More support ‘needed’ for children with learning difficulties November 13, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : Additional Support, Autism, SFL, inclusion , add a commentHolyrood reports that according to a new study Scottish children with learning difficulties are not receiving an appropriate level of educational care and support.
The study by charity Mindroom estimates that nearly a fifth of Scottish school children have a recognised learning difficulty. This would put the figure at around 120,000 affected pupils, much higher than the official figure of 30,000 children receiving learning support.
Mindroom believes that many children are suffering from a lack of expert supervision, particularly if they have disorders on the autistic spectrum. As part of a proposed package of reforms, the charity is calling for greater training for staff and more investment in learning difficulties research.
‘Parents as Partners’ November 3, 2008
Posted by Morna McDonald in : Additional Support, Literacy, Resources, SFL, reading , 1 comment so far‘Excellent!’ “A really enjoyable afternoon,” “It’s great to see what our children do”
These were some of the many very positive comments made by parents who attended our “Parents as Partners: Supporting Learners at Law” open afternoon last week. Our aims for the session were simple - to introduce parents to the Support for Learing team (in the wider sense), to share some of the games and activities we use, to look at the displays and resources and to encourage pupils and parents to play together. A bonus was to meet parents informally in a relaxed setting.
The room was soon buzzing with chatter and laughter as parents had a go at some games, tried ACE dictionaries, looked at some reading resources and enjoyed the displays of children working together. Laptops were set up with a range of web-based games and activities which proved to be extremely popular. The children joined their parents when classes finished and were soon sharing favourite games and websites with their families - it was delightful to see parents and children having fun together!
The focus was on literacy and Support for Learning teachers had prepared a range of handouts covering reading, spelling, writing, websites and internet safety. Parents helped themselves to these and had an opportunity to ask staff about mind mapping, strategies to support reluctant readers, paired reading and a host of other questions.
The children themselves were very involved in planning this successful event. They enjoyed using mindmaps to make the invitations, choosing their favourite games, acting as guides and having their photos taken for displays. Our in-house ‘paperazzi’ photographers came along too so there’s a lovely record of the afternoon.
Parents and childen were so busy in fact that they didn’t have time for coffee and juice!
Literacy - Reading in pairs October 24, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : Additional Support, Literacy, Resources, SFL, Training, reading , add a commenthttp://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6004293
Local authorities looking to use paired reading to improve literacy can now access tutor and trainer manuals and a parents’ leaflet on line.
From 2005 to 2008, Learning and Teaching Scotland worked with youth volunteering organisation ProjectScotland and pilot authorities to place young volunteers aged 16-25 in schools to support the development of literacy skills through paired reading.
“Blogs and Online diaries should be part of school curriculum ” says Thinktank October 8, 2008
Posted by Joan MacRae in : Access, Additional Support, Alternative Assessment, Curriculum, Home Teaching, ICT, inclusion , add a commentCharles Leadbeater introduced his lecture at the Scottish Learning Festival on 25/09/08 with a You tube clip of a teenage boy playing guitar in his bedroom. The clip had had 49 million hits!
A report in the Guardian 6/10/08 points out the claims of the Think tank, Demos, (with which Leadbeater is associated), that young people “are being failed by adults who are not paying proper attention to this new medium.”
“The study.. considers how their enthusiasm and skills can be encouraged.”
“The report makes recommendations to help adults cope with the changing online environment and calls particularly on schools to help youngsters understand the long term implications of living their lives in a semi-public way.”
“Schools should prepare young people for an era where CV’s may well be obsolete, enabling them to manage their on-line reputation .” says the report, “we need an educational response that extends beyond the focus of safety towards broader questions of privacy and intellectual property.”
I was personally concerned about the information my teenage daughter was relaying about herself on Facebook, especially when she realised that her boss had added herself as a friend.
Politicians see youngsters as apathetic and unreachable, according to the Guardian.
“The (UK )government is pouring money into this because they feel young people should be making themselves heard”…”but bloggers say it feels contrived.”
Barack Obama in the United States, on the other hand, is said to be the first ‘Youtube politician’ because “he gets that you can’t control it. His campaign team get that its about the enthusiasm”…”he encouraged (young voters) to exercise their creative urges online, instead of simply dictating his ideas to them.”
More support for special needs children October 8, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : Additional Support, inclusion , 1 comment so farhttp://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2008/10/07092746
The Government has announced that the rights of children with additional support needs (ASN) and their parents are to be strengthened through changes to the Additional Support for Learning Act 2004.
Parents of ASN children, including those with a co-ordinated support plan (CSP), will now be able to request that their child attend a school in another local authority, through an out of area placing request.
Where a child has a CSP - the educational plan to meet their needs - parents will also have a right to appeal to the ASN Tribunal for Scotland if the placing request is refused. Furthermore, when a child is attending a school in another authority as a result of a placing request they will now have access to mediation and dispute resolution from the new ‘host’ authority.
The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Bill - which amends the Additional Support for Learning Act 2004 - will mean that if an out of area placing request is successful, responsibility for the child’s or young person’s education transfers to the new ‘host’ authority. The Bill will also extend the circumstances in which parents can make references to the ASN Tribunal.Todays News - Wednesday 8 October 2008 - Inbox - Yahoo Mail
Relationships and Participation with Pupils and Parents October 7, 2008
Posted by Joan MacRae in : Additional Support, Early Intervention, Home Teaching, NHS ASL, SFL, Uncategorized, inclusion , add a commentI listened to Charles Leadbeater at the Scottish Learning Festival and was excited by his notions of :”Learning with rather than teaching to pupils ;the learner as participant not an empty vessel; and community being crucial to the learning process”
I reflected on my work with a P.1 pupil who had cognitive difficulties. Her barriers to learning were compounded by social and emotional deprivation and her family had difficulty in providing an environment to offset some of the disadvantages she was born with.
Unfortunately working and learning with parents is time consuming and costly. Leadbeater says that we may have exhausted other avenues for further development in education except in “Personalisation and collaboration.” A redistribution of resourcing and flexibility of provision might reach pupils currently missed.
TESS (3/10/08), reporting on several speakers at the Learning Festival says the emphasis needs to be on “Relationships”.
Martin Rouse called on schools to focus on “relationships,respect and recognition” while Professor Teese said that Scotland should be strengthening relationships within its schools.
Government announces funding for support of parents with additional needs children August 29, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : Additional Support, inclusion , add a commenthttp://www.holyrood.com/content/view/2878/10051/
The Minister for Children and Early Years Adam Ingram has announced the Scottish Government funding for advocacy services for parents of children with additional support needs (ASN). The two main voluntary services that support and represent parents in Scotland challenging their child’s ASN educational provision are to receive £110,000 to assist them with this work over this financial year, following one of the groups, the Independent Special Education Advice (ISEA) Scotland, main grant funder, the Big Lottery Fund, not renewing its grant this year. Ingram said: “The Scottish Government wants all our children to receive an education that maximises learning and encourages development. This is particularly relevant when a child has additional support needs to be considered.
Unblock thinking to learn more August 22, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : Additional Support, inclusion , 1 comment so farhttp://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6001223
Traditional remedial classes could soon be replaced by an ‘instrumental enrichment’ programme. Elizabeth Buie reports. A thinking skills programme in the Borders has improved the attainment of youngsters with learning problems and won praise from teachers and senior management. An evaluation of the Scottish Borders Council’s “instrumental enrichment” programme by a team from Strathclyde University’s Quality in Education Centre suggests it could be more successful in the long term than traditional remedial classes. However, to be truly effective, the programme, based on the work of the Israeli educationist Reuven Feuerstein, had to be prolonged and comprehensive. The backing of senior school management and resources from the local authority were also seen as essential. There were indications that pupils who had taken part in the Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment (FIE) programme became more active classroom participants, more inclined to listen to others, more likely to defend their opinions based on logical evidence, better able to articulate how they solved problems, more likely to read spontaneously and follow written instructions, and better able to handle several sources of information simultaneously. One reason for this progress could be that the teachers involved were found to have significantly changed their attitudes towards learning and learners.
Rich conversations about learning recorded by infants August 19, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : Access, Additional Support, Literacy, inclusion , add a commentMy-E http://www.futurelab.org.uk/projects/my_…
My-E (My Education) is a prototype online visual environment that can support very young students to explore and express their own personal learning experiences, interests and aims.
The software application allows young children (aged 5 and 6) to construct stories about their learning experiences and preferences through multi-layered representations (such as shapes, icons and sounds), which teachers, adults and parents/carers help them to develop. The aim of this is to encourage children, parents/carers and teachers/adults to be more involved in rich conversations about learning that can help foster greater links between homes and schools and support a more personalised educational approach.
Wouldn’t it be good if it were suitable for older learners with literacy / communication difficulties?
Time to see things from a different point of view June 24, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : Access, Additional Support , add a commentThe Herald Society features the experiences of Natasha Stevens, a 14-year-old pupil who suffers from complex vision problems - in fact she has several, including colour blindness and night blindness as well as cone rod dystrophy and retinitis pigmentosa - two progressive eye conditions.
‘If school work given to Natasha is not perfectly formatted - in the right font and size, and on a white background, then she can’t use it. Pictures also need to be separate from text. For the most part, her schoolteachers try enlarging handouts onto A3 paper - but, according to her mother, that can make the letters fuzzy and hard to read. “They think they’re doing good, but they are just making it harder for Natasha…’
Unfortunately this experience is common for blind and partially-sighted children, according to the Royal National Institute of Blind People in Scotland (RNIB) which launched a campaign on the issue of educational materials at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre yesterday.
The Right to Learn campaign is calling for a National Education Transcription Service which would transcribe curriculum material to a consistent professional standard, at the same time as it is being produced for other pupils.
RNIB Scotland launches ‘Right to Read’ campaign http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/publicwebsite/public_scotnews08_ia485fe654-8.hcsp
Launch event highlighting shortage of educational material in accessible formats.
RNIB Scotland says blind and partially sighted schoolchildren can still struggle to access textbooks in a format they can understand.
They have launched a new campaign to highlight the dearth of educational material available in braille, large print, CD or audio. A giant poster was unveiled in Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre yesterday by young people who themselves have sight loss.
RNIB Scotland is proposing that a National Education Transcription Service be established that could transcribe curriculum material to a consistent professional standard, and be a single point for liaison with educational publishers.
The campaign is being supported by a youth forum, ‘Haggeye’, set up by and for 12 to 25 year-olds with sight loss in Scotland.
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