[senco-forum] Dept development plans

Hello Ruth
  Lovely to hear from you.  And speaking your usual common sense!
  I agree with you.  I put down loads and then add something like 'Respond to the demands caused by new pupils, new courses etc' at the end.  We have had to develop everything from learning BSL to managing pupils who need mechanical hoists and toileting, from coping with spoon feeding pupils (and then mechanical feeding using a peg) to working with those who are scared to walk round the school clockwise, from supporting with a child with ASD and an IQ which peaked at 141 to working with a child with an IQ of below 50.  It is never dull, is it!
  Amanda
  Secondary SENCO
  Cornwall

Ruth Newbury <rmnewbury at ntlworld.com> wrote:
  Janice - this is not stealing - blatant or otherwise - this is brainstorming
- and brainstorming with the ones with the best ideas too!

Personally I like to put down a lot of things - knowing that they won't all
be done - but showing what needs to be done - and more or less covering all
eventualities too

I used to get told off - and asked to reduce them to only two things - that
I MUST do - and my developing department - and me - would be judged on how I
did it!!!!!! (And they were like IEPs (and you know how much I love them -
designed to be achievable and to show continuity and progression - much
easier to say you will move to a new exam syllabus and need a new set of
text books!)

I dislike this approach - because SEN (or whatever you choose to call it) is
dependent upon the school ethos - and whether the management choose to see
it as an embedded facility - a foundation of what is done - or whether they
regard it as a bolt-on department - designed to field whatever can't be
managed by anyone else!

I always argued that I needed to develop the "riddle" (or sieve) approach -
where I caught everyone who fell through the gaps - and didn't fit into
those nice round holes - and that what I was doing was designed to cover all
eventualities - for the benefit of the whole school.

The people who record and plan school development plans appear not to like
my approach too much - SEN appeared to them to only merit a very small slice
of cake!

So pinch all those good ideas - and make an enormous development plan for
you which will show your school just what is really needed.

Good luck.

Regards

Ruth

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of WrayJanice Wray
Sent: 18 September 2007 18:05
To: senco forum
Subject: [senco-forum] Dept development plans

I am blatantly asking for ideas.
We are all writing our dept dev plans right now - I have out on: 
More TAs; improve communication between TAs and teachers using e-mail to
send lesson plans, worksheets for differentiation etc; improve facilities by
adding another room adjoining current SEN room, HLTA training for one TA and
a games club which a TA is starting to encourage competition and a challenge
with SEN pupils.
What has anyone else put ?
Janice - stealer of ideas and flippin blatant about it tooJanice Wray
Secondary SENCO, Herts
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Amanda
Secondary SENCO
Cornwall