Children with Sen and differentiated work

[Sauron]

I hope it’s okay to post here as I was wanting a bit of advice from people who are teachers. My dd is 10 and in year 5 at primary. She has autism and adhd and has a ft 1:1 at school. School are uploading learning to their website but my dd is struggling badly. An English lesson is a 40 slide PowerPoint presentation and several other documents. We’ve emailed the senco for advice and have been told her teacher is on a reduced timetable so sorry no other work and for maths just to do the maths from the other group (she’s not in this group) but can’t supply anything else. I just don’t want her to fall behind. I know about twinkl and BBC bitesize and Oak academy but I don’t want to go off doing things that won’t benefit her meaning there are even more gaps. Is anyone supplying differentiated work to children with Sen? Am I asking a lot? We’ve been focusing on English and maths and reading.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-online-education-resources/coronavirus-covid-19-list-of-online-education-resources-for-home-education#special-educational-needs-and-disabilities-send

I'm in a similar position. I have not had any support from the teachers either or guidance, I'm sure they are up to their eyes trying to work from home like everyone else. But we have to do what's right for our kids. I think the approach I'm going to take is pick and choose the tasks set that are working for my child, reduce their workload a bit as its impossible to get everything the school is setting in without a lot of stress, and also do what works for me, even if that means having some of my own resources that aside from the school. It's hard isn't it.

I've been setting separate work for one of my pupils who is working at a level 4 years below his year group. It didn't take long and frankly why wouldn't I?

I think I'd take one of two approaches if I was you. Either find alternative work for her, perhaps choose a topic she enjoys and do some writing related to that, perhaps some art, cooking if appropriate. Have a look for some VE Day activities perhaps.
Or contact the SENCO and Head and ask again why work is not being differentiated for her. Push for something appropriate for her to do.

Personally I think that PowerPoint sounds crazy. We've been told that we're not to try to provide a typical days lessons but to set work that can be completed without necessarily having to learn a new skill.

@Tidypidy I’ve spoken to her 1:1 who says the work isn’t right for her. There’s three teachers across two classes and they’re sharing content so one is producing a video a day. Most of the English is 38 slides on a PowerPoint with a video. That’s what we’ve decided to do. Find something she loves and focus on that as she was becoming hugely upset trying to do it. We’ve also gone back to the senco. You sound like a lovely teacher who cares.

@jan9876 sorry to hear you’re in the same position. Horrible isn’t it. I’ve spent the month feeling like I’m failing. I’ve looked at bitesize, Oak academy and twinkl to give me some ideas but I wanted to keep in line with what they were studying in class.

Our school send out a learning letter everyday predicting how long it takes to do each subject adding up to a total of 6 hours a day. I also have an 11 year old who has the same amount of work, a 7 year old with very complex special needs and a part time job. So it has all been a bit overwhelming.

I'm providing different planning for each of the 9 children in my class, but that doesn't help you!

I'n your position I would choose whichever one of the other platforms your DD prefers and go with that. All children will have done different amounts of learning/ practise when we go back, including plenty who haven't done any. I'd not worry about slavishly following the same lessons.

I'm not a teacher but have been in touch with the SENCO a lot the last few weeks as my child wasn't coping and it was getting very worrying.

Work has been adjusted for the whole class and it is helping, I don't think my child was the only one with SEN who couldn't manage.

I really appreciate the teacher and SENCOs efforts to change things as I didn't ask for that but it has helped!

If they can't change the work I'd definitely just do your own thing. Just try and cover the basics.

@reefedsail that’s reassuring thank you. It’s just upsetting that they’re not bothered but then we’ve had a lot of issues with them anyway. I think we’ll just follow our own thing for work. Lots of reading, she’s practicing her typing and doing a maths program which she doesn’t mind. There’s very few children with Sen in the school (they’re known as not a Sen friendly school) so we had hoped they’d consider making some adjustments for us.

Hi Sauron
How are you getting on? You sound like you have a lot on your plate. I think if you stick to platforms your dd likes and is willing to do and are covering Maths and reading you are doing well. Our school has many children with SEN and I have still not had an email from SENCO or teacher regarding this. Im very disappointed - i am not expecting much as i know they are really busy, but even a supportive email explaining that we are allowed to do what works for our dc would really help. I feel guilty not doing the work set by the class but its just not going to help my dd and its causing a lot of stress for both of us. Plus I don't want them to think im not cooperating or trying. Good luck!

I’ve heard from our 1:1 who says she’s been tasked with doing our differentiated work which has made me feel bad as she has three kids at home. And a little annoyed because although she’s amazing, she’s not a qualified teacher and my dd struggles enough without having her education not delivered by a teacher.

Have you emailed both the senco and teacher and explained? We were polite saying we understood the situation but it was a reasonable adjustment to have different work set. We’ve pretty much given up on the school stuff. My eldest (year 6) does his. But I’m not going force my dd to do it. I think anything educational and lots of reading is probably best as the school work was taking the fun out of learning.

How are you getting on?

I'm in a similar situation, OP, albeit with older DC.

DD18 is at college and has LD/ASD etc and usually has an LSA to support her in class - she has tried to reach out to her teachers several times on the learning platform saying she doesn't understand, only to be told to follow her timetable and log into the online lessons. But she doesn't understand what the teachers are saying as she has no support and while I can muddle along with her and explain the basics, I'm not au fait with how BTECs are assessed, nor with the course content, and I'm really just guessing.

DS has ASD/ADHD and is supposed to be finishing his GCSE retakes - he has already resigned himself to the fact he's going to fail maths again as all his maths work is now being assessed via an app that he finds completely inaccessible as a result of his SEN.

I've spoken to both colleges - DS's SENCo is fantastic and has arranged for all the work to be printed from the app and sent home to him. Whereas it's just continued radio silence from DD's college - they just want to tick the box to say she's attending but don't seem to know what to do about the fact she can't actually engage with the material!

I just keep telling myself 'there's always next year'...

I have an additional support class, Scotland, so sorry but I am usless at ages in English classes. However my class is age 6-12 and I started with 10 differentiated lessons, working with parents I am now doing 3 groups but parents can choose the level their child is comfortable with that day. An example would be literacy tasks, sequencing , phonics/word knowledge, communication, 3 core numeracy tasks and other subjects in an more open grid form.
My support staff could producecwork for my kids and have done some amazing symbolised work, we plan togetger so please don't worry about that part. However I would expect differentiation of work at least. All tge best.

Both my DCs have some SEN though only DS has an EHCP. DD school suggested we look at work for another year, though they are all totally inaccessible (some for tech reasons). We are just using workbooks of ours. DS has differentiated work for his group though the maths is too easy so we're doing the next one up.
We like Collins and Letts Monster workbooks, and we also have a Reading Chest subscription plus Doodle Maths and English. DS current school has Mathletics though so we may switch to that for him so we don't have to pay!

Primary teacher here. I’ve provided a bank of play based activities and resources for one child with severe global delay (working at 24 month level), adapted activities for one wheelchair-bound child with reduced hand function and fully differentiated plans for another child with dyslexia and dyscalculia.

I’m not boasting, I’m just saying that I thought this was what we were obligated to provide if a child received hugely differentiated support at school.

Having said that, I do wish the SENCO could have helped out, as she keeps admitting that her workload has stalled, and my 17mo is making WFH very tricky!

I do wish the SENCO could have helped out, as she keeps admitting that her workload has stalled

I agree - DS's amazing SEN team have been messaging to check in with him weekly and have been using the downtime to prep for September and to work out how to run their inclusion groups/pastoral provision remotely, in addition to finding ways to provide materials in other formats for SEN pupils. They've also been liaising with the subject teachers to ensure the SEN pupils have been keeping up with their GCSE work and reviewing their predicted grades to check they're on track. My DS can't be the only child they're doing that for so they're working really really hard.