Welcome to our seventh edition of our Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) newsletter. We are now well over half way through our academic year and this month we are thinking about fine motor skills. Fine motor skills are the coordination of small muscles in movement with the eyes, hands and fingers, essential in developing neat handwriting. Much of our early years curriculum builds around developing these skills and as children move up the school interventions support the development of these skills for key learners. Read on to learn more about what this looks like at school and how you can support the development of fine motor at home.

This issue also contains details of a coffee morning in the summer term. I hope to see many of you then

Best wishes

Kathryn Congdon

Fine motor skills are one of the easiest skills to work on at home as the development of hand muscles is aided though so many every day tasks. Using cutlery, baking and dressing and undressing all support the coordination of small muscles in movement with the eyes, hands and fingers. The development of these muscles aids children in developing neat legible handwriting. But what happens when children struggle with the coordination of letter formation and to express their ideas in handwriting. Many of our children take part in fine motor skills intervention groups. These are delivered in small groups and have a focus directed by the needs of the children, e.g. specific letter formation, cutting, or pre writing hand strengthening.

There are lots of reasons why children can struggle to with handwriting for example, Autistic children can struggle with motivation, Dyslexic learners can struggle with spelling and so have poor writing fluency. There are also children with poor motor control. The teachers knowledge of the children in their class means that they are able to support them best some children use pencil grips to support the holding of the pencil. Some of our children are learning to touch type to be able to translate their ideas to paper and some of our children use assistive technology to get their work completed. These children use a combination of ways to express their ideas.
Ultimately we want all the children to be able to leave our federation readers and writers and so by focusing on the mechanics of writing and by recognising the difficulties some of our children have we are better able to achieve that aim.

See below for the link for parents from Occupational therapy and the federation handwriting policy, which details what is taught when.

We continue to expand our Makaton signing each week, these are this week's and next week's signs.

Executive SENCo

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Mariama one of the founders of local charity Autismvoice.org.uk. The charity based in Clapham Manor street, provide support and education for families and young people who have autism and co-occurring conditions. I know many of our families already have links with the charity but, we will be welcoming them into all our schools across the federation to meet more of you and share what they can do for you. See below for coffee mornings dates; https://www.autismvoice.org.uk/

British Sign language (BSL) week will be from 18th-24th March and is organised by the British Deaf Association (BDA) to coincide with the anniversary of the recognition of BSL as an official language. Rosie Cooper, former MP and child of deaf adults considers BSL her first language and was responsible for bringing a private members Bill to Parliment for the recognition of BSL as an official language. This change has led to greater recognition and understanding of BSL and greater inclusion and equality for BSL users.

Many believe Makaton and BSL are the same and used by the same groups of people, but this is a common misconception.

Makaton uses hand signs alongside speech and was designed to use with people with a learning difficulties or communication problems. For example, people, particularly young children, with Autism, Down’s Syndrome or verbal dyspraxia may use Makaton to communicate their wants and needs to others. Teachers and those who work with young children may also use Makaton to encourage the children to become more confident in communicating.

BSL is used by members of the Deaf community as their first or preferred language. Profoundly Deaf BSL users may have limited access to spoken and written English, making their communication very different from Makaton users who can hear.

(Source SignSolutions)

The start of this month has seen all of our year 6 children finding out where they will be going in September, this is an exciting and daunting time for both children and parents. We are already planning transition activities in the summer term to prepare the children. However, do let your child's class teacher know, at the upcoming parents evening, if you have a specific concern that you would like us to support with.

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.