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.
“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.
More on Modern Foreign Language Learning September 2, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : Access, Curriculum, inclusion , add a comment‘Anybody can learn’
Let’s adopt the teaching methods of legendary language guru Michel Thomas, a new book pleads. Anthea Lipsett finds out why http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/sep/02/languages.schools
There’s a belief that languages either come naturally to a person, or they don’t. But to the late Michel Thomas, the “world’s greatest language master”, there was no such thing as a bad student, only a bad teacher.
It’s a view that grates with prevailing educational opinion. These days, children’s inability to learn is often blamed on a variety of learning disabilities. If teachers are brought into the equation, it is usually by ministers either claiming the workforce is the best trained it has ever been, or declaring that inadequate teachers must be fired.
Thomas believed his method, applied faithfully, would work with anyone. Students saw him as a magician. Now, in his new book The Language Revolution, the educational psychologist Jonathan Solity reveals how Thomas set about teaching foreign languages and the psychological principles behind his methods. He thinks they could revolutionise teaching, and help schools meet targets.
Modern Languages and Dyslexia September 2, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : Access, Curriculum, Dyslexia, inclusion , add a commentI had an interesting meeting at a high school last week with the parents of a boy who has just started S1. They felt that his dyslexic difficulties meant he should be withdrawn from French and he should receive extra tuition in English language skills.
I re-read a couple of excellent papers by Margaret Crombie, (Cognition and Learning Difficulties and Foreign Language Learning and Dyslexia), before dipping into LT Scotland’s superb resource, Maximising Potential. I also referred to Moira Thomson’s work for Dyslexia Scotland, Supporting Dyslexic Pupils in the Secondary School.
While all are agreed that foreign language learning presents young people with difficulties unique challenges, it is also the case that they have a right to be exposed to a different language and culture.
The conclusion we came to at the meeting was that the student should be able to access a variety of learning experiences, with a multi-sensory, cumulative focus, with an emphasis on talking and listening. He should have to write in French only rarely. When I have worked with teachers in MFL departments I have often been struck by their ability to make learning fun, to motivate young people with games and technology, to appeal to all different learning styles. They seem to know that variety is the spice of learning!
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?
Person Centred Planning June 26, 2008
Posted by Hilery Williams in : inclusion , 2comments
Several of us in East Lothian were privileged to attend training on Person Centred Planning provided by Inclusive Solutions http://www.inclusive-solutions.com/) in May.
My Mind Map illustrates the process of making a MAP (Making Action Plans) - a structure that is used at Review Meetings where the child is at the centre. It is ‘a way of organising around one person to define and create a better future’. The idea is that the people who speak the most should be the people who know the person best and that professionals listen to a person’s dreams and acknowledge her/his nightmares so as to decide on actions.
Many of us have already had some practice - with each other and in real review meetings - and are planning to carry on with this exciting method of planning next session.
P.S. If you want to see the Mind Map more clearly, just click on it and it will magically enlarge. Oh the wonders of technology.
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