SEND News

 It has been lovely to welcome the children back to school this term. Thank you for your supporting the children to come onto the site independently. There are always adults at every gate that are keen to assist you should your child need support.  It was lovely to see so many SEND children visiting the school during the afternoon of 2nd September. We hope the children enjoyed the opportunity to meet their new teachers and see the classroom set up without the other children around. We enjoyed welcoming parents in again for these visits. For families awaiting speech and language assessments, please be aware of the following updates: Norfolk & Waveney Children’s SaLT transferred to Cambridgeshire Community Services on 2nd August making closer working with Health Visitors, School Nurses and other Healthy Child Programme professionals much easier. The service is being redesigned to better meet the needs for all children and young people in Norfolk and Waveney . They will updat...

We hope you are all enjoying the warmer weather. At this time of year children and adults begin to look ahead to September. This blog will focus on transition plans.  For our children children with SEND the following arrangements have been made: On the 7th, 8th, 9th July we will be having 3 internal transition days. The children will move up to their new classes and spend time with their new teachers and teaching assistants. High school transitions will take place during the same days.  In September if appropriate your child will be invited to visit the school on one of our INSET days. This will give them an opportunity to see the classroom set up without the other children around. Please be aware that this is not for all children identified with SEND, but just those that struggle with transitions. The class teacher will contact you if they feel this is appropriate.  For the first few weeks of term there will be a focus on building relationships and establishing new routi...

The children have started to enjoy some brighter weather (despite the showers) and they have had fun playing on the field and in the trees. It has been lovely to hear the children speak with such excitement about upcoming plans for holidays and seeing family as restrictions ease.  As opportunities to socialise and interact with others become more frequent, for some children this can cause anxiety. If your child is struggling with anxiety at the moment there are some good resources available to support them:  ThinkNinja is an app recommended by the NHS for 10-18year olds to educate them about mental health and emotional wellbeing.   Just One Norfolk have expanded their website and now have a range of activities and resources offered on their website to help your young people. These include activities for boosting self-esteem, low mood, anger and many more.  Children's Emotional Health Advice & Support - Just One Norfolk If you have ongoing concerns about your...

 We hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Easter and managed to enjoy the sunshine.  Thank you to those of you that signed up for a SEND parent consultation slot. There were some very useful discussions regarding SEND provision for your children.  If you haven't done so already, please make sure you complete the parent section of your child's One Page Profile and return it to school asap. We really value your comments and input, especially after lockdown.  Since Easter we have been pleased we welcome a dance therapist into school. She is working with small groups of children in years 2,3 and 4. This group is not necessarily for children with SEND, but it aims to promote emotional development and boost the confidence of the children involved.  As you may have noticed from the newsletter ASD Helping Hands has recently updated their website. They are a good source of advice and they have some updated resources you may find helpful.  As we begin the summer term chil...

 It has been lovely to see all the children back in school enjoying time with their friends. Thank you for your support in ensuring that the transition back to school went smoothly.  The children have been enjoying the recovery curriculum designed to support children's mental and emotional wellbeing following the turbulence of the last year. Classes have been sharing stories, discussing mental health and the teachers have prioritised spending time with the children to discuss any concerns and rebuild relationships.  Due to the current pandemic and school reopening there have been some very good resources released to support families to manage stress and promote wellbeing at this time. In order to ensure you can access them we will continue to highlight them on the weekly newsletter rather than wait for this monthly blog.  If your child is struggling with anxiety there are some very good websites that may help you open the discussion. Just One Norfolk- Anxiety Barnard...

Last week children in school and at home enjoyed engaging in activities to mark children's mental health week. This year's theme was 'express yourself'. We hope you enjoyed engaging in activities with your children and we hope they were able to explore new ways to express themselves.  We hope you all took advantage of the snow this week for a welcome break from screens to enjoy the outdoors. I'm sure there were lots of very excited children.  The teachers and teaching assistants have been working hard to establish remote interventions to enhance and support the children that are unable to return to school. If you are contacted by a member of staff and offered an intervention please take up the offer as they have been designed to address gaps in your child's learning.  If your child is able to please encourage them to join the morning remote check- ins with their teacher. It is a good way to keep regular contact and an opportunity for them to see some familiar fa...

I hope you all had a good Christmas period.  After one day back at school we now find ourselves in an all too familiar situation of a National Lockdown. For some children the next few weeks will prove very challenging and I would like to use this blog post to signpost you to some online wellbeing support.  Just One Norfolk- This website has a good Covid support section with links to support for adults and children https://www.justonenorfolk.nhs.uk/covid-19-coronavirus-faqs Childline- Childline have put together a coping kit for children that provides activities to do if you are feeling overwhelmed.  https://www.childline.org.uk/toolbox/coping-kit/ Please find below useful links to websites offering wellbeing and emotional support.  I will keep updating this blog as more useful resources arrive. If you need support or advice please email sendco@mulbartonprimary.norfolk.sch.uk