‘Why making maths accessible is so close to my heart’ by Carol Vorderman (Free offer)
Carol Vorderman was already a pioneer by being the first woman to appear on Channel 4 in Countdown. Her love of maths is still close to her heart—Carol also has …
Author: Special Needs Jungle
In support of striking teaching staff… SEND children need the right support and so do their teachers
As anyone with a child or young person in a state school or further education college will know, the vast majority of children will be at home today as thousands …
The autistic girls are out there: Losing the gender bias in diagnosing autism
by Dr Felicity Sedgewick and Hannah McLinden, University of Bristol It has always been the case that the number of boys being diagnosed with autism far outnumbers the number of …
Join our call for Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, to PAUSE further SEND reform plans and PUBLISH the SEND Review responses now!
Christmas is upon us, but we have one more act for this year before we finish. We have decided to write a post directed at Gillian Keegan, Secretary of State …
Making Supported Internships work so young people with learning disabilities and autism can thrive
with Julie Pointer, Programme Lead for Children and Young People, NDTi Earlier this year, the Government announced plans, as part of a multi-million-pound funding initiative, to improve supported internships. Supported …
Help us help a SEND family this Christmas: Nominate to win an Amazon voucher or (if you can) donate to help more people!
++ This giveaway is now closed++ If you nominated, check your email and your spam ++ We’re pushing it for time a little, as winter lurgy has nearly defeated us… …
Ofsted: New area SEND inspection framework can be a “catalyst for change”
with Kathryn Rudd, Ofsted Senior HMI for SEND As time has gone on Ofsted and CQC’s SEND area inspections have provided an important, though flawed, accountability route for the 2014 …
Don’t write us off before we’ve started, say autistic pupils in new campaign to protect rights and funding
With Megan Horan, Ambitious About Autism A new campaign to stop autistic children and young people being ‘written off’ at school is being launched today by charity, Ambitious about Autism. …
Parent-blaming to avoid professional accountability is a human rights issue
with Katherine Uher, parent and psychotherapist and Benji Uher We’ve run a number of articles that feature the injustice of staff in local authorities and health services using parent-blaming as …
10 top tips for moving local authority with an EHCP
with Liz Arriens Troy, a parent of a child with Down Syndrome The 2014 SEND reforms were supposed to have made EHCPs more easy to move between local authorities when …
How will the government-funded RISE partnership improve local areas’ SEND provision?
with Anna Gardiner, Assistant Director – Health , Council for Disabled Children Earlier this year the Department for Education announced £12 million of funding to directly support schools and colleges to …
What is “special educational provision” in law? How a case of electromagnetic hypersensitivity may help future appeals
Article by Ed Duff, HCB Solicitors A very interesting SEND appeal in the Upper Tribunal caught our eye recently. A family was appealing in a dispute over what could be …
SNJ’s response to the EHCP Annual Review Timescales consultation
The Department for Education consultation on EHCP Timescales closed last month. We put in our own response, and we’re publishing it today. It contains not only our answers to the …
What influences the emotional wellbeing of young people with severe dyslexic difficulties?
with Claire Durrant, Researcher, University of Sussex When our child(ren) have a SEND diagnosis, they can be made to feel stupid, isolated, rejected by thoughtless peers and often, shockingly, by …
The #SENDReview must embed Speech, Language and Communication skills across education, especially teacher training
with Amy Loxley, Lead Speech and Language Advisor for I CAN, One of the major criticisms of the SEND Review is its silence about the revolution in SEND teacher training …
What the evidence says about the 13 crucial areas for quality in Alternative Provision
with Dennis Simms, IntegratED Hub Lead The SEND Review Green Paper places great emphasis on including alternative provision within a “single system” with mainstream and special schools. The DfE want …
#SENDReview: A vision for Alternative Provision, but where’s the evidence?
by Susie Lenihan, Renata Blower & Tania Tirraoro Chapter 4 of the SEND Review Green paper is focused on reforming the way alternative provision is used and integrating it within …
#SENDReview: Why mandatory mediation in SEND appeals isn’t wanted–or needed
with Margaret Doyle, author, accredited SEND mediator One of the proposals in the SEND Review Green Paper is for compulsory mediation before parents can register an appeal at the SEND …
SNJ Report: The casual bias and daily discrimination faced by disabled children and their families from ethnic and marginalised communities
A new SNJ survey has highlighted how racial discrimination and unconscious bias are everyday experiences for disabled children and their families from ethnic and marginalised communities. Parents say they, and …
Launching the SNJ Intersectionality Panel focusing on disability, race, and cultural discrimination in SEND
With Marguerite Haye and Mala Thapar, Leads for the SNJ Intersectionality Panel *If this is not an issue that affects you personally, please still share this post on social media …