How to teach students with dyslexia understand sequencing

A secondary school shows how it helps students with dyslexia order their thoughs by a using process called sequencing. St Luke's School in Swindon is a secondary school for students with moderate learning difficulties. Dr John Stein of the Dyslexia Research Trust explains why sequencing letters and symbols can be a problem for students with dyslexia. He believes a multi-sensory approach can help students learn how to sequence. In a lesson about Guy Fawkes, SENCO Jo Hale uses various techniques to reinforce sequencing. She brings in sound and pictures to emphasise the story and makea strong associations which students can use later to remember. She demonstrates how to use a soundscape and how to tell the story, and then asks students to place pictures relating to the story in order. Finally, Jo goes over the story again by asking the students to record the story, so they remember key points.

A Multi-Sensory Approach to Sequencing

Zircus Eldorado visit Cristoph Tornee school in Germany

The Christoph-Tornee School in Germany caters for pupils with mild to moderate learning difficulties. This week, the have some rather unusual visitors. Zirkus Eldorado is a traditional family-run circus that offers project weeks to schools. They've pitched their big-top on the field next to the school and will spend the week teaching staff and pupils a variety of circus skills, improving the pupils' coordination and self-confidence. The circus theme is carried into classroom lessons, which include writing poems and stories, making decorations for the tent and preparing music to accompany the acts. Follow three pupils as they work towards their gala circus performance in front of friends and family, with the theme helping to link different curriculum areas and create excitement.

A Very Special Circus

Using AfL in enterprise education at a special school

A special school shows how it has developed an enterprise education scheme to give students opportunities for self-assessment and independent learning, tying into the Assessment for Learning (AfL) model. Headteacher Maxine Pittaway and her team have developed practical enterprise education schemes that work alongside the mainstream curriculum, and encourage self-assessment, peer mentoring and independent learning. The students and teachers at St Christopher's, Wrexham, are successfully running sustainable social enterprises from within the school premises, including a hairdressing salon cafe and a car valeting service. This helps students to gain confidence and practical social skills and feed their experiences back into the classroom and their every day learning. Maxine and her team have found that these opportunities for independent learning fit well into the AfL model that they've embedded throughout the school, one of the largest special schools in Wales.

AfL in Special Schools - A Case Study

Dyslexic students are taught techniques to record their learning

A secondary school shows its creative solutions to making sure students with dyslexia have understood lessons, including demonstrating their learning through drama, animation and audio recordings. St Luke's School in Swindon is a secondary school for students with moderate learning difficulties. In a lesson on Guy Fawkes, students, supported by teacher Luke Wareham retell the gunpowder plot to show their learning. Rather than writing, the groups use different techniques to record their understanding. One groups uses drama, another creates audio files and a third group makes a stop-frame animation. Luke plays to the strengths of his students and finally puts the story together in one presentation. This method ensures students can focus, and enjoy the lesson as active learners. Dyslexia expert, University of Oxford Professor John Stein, explains why this active element, otherwise known as a mutli-senory approach to learning, helps students with dyslexia retain information more efficiently.

Alternative Methods of Recording

A personal insight into living with Asperger's Syndrome

Troubled Minds is a series of four short animated films, narrated by young people who have been real-life sufferers from a range of psychological illnesses and syndromes. In this video, a seemingly well-behaved and well-performing school student, describes the emotional distress he felt as his Asperger's syndrome caused him to struggle socially at school.

Asperger's Syndrome

Estelle Morris speaks with SEN expert Baroness Warnock

In this insightful interview, Estelle Morris talks to Baroness Warnock about her 1978 report on special educational needs. Warnock speaks frankly about what was wrong with the report, and talks about the new research that has come to light over the last 30 years. With society changing rapidly, what is the best way forward for the education of children with special educational needs? The Baroness also discusses the teaching of science, languages and philosophy in our schools. How can participation be raised, and is our teaching approach outdated?

Baroness Warnock

Follow the learning experiences of three autistic brothers

Including pupils on the autistic spectrum at primary and secondary brings particular challenges for schools. This whole-school video on SEN shows an honest account of life with autism, with views from three autistic brothers. Inclusion can be challenging for teachers, and for the pupil school life can be a buzzing confusion of uncertainty. Meet brothers Luke, Joe and Ben Jackson. Their mother Jacqui is outspoken and articulate about how teachers can support pupils with autism, and the boys are extremely candid about how their condition affects them. For Luke, there are many positives. He describes brother Joe as 'the most imaginative person you could ever meet' and Ben as 'the nicest and most honest kid'. Jacqui and the boys share their ideas about living with autism, as do the teachers who are working with Joe and Ben to ensure their inclusion in school life. There's also an exercise devised by Luke that helps teachers imagine what the world is like for people with autistic spectrum disorders.

Being Different May Be Cool - On The Autistic Spectrum

Providing a support network for isolated and alienated students

A secondary teacher shows how she creates a support network, a circle of friends, to tackle challenging behaviour and promote inclusion in Year 7, including providing pupils with practical advice. Gemma Meiklejohn, director of inclusion at the Merchants Academy, Bristol, works with a group of Year 7 boys who for one reason or another have become alienated from their peers. She teaches the boys practical ways to support each other, in particular Mark, an SEN pupil who is autistic, by introducing a circle of friends system to provide back-up. Gemma also works with a challenging group of Year 7 girls to help them replace their current negative behaviour with a positive friendship model.

Circle of Friends

Using organic produce for school dinners and learning resources

An innovative programme that combines healthy school meals and environmental awareness education has blossomed in a Gloucestershire special needs school. When cook Pat Kendall started working at New Siblands, a special needs school, in South Gloucestershire, she was delighted to learn the administration wanted her to serve organic food. The school buys all produce locally, but Pat plans to turn the caretaker's flower plot into a market garden, with a little help from the Thornbury Horticultural Society. Not only will produce from her garden fill the school dinner pot, but pupils will be guided through the plot on field trips to learn about plant growth, complementing their lessons. Key points: <ul> <li>The school menu is adapted to reinforce what is being taught in the classroom - for Victorian Day, students tucked in to gruel!</li> <li>On her limited budget, Pat's scheme manages to both use more organic produce and serve less junk food</li> <li>Students participate in food preparation to gear up for careers in catering</li> </ul>

Dinner Granny

How one school supports an SEN student with challenging behaviour

Turves Green Boys School in Birmingham highlights how it has met the needs of Aaron, a student with both ADHD and Oppositional Defiance Disorder. With 20 per cent of students on the SEN register, the school has a full team of learning mentors who counsel pupils and find outside support where necessary. 15-year-old Aaron, whose behaviour has been challenging since Year 7, has benefited from a range of schemes, including an intensive three week behaviour management programme called FLIP - Flexible Learning Individual Pathways. Aaron has also gained significantly by taking part in Skill Force, a nationwide initiative that provides inspirational and motivational activities to around 8,000 14- to 16-year-olds a year. His behaviour has improved significantly thanks to this support as well as the strong relationship that has evolved between Aaron's mother and the teaching staff.

Professional Development for Quality Teaching

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