Enhancing SEND support through collaborative partnership in Hackney

Wednesday 19 June 2024, 8.30 – 16.00
School visits (am) and The Tomlinson Centre (pm)

£160 (+VAT) 

Overview

This conference provides a platform for sharing best practices and fostering collaborative partnerships among schools and the local authority in Hackney to enhance support for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

Through school visits and workshops, attendees will gain insights into various approaches, strategies and interventions for supporting children with diverse learning needs, including those with moderate learning difficulties, complex needs, autism, ADHD, and executive function difficulties.

Additionally, the conference aims to update participants on Hackney’s SEND initiatives and provide practical guidance on partnership working, safeguarding, reasonable adjustments and promoting better outcomes for SEND children.

Programme

8:30 – School visits

  • Stormont House – supporting children with moderate learning difficulties
  • Ickburgh – positive parent partnerships
  • Bridge Academy – nurture group / classroom practice / distributed leadership
  • Harrington Hill – adaptive teaching / formative assessment
  • Thomas Fairchild – including children with complex needs / updating SEND register
  • Halley House – ELSA provision
  • Clapton – autism in girls

10:30 – Travel to The Tomlinson Centre

11:00  Update on Hackney SEND – Yvonne Wade

11:20 Workshops

  • Partnership working in safeguarding and promoting better outcomes for SEND children – Ann Marie Christian

We will explore how we support our SEND children alongside other key school themes, inclusion, attendance, adultification and safeguarding. Partnership working with our stakeholders is essential in gaining better outcomes for our children. Safeguarding is a whole school approach and every child matters including our SEND children, and this session will deep dive into how to overcome the challenges we face when seeking support and assessments from children social care, children with disabilities and the SEND case workers in the local authority.

  • Reasonable adjustments: their role in creating a positive learning environment – Dr Barbara Sandland

12:20 – Lunch and roundtables to discuss school visits

13:20 Workshops

  • Emotionally Based School Non Attendance (EBSNA) – Fay Day (Specialist Teacher for Autism and Complex Needs), Fiona Conway (EP) and Nora Dwyer (EP)

This session will explore the complexities of Emotional-Based School Non-Attendance (EBSNA), a phenomenon that impacts students’ ability to attend school due to emotional distress or other related factors. Participants in this session will have the opportunity to explore theories and models for understanding EBSNA, and gain insights into the behaviours commonly associated with this area of need. The session will also shed light on the critical role of professionals and schools in providing support for affected students, and we will consider together tools and frameworks professionals can use to address ESBNA in their work.

  • ADHD friendly classrooms – Jane Beavis (Specialist Teacher for Complex Needs and Autism) and Aimee Cole (EP)

This session will discuss what ADHD is, developing your awareness and understanding of resources and strategies that are helpful when supporting pupils and staff in relation to ADHD. We will also work together to explore the impact of adjustments to whole school and classroom systems that benefit ADHD pupils.

14:30  Workshops

  • Autism target setting and strategies in the classroom – Lydia Scaletti
  • Inclusive reading: including everyone – Melissa Bond, Kathleen O’Connor, Richard Boxall

This workshop will explore the ways in which adaptive teaching strategies can enhance the equity of reading opportunity for all.

We will consider the core elements that support adaptive teaching, and the ways in which current research informs the most useful adaptations to make in the classroom. We will also explore some specific examples of good adaptive reading practice in Hackney schools.

15:45  End and informal networking

 

Speakers

Dr Barbara Sandland

Photo of Barbara SandlandBarbara is a Post-Doctoral Researcher, Assistant Professor and Specialist Student Mentor. Her work focuses on Autism and Neurodivergence in education and the workplace. As a neurodivergent individual and mother to neurodiverse children she brings personal insight, alongside critical research, to her work. Barbara’s background is as a qualified secondary school teacher, with many years’ experience as a Special Educational Needs Coordinator.

 

Ann Marie Christian

Photo of Barbara Sandland
Qualifying in 1996 and worked in children and families child protection teams then promoted to management in 2003. Ann Marie was a school based social worker from 1999 to 2003 and worked alongside education welfare, behaviour teachers and mentors in a government pilot project.

In 2003 she started a unique role as the team manager of the Vulnerable Children Team and managed teachers working with LAC, advised schools in child protection and delivered child protection training to schools and heads. This role evolved and Ann Marie worked as a LADO in Education, Safeguarding advisor, DSL Local Authority coordinator, LSCB Trainer and School Improvement Advisor and managed a team of social workers allocated to set schools within the local authority.

Unfortunately, when austerity started in social care she was taken away from the proactive work and called back to manage child protection teams in 2010. Ann Marie found this reactive, punitive and not helpful to families. She resigned and returned as an independent safeguarding consultant and registered Child 1st Consultancy Limited.

The welfare of the child is paramount and this name was chosen to champion their rights.

Ann Marie has managed various social work teams:

  • Managed a child protection team 0-5 (Early years) 2011-2015
  • Managed a child protection team in Youth Justice 2010-2014
  • Managed school based social workers and pastoral staff 2010-2015

Book

Book your place through our online booking system.