Welcome to our third edition of our Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) newsletter. We have already started the term on the front foot with our SEND INSET day on Monday 30th October. The day saw the whole Federation come together and move through a carousel of training including: Autism Strategies led by Lambeth Autism Advisory teacher Noel Gardner and Zones of Regulation training led by Rachel Lord and Ali Boston, Highly specalised Speech and Language therapists. This edition will give you an overview on how we use Zones of Regulation to support children's emotional development.

I have had the pleasure of meeting many of you over the first half term, and look forward to our continued work together.

Best wishes

Kathryn Congdon

Zones of Regulation was developed by Leah Kuypers, Occupational Therapist as "a framework designed to foster self-regulation and emotional control." We use Zones of regulation to help children to identify, understand and feel empowered as they move between emotional states (zones).This framework enables children to understand and give them Self regulation, which is the ability to adjust level of alertness and direct how emotions are revealed. We teach the children to identify the coloured zone they are in and provide them with the tools to move between the zones. All of our children have emotion check ins during the school day (time to reflect on how they feel) which supports the development of identifying and understanding emotions.

Executive SENCo

October 10th 2023 was World Mental Health day. We marked this across the federation as part of our Wellbeing week and encouraged children to wear yellow to support YoungMinds a charity that provides support for children and help for parents of children with mental health needs. Thank you for all of your donations to this worthy charity.

We are continuing to learn new Makaton signs each week, these are the ones we have learnt this week and will be learning next week.

Last Month I visited the TES SEND show, this was a great opportunity to hear what's going on all things SEND and think about what resources and technology we can invest in as a federation.

Dav Pilkey the global best selling Author Phenomenon says ADHD and dyslexia are his superpowers. The creator of "Captain Underpants" and "Dog Man" states that his ADHD "helped me to write stories that were not boring, and my dyslexia helped me too. It helped me to choose my words very, very carefully.' As a child Pilkey recalls that his hyperactivity got him in trouble a lot at school. "My teacher would just point to the classroom door and say, 'Mr Pilkey out!' and I'd have to go sit out in the hallway.' But he used that time to work on his drawing and storytelling. He created Captain Underpants and Dog Man in second grade!

The first point of contact should always be your child's class teacher, please always discuss your concerns with them before contacting a member of the inclusion team. The teachers and support staff who work with your children really value the relationships they have with their classes and are in the strongest position to speak to you about how your child is getting on at school.