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Declan currently works as an Inclusion Teacher in a large mainstream school in Abhu Dhabi.
After starting his teaching career in South Africa he moved into special educational needs, becoming an SEN Teacher at a specialist autism school in the US, before moving to a special school in the UAE.
The course helped me reflect on how we structure our IEPs, coming to the realisation that they were too long and not getting to the specifics quickly enough. We’ve slimmed this down into a single page document and changed the format to make targets more easy to track and communicate to parents. This has made communication between the team around the child much easier and improved how we liaise with parents.
We’ve also enhanced the support offered to pupils with their social, emotional and mental health. Part of my project looked at emotional regulation and I selected Zones of Regulation as a suitable SEMH intervention to support children with special educational needs. We did a six week staff training programme before rolling out the intervention, supported by the creation of sensory rooms and using sensory circuits. We’ve encouraged the teachers to make personalised boxes and toolkits. The feedback from staff and pupils so far has been incredibly positive and it has subsequently been expanded to all pupils in the primary school and we’ve also led a parent workshop on Zones of Regulation and charts linked to the intervention are now part of IEP meetings.
Inclusion staff are also more confident supporting pupils with SEND. I also identified staff training in SEND as an area that could be developed and created a plan for this. We now have regular CPD programmes led by the Inclusion Teachers every Monday, so far we’ve done colourful semantics, IEPs and Smart Targets, de-escalation strategies, sensory integration and sensory circuits.
Overall there’s been increased momentum in the school when it comes to inclusion and the course has given me a framework and opportunity to convey what I learned from working in a special school into the mainstream environment. We’re rolled out more assemblies and inclusion days to build on our inclusive culture and the parent community is also more engaged.
The iSENCO was recommended to me by our Head of Inclusion – he told me it was a great course and that I should look into it. I was doing another online course at the time with a different provider but having a few issues which had slightly put me off distance learning! He told me that Real Training’s online set up was really good and the tutor support was amazing.
It’s definitely helped me become a stronger leader and refine my personal leadership style. LSAs have commented how easy they now find it to approach me and how they value our relationship. I used to approach difficult conversations with some trepidation but I now feel well equipped to have these productively.
It’s also really helped my organisational skills – I already knew the pedagogy and intervention side of things, because of my background in special schools, but being able to learn how to actually coordinate provision at a higher level has been really beneficial and was lovely to learn.
There’s a huge demand for SENCO and inclusion teachers in the UAE now and gaining a good quality postgraduate qualification in SEN can really expand your career. Having Real Training’s iSENCO on my CV has made a big difference and helped me secure a new role in a really good school. Hopefully my next step is as a SENCO and then Head of Inclusion.
Definitely the leadership development and being able to analyse and evaluate SEND processes and coordination in my school.
I also really liked the project comparing how SEND was delivered in my school compared to another. Going into another setting – seeing what things work and taking back ideas to improve your own SEN provision – that’s really invaluable for SEN professionals.
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This week, Manor Fields Primary School in Bishop’s Stortford welcomed a special guest; the Minister for School Standards in the Department for Education, Catherine McKinnell MP. The visit showcased the positive impact of the Level 5 Specialist Teaching Assistant Apprenticeship, delivered by Educational and Sporting Futures (ESF), on school staff and pupils.
Teaching assistants have the opportunity to build close bonds with the pupils they support and play a highly significant role in shaping their experience of learning. In this article, we take a look at how TAs can provide the best support to dyslexic pupils, not only in terms of developing reading and writing skills, but also helping to build self-confident, independent learners.
The conference offers the opportunity a to hear expert views and examine current topical issues relating to dyslexia and other SpLDs. You’ll have the chance to listen to our four keynote speakers, who will be providing presentations about morphology, understanding and supporting dyslexia and ADHD, assessing language in adults, and guidance about gathering and interpreting qualitative data during assessments!
What do you think?