[senco-forum] Help

Thanks for that Amanda.

I went into a school which had this same problem. Some children would never 
even walk past the 'special needs' room in case somebody thought they were 
going there. This did not apply to the most able pupils but almost 
exclusively to those who were perhaps borderline themselves.

We tackled it this way. I persuaded a Latin teacher to use the 'special 
needs' for two periods each week. Only very high status pupils took Latin so 
this solved the problem of the status of the room. This need not have been 
Latin - it could have been any other high status subject. The most important 
thing is the particular teacher who will appreciate why you want to do this.

The  SENco swapped a teaching period with a Maths teacher so that she was no 
longer associated exclusively with special needs pupils.

This probably did not solve the problem completely but it did help 
enormously. I have visited many 'special needs rooms' and can appreciate 
why, in some cases,  some children find them difficult. I have seen too many 
things which were reminiscent of Junior and Infant school displays - too 
much coloured sugar paper on the walls etc. Perhaps this is something that 
could also be looked at.

Eddie C.

Eddie C.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Angela Karuga Mutinda" <angela.mutinda at gmail.com>
To: "Amanda" <amandavh at btinternet.com>
Cc: "Sanderson" <sanderson at macunlimited.net>; "senco-forum" 
<senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk>
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2006 8:21 AM
Subject: Re: [senco-forum] Help

> Thanks for that Amanda.
> Finding that that student with street cred will be my challenge of the 
> week
> now.
> They're all really good at either music ,sports, drama & art, I'm trying 
> to
> find ways of using those channels too.
> a.
>
>
> On 04/09/06, Amanda <amandavh at btinternet.com> wrote:
>>
>>  Hi Angela
>> Yep - this situation does remain.  Not usually 'nut cases' but more often
>> 'dumbos' or 'losers'.  What you need is someone with real street cred who
>> has some sort of leaning difficulty.  How you find him (and mine was a 
>> him)
>> is a bit of luck but when you do, celebrate the successes and make the
>> support visible.
>> Also you need to make sure that staff aren't unwittingly reinforcing the
>> stereotype.  It's good to be in set 1 for maths and science with literacy
>> support and set 5 for English if you are dyslexic but it won't help if 
>> staff
>> won't reward knowledge demonstrated through means other than reading and
>> writing.
>> Give 'your' kids pride - give them privilages if you can.
>> Amanda
>> Secondary SENCO
>> Cornwall
>> Back to the grindstone today - first job is to clean my office and move
>> the furniture back in!
>>
>>
>>
>> *Angela Karuga Mutinda <angela.mutinda at gmail.com>* wrote:
>>
>> I'm having a problem at school at the moment and was wondering if anyone
>> had
>> some good ideas.
>> I had a chat with a parent on Friday who said that the Learning Support
>> students are all seen as nut cases. Apparently everyone who I teach must
>> be
>> a nutcase.
>> We have a EAL teacher in school and he doesn't seem to have the same
>> problem.
>> I've thought about asking the form tutors to use PSHE to desensitize the
>> students.
>> I could also have a session with the parents but would I then hav eto do
>> it
>> for all parents?
>> In my last school it took ages to erase the stigma!
>> Angela
>>
>>
>> On 31/08/06, Sanderson wrote:
>> >
>> > I am new to this, could anyone give me any help with where I could
>> > purchase
>> > WRATS (assessment test) and toe by toe.
>> > Thanks Sue
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Amanda
>> Secondary SENCO
>> Cornwall
>> 