Reading for pleasure

I've just had another one of those enjoyable book chats with my son when we reminisce over the books we have shared and enjoyed - before he berates me for not having read all of the mighty Feist's books (our conversation usually ends thus - I'm saving them for retirement!) As with music, we share the same tastes, although I veer off from fantasy fiction every so often to read books that have been recommended, or have come across accidentally. I've blogged about some of them here. I'm always in awe of Ben's phenomenal memory for detail, especially where Game of Thrones is concerned. Unlike me, he doesn't watch the TV series and gets quite ranty about the discrepancies.

I thought it would be nice to share some of the books we have enjoyed reading over the past few years. I recommend them all to families with teenagers/young adults. They are in a kind of chronological order - though some books we obviously had to wait for the next one to come out. I'm not sure Ben ever read the Northern Lights trilogy, but it ought to be included in a list like this. We also read some teenage fiction (Kate Cann books mostly) in his teenage years.

I've included Amazon links as I'm far too lazy to write synopses, but should point out that Game of Thrones and the second and third books of the Painted Man trilogy have very adult content. Ben is now 26, so quite old enough to read what he likes.

• The Wind Singer Trilogy - William Nicholson
• Noughts and Crosses set - Malorie Blackman
• Bartimaeus trilogy - Jonathon Stroud (Loved the humour of these!)
• Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen - Garth Nix
• The Painted Man trilogy - Peter V Brett (fantastic - we have both read these twice. More books to come too)
• Game of Thrones - George RR Martin (I confess that Ben was nagging me for ages before I finally got round to reading this, about a month before the televised series was broadcast. Ben has read them twice already.)
• Magician - Raymond Feist (I've read 2 books from the Riftwar saga ... Ben has read these all twice too.)
• The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins. I didn't think Ben would be impressed with this, but he enjoyed them as a quick read
• Divergent - Veronica Roth
• Traitor's Blade - Sebastien De Castell
• Blood Song, Tower Lord - Anthony Ryan (I found these, though Ben read them much more quickly. Tower Lord is hot off the press and is my next read having just finished Blood Song).

I have tried to get Ben to read more widely than fantasy fiction, forcing books such as Pigeon English and Vernon God Little into his room. He starts them, but doesn't finish. I would like him to read 'We need to talk about Kevin' at the same time as me too as I have had a recommendation from a colleague to read it. I would love any more recommendations for our mother and son reading for pleasure!

More 'post Game of Thrones' reading

Before you read on, don't expect a critically written post about books I have read; this is merely a list of books that I have managed to read (and enjoyed) during a busy term at school. As always 'scuse the grammar/typos. I'm not great at proof reading my own work (as proved this week when I was mortified at missing out an apostrophe. Eeek! I no longer have the right to criticise those who add them willy-nilly!)

In my last post about books I ended with the book I was reading at that time - The Goldfinch. It is based around Theo, a character who I fell in love with because his heart-breaking situation was written so believably. I'm not going to go into detail as I don't want to plant seeds or accidentally write a plot spoiler. Needless to say I really enjoyed it, despite getting annoyed during some of the Las Vegas part of the story (and a little bit of the Amsterdam part too). I would even have been happy with less grit and more detail about the relationship between Theo and Hobie.  I imagine the book would make a good film in the future and I would certainly go and watch it, but then I usually* enjoy watching books come to life, even if they don't follow the text accurately.

After this I read The Room by Emma Donoghue, which I find quite disturbing. It was a half term holiday read - possibly not the best choice! Someone on Amazon claims to have 'adored' this book. I question that. I found it believable, but the nature of story would hardly put it in the adorable book section, in the same way that The Lovely Bones would never end up on that shelf.

In our book club we have read Coram Boy, The Hen who Dreamed She Could Fly and our current one, which is I am Malala. These are not books I would usually buy and are all relatively easy reads. Coram Boy is a children's book that deals with the fate of children born out of wedlock in the 1700s. This book was chosen by a friend, who read it as part of her course on children's literature. I think I would have loved reading this as a child, but I found it a tad frustrating (I can't remember why - it's a while since I read it) and the ending wasn't brilliant.  Our book club discussion was great after this book though - and I did learn about some historical situations because of it.

The hen who dreamed she could fly

This story has been translated into English from Korean. Apparently it is a good translation, but nevertheless I felt confused whist reading it. My book club friends seemed to love it a lot more than I, which made me question how much of an animal lover I am (I thought I was a big on that!) I couldn't read it as a story about a hen - I kept reading more into it, analysing it and making judgements about the author's life experiences. When I copied the link from Amazon just now I had a quick look at the reviews (I tend not to read these beforehand). This review by Ia890 captures my thoughts nicely.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars basic 20 April 2014

By la890

Format:Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase

I thought it was like a primary school book on diversity. Blindingly obvious parables. First I thought it was some sort of political statement. The hen wants to live in freedom not oppression. Then finds out its hard to fend for yourself.
Then a lesson in racial diversity , then a lesson on death. All a bit simply written and I can't understand why it's such an applauded book
Am I missing something?

I have been left wondering if this is book is a metaphor of the complexities of cultural difference, or merely a story about a hen.

In between book club books I have read Perfect, The Shock of the Fall, The Fault in their Stars, Traitor's Blade, The Boy who Killed Pigs and Life after Life. They are all relatively easy reads that can be read during term time and have all served the purpose of sending me off to sleep thinking of something other than work. For more information about each one, follow the links!

The shock of the fall A quick read about a young person with mental health problems. A quick read for term time.

The fault in their stars Another quick read that I wanted to finish before the film came out. It's easy to guess what is going to happen in this one and I don't fancy sobbing through the film. I quite enjoyed reading it though-I liked the characters in a Dawson's Creek kind of way.

The boy who kicked pigs I found this book on the stairs. Someone had loaned it to my son and I was intrigued. It is written by Tom Baker and I read it in a Tom Baker voice. It's a very odd (quirky?) black comedy with illustrations in the style of Lemony Snickett. That's all I'm going to say about it!

Perfect Loaned to me by my friend Becca, it is a story that flits from two children growing up, an insecure mum and blackmail, to an adult with mental health problems. It is set in the 70s and is a little slow moving (the mum's naivety annoyed me immensely) and I did guess the attempted twist in the tale, but it enjoyed it for what it was. It's not a book I would highly recommend, but if someone gives you a copy and you have nothing else, it's worth reading.

Life after Life There were some sections (only a couple) in this Groundhog Day style story that I wished were shorter, but I really enjoyed this read. It is cleverly written and quite believable. I would recommend this to friends and would appreciate a book club chat about it.

Traitor's Blade was recommended by a fellow Game of Thrones fan. I read somewhere that it was a Three Musketeers style story and that is how I subsequently read it. It's not as gory or unpredictable as GoT, but is an enjoyable read (measured by how quickly I read it). I started at the same time as my son and he read it in about three days. He has taken a break from re-reading Feist's huge collection of books and is road testing Blood Song for me. I enjoy it when we read the same books as there's always a debate to be had.

For the summer, so far I have Snow Child (a recommendation from colleagues), The tent, the bucket and me (perfect for the holidays!) and Blood Song. I have also borrowed Creating Learning without Limits from the library again, though at this point it is the only school book I intend to look at during the summer.

I would love to hear any more recommendations.


*The Time Traveller's Wife is a notable exception. For some reason he came across as more of a weirdo in the film who shows up naked in front of small children.

Learning@home

This is the second half term that I have decided to do a more open ended kind of homework, which lasts the half term rather than weekly. I have blogged about homework before and had been trying to find a better way of managing it. The last half term one about nocturnal animals was a great success, but I was interested in whether this was due to the novelty factor. My colleague in class one decided she would like to try this way too, to see if the quality of her homework would improve. We had a seaside theme, but whereas my colleagues focus was boats, mine was  buildings - mainly lighthouses and beach huts. 

 We have both been bowled over by the quality of the work that has been handed in. Yes, a lot of it has clearly been achieved with huge parent involvement, but isn't that great? One child brought in a photograph of a wooden boat planter that he helped his dad make, another spent a whole day designing and making a submarine type of vessel with his dad.  Brilliant.

We invited the parents in after school again to come and celebrate their children's work. It is wonderful to see and hear their responses. Prior to this, 3 teachers came at different times before school to visit us and were totally distracted by the display of work that was being created. One of our teachers is a parent of a child in class one and she explained that although she groaned when she read the homework, her husband thought it was great and it turned out to be the best homework her daughter had done. Our colleague told us how her daughter looked forward to doing it, didn't moan once and had a huge sense of pride in her achievements. It was meaningful, quality time with her family. Wow! That's just what I was hoping for - homework being enjoyed, not a chore. It was wonderful to hear my colleagues talking about the quality and value of what they could see and I wish the children could have heard the lovely comments that were being made. All the homework was different, all unique, all brilliant.

The positive comments that my colleagues made were replicated when families came in. What more could I ask for?

The thing that hasn't worked so well this half term is the maths, which is additional to the topic work. This half term I wrote a range of activities, all on the theme of shape, space and measures.  The children were required to colour in at least 5 of the activities that they had completed over the half term. When I looked in their books, very few had been coloured - and there is little evidence that what has been done has had an impact. I will rethink the maths activities for next year.

Being SENco part 5: SEN information report

This past week I have been working on the information needed for the SEN page on our website. Our local offer has been reviewed by a couple of our governors via a google doc. The great thing about this is that their questions and ideas are recorded - evidence of the consultation process.

 I also sent out a letter inviting parents to form a working party with me. There was no response to this, which was really disappointing. I intend to approach a couple of parents who may be willing to read and comment from home, via the gdoc. I am alos in the process of writing questions to put to our school council and children on the SEN register, to gain their views of provision in school. I will drawn on the Index for Inclusion for further inspiration before I meet with them.

Alongside the local offer, schools are required to publish an annual SEN information report. Ours is hot off the press and is adapted from a model provided by Judith Carter for Norfolk Children's Services. I'm not in the habit of reinventing wheels, but model policies/ reports can never be expected to fit perfectly, so time must be spent tweaking and personalising them. Please feel free to tweak and personalise this one!

Homework (part 2)

When I was previously chewing over the issue of homework, which I blogged about here, I received a terrific response to the crowd-sourced document with a range of different approaches being added.  I subsequently created my own half term documents for maths and topic work, which are a bit wordy, but were well received by parents. I was blown away with what my children created during this half term. Children who had previously failed to do homework of any quality received head teacher certificates for their achievements. Take a look at what they created. You can see more photos on their class blog.







All in all, a very successful change to homework for class 2, which the children have been buzzing about. On Monday my children wrote invites to their families to come and visit the class and look at their work on Friday after school. It was a successful open event and lovely to hear such positive comments - and to see parents praising the work of others.

 Because of its success I have created a similar homework document for our seaside topic this half term, which incorporates some spelling investigations too.  I can't wait to see what they do this time!

Being SENco part 4: The local offer

In October 2013 the DFE published the new draft SEN code of practice, which will take effect from September 2014. I have heard that the final code will available 'some time in June...'

Chapter 5 of the draft code is all about the 'Local Offer', and rather than paraphrase, I have lifted the rationale straight from the draft doc:

5.1 The local offer 

Local authorities must publish a local offer, setting out in one place information 
about provision they expect to be available for children and young people in their 
area who have SEN, including those who do not have EHC plans. 

The local offer has two key purposes: 

• To provide clear, comprehensive and accessible information about the provision available; and 
• To make provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations by directly involving children and young people with SEN, parents and carers, and service providers in its development and review. 

It is clear that the local offer should not 'simply be a directory of existing services' and that through the process of developing the local offer all parties will consider how to improve provision.

Further advice is given in the draft document:

The local offer should be: 

• Collaborative: local authorities must involve parents, children and young people in developing and reviewing the local offer. They must also cooperate with those providing services. 
• Accessible: the published local offer should be easy to understand, factual and jargon-free. It should be structured in a way that relates to young people’s and parents’ needs (for example by broad age group or type of special educational provision). It should be well signposted and publicised. 
• Comprehensive: parents and young people should know what support is available across education, health and social care from 0 to 25 and how to access it. The local offer must include eligibility criteria where relevant and make clear where to go for information, advice and support, as well as how to make complaints about provision or appeal against decisions. 
• Transparent: the local offer must be clear about how decisions are made and who is accountable and responsible for them. 


The Special Educational Needs (Local Offer) Regulations 2014 sets out a schedule for the publication of local offers although it is less clear how and when schools should do this and what co-operation with local authorities actually means. I await for someone more knowledgeable or more widely read to help me with that!

 In the meantime I have been looking at different primary school websites after googling 'school local offer examples'. I had looked at Marvels Lane Primary School's local offer and a couple of others last half term after a cluster SENco meeting, but I liked the transparency of this one so thought it unnecessary to look any further; their Local Offer felt like a good starting point for me (thank you to the authors!) I am not sure at the moment whether our cluster will have a joint one, which will be tweaked for each school, or whether we will all write our own. It is a supportive, collaborative and co-operative cluster that I belong to, so before I do any more work I will ask the question. Once ours is written, it will of course be shared in the hope that it supports others to write their own.

Other useful links

The Key: Local offer: templates for schools

York School Local Offer template

Understanding good practice in the move over to the new arrangements for SEN

http://www.swingate.medway.sch.uk/about-us/sen-local-offer - comprehensive information for parents from Swingate Primary School

Additions 19.05.2014

Our cluster SEN chair and I have had some conversations through email this weekend and it is more apparent (to me) now that the LA is responsible for producing the local offer. This doesn't mean that schools can't, and indeed I have used the Swingate Primary school one as a base to create one for our school - it is good practice after all. I acknowledge their support in helping me develop mine! You can read the first draft of the one I am creating here. In the nature of sharing, if you like it please use it, but please acknowledge that it came via Swingate. 

Being SENco part 3: the OfSTED file

Today I went to a local special school for the last day of a very fruitful 'new SENco' programme. It has been fruitful partly because of the organisation of it, partly because of the experts leading it and partly because of the networking time available to learn best practice from others. As an OfSTED inspection is imminent at EHPS I have started to put together an information for OfSTED file and I took this along with me. The contents of the file look like this (so far):

Page

1                                           SEN register
1a                                         Graduated Response

2                                           Progress of children with SEN across the school

3                                           SENDco action plan

4                                           Provision map EHPS

5                                           Provision map for cluster

6                                           Case study 1

7                                           Case study 2

8                                           Personal learning profile example

9                                           Pupil intervention tracking example

10                                        IEP example

11                                        GEP example

12                                       TA skills register

13                                       Intervention overview and impact: 1^st class@number

14                                       Cluster SEN identification guidelines

15                                      SEN policy 

As always I was happy to share this with others and I hoped that someone would say 'What about adding this or that?' When we had a workshop on action planning I shared mine, which I have talked about here. It felt really good when we had moved to a different workshop and the lead of the action planning one came through and asked if she could have my file to show others. I know it's not perfect, but that told me I am on the right lines.


Another teacher (Kendra I think) shared a document containing questions that an inspector might ask. I had asked this question to an inspector last week and he said that all inspectors were different, but really just to make sure that I know my children and could explain progress. Today I feel confident that I am in control and know what I am doing regarding SEN at EHPS - who knows how long this confidence will stay!


I will upload some of the docs into google docs asap (I need to anonymise them first), but some teachers found the contents page useful so I said I would share it. Any thoughts / ideas appreciated!