Preparing for the new year as SENco

A woman's work is never done...

A SENCo's work is never done...

A teacher's work is never done...

I'm sure that there are many more that could be added, but those are the three that are relevant to me at this point in time. I realised last week, to my horror, that the new SEN Code of Practice had been published in July and that this had totally passed me by.  This has implications for all schools as paperwork and practices will need reviewing and updating accordingly. The Guardian has very kindly provided us with 5 things schools need to know about SEN reforms, which is a good starting point.

This evening I have spent time doing the second revision of our school's local offer. It was based on one written by Swingate school, but I have adapted it accordingly and, as was suggested by an ex colleague, tried to think in terms of the questions that parents might ask about provision. I plan to do a third (and hopefully 'final for now') revision during the first full week at school, during my allocated SEN time.

Other jobs that are high on my priority list are adapting the SEN policy and making sure that TA meetings are planned for. I am in the process of updating all our provision maps, whilst trying to find an easier way of presenting them. I also need to investigate the SENco training course and sign up to Norfolk's SEN forum, hosted by Judith Carter. If anyone can recommend a good course, I would be grateful. 

Assessing without levels: part 1

From time to time over the holidays I have been thinking about the problem of assessing without levels. I refer to it as a problem, because it is a change that I know will ultimately be for the better, but it is going to be costly in terms of time. Blood, sweat and tears spring to mind - and to be honest the systems I have seen that look like rearranged versions of APP, of which I have never been a fan, are beginning to bring out my ranty side. Why can't anything ever be simple?

I know that what I need to do is dedicate time and find the right space to having a big think, scribble some notes on paper (I have some very sparse notes so far) and then think some more. During my first ponderings I remembered about an assessment for learning website I cobbled together when I was an AST. It was a good way of sharing practice as well as a place for storing my files. It's a bit dated, but the principles remain the same.

Before I dedicate time to my big think, I want to make sure I'm fully informed of what is currently going on in the world. I am assessment co-ordinator at East Harling, but as with everything else at our school it's not a role that I carry out alone. Next Wednesday I have time with my HT to chew over ideas and what it could look like. I'm not one for re-inventing wheels and simple is good. We have recently formed the Acorn Co-operative Learning Alliance with other local schools and, as my HT suggested, it makes sense to work together on this. The only potential problem is that we should be assessing against our curriculum, and we have devised a curriculum that feels very personal to our school (beyond the statutory curriculum). Do we assess the additional knowledge and skills that we feel are important, or stick with the key objectives in the new curriculum?

I believe that the best way to preserve teacher time and make it meaningful is to involve the children wherever and whenever possible; the freedom in the new curriculum should technically give us time to dedicate to self assessment in a purposeful (as opposed to ad hoc) manner. In reality, we run out of time quickly in primary as there are always other demands on our time and recommendations that we spend additional time on this, that and the other. That said, I have always spent time on self assessment and have become much better at allocating marking response time.

The following documents have / will inform my thinking. As always I would be grateful if you have any more that you could add to the list.

Assessing without levels: preliminary reading list (in no particular order)

DFE info for schools Reforming assessment and accountability for primary schools

Learning ladders 

Big writing- standards for writing 

What others are doing http://assessmentwithoutlevels.com/

No tick boxes (growth mindset) http://classteaching.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/assessment-without-levels-an-opportunity-for-growth/

http://alisonpeacock.net/2013/11/aaagh-not-app-under-new-name/

http://community.tes.co.uk/national_curriculum_2014/b/assessment_without_levels/default.aspx#.U9djZcNecWM.twitter (there is a lot of stuff on the TES from the assessment innovation fund)

Primary curriculum resource pack 

Pupil asset http://www.pupilasset.com/tracking-the-new-national-curriculum.html

Classroom monitor: Assessing without levels   Case studies 

Leading curriculum development I include this as it reminds us what makes an outstanding curriculum - a key part of that assessment cycle!

Sue Hackman- assessment and accountability (thanks @10kmk42 for pointing it out)

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!