't have those key
relationships children just won't thrive.
Start with quality first teaching
At St Peter’s we apply a 3-wave model of support; wave 1 is about
quality first teaching, wave 2 focuses on intervention support
and wave 3 is about individualised support. As a school we
prioritise wave 1. I believe in always starting with quality
first teaching strategies. All children, especially those with
SEN, will learn best in a classroom environment. It promotes
teamwork, socialising with peers and learning from each other.
As an inclusive practice, we provide resources that allow all
children a chance to understand and manage their own behaviour.
This includes classroom apparatus, such as a wobble cushion or
therabands for sensory seeking children, or the chance for daily
(or sometimes multiple) debriefs for children with anxiety.
Tools at your disposal
I recommend having a variety of tools at your disposal that can
be catered to a child’s individual needs. Below are some quick
tools and activities I find particularly effective in supporting
children with SEN:
- Visual timetables in the classroom. A clock face is a great
way of encouraging children to learn to tell the time. I write
lesson times on the boards, so they know what’s to come next too!
- Humour. Applying humour to lessons can work particularly well
when children are going into shutdown.
- Distraction techniques for when behaviour is getting
particularly challenging. For example, asking about a child’s
favourite animal, food, or hobby when they are in shutdown can
refocus their thoughts.
- Sensory rooms or a safe space helps with de-escalation,
offering a safe place for children to access as and when
required. For example, some children use the room prior to
starting the school day to help prepare and become at ease with
the environment.
- Sensory diets. Staff have received training on sensory diets
and how this can support a child's sensory seeking needs or if
they need sensory stimulation. These can be as simple as wall
sits, push ups, a glass of cold water or handing out books for
proprioceptive movements.
- Mental health support. We have two trained emotional literacy
support assistants and we work closely with the local authority
SEND team and mental health support team to help children and
their families, offering a non-judgemental listening ear/shoulder
to cry on as and when required.
The Government has published the SEND and Alternative Provision
(AP) Improvement Plan, setting out a clear roadmap to establish a
single national system that delivers for every child and young
person with SEND. To read the improvement plan in
full, visit GOV.UK.
