Activity

Tuesday, 12 May 2015:
Rosie joined the conversation – 18:09

Helen joined the conversation – 18:09

katherine joined the conversation – 18:09

Victoria joined the conversation – 18:09

Rachel joined the conversation – 18:09

Karen joined the conversation – 18:09

Sai joined the conversation – 18:09

Danyaal joined the conversation – 18:09

Rachel left the conversation – 18:09

Lisa Franklin – 18:09
Well I think that is all of us!

Karen – 18:09
Hi all, sorry a bit late, just got in

Danyaal – 18:09
Hi everyone

Victoria – 18:09
Hello

Lisa Franklin – 18:09
I have just switched from desktop to laptop so I can get to the kitchen and eat ha ha

Rosie – 18:09
Hellooooo

Helen – 18:09
me too after the emergency dental appointment naughty daddy!!

Sai – 18:10
Hi

Lisa Franklin – 18:10
How did it go Helen???

Helen – 18:12
they are just going to watch and see its her milk teeth so they aren’t so concenred harriet however is refusing to eat lol

Lisa Franklin – 18:12
poor girl
plenty of ice lollies

Rosie – 18:12
Dare I ask what happened, Helen?

Helen – 18:12
harriet went over her handle bars on her bike at the weekend on daddy watch so he is in the dog house lol

Rosie – 18:13
Ouch! Poor Harriet!

Lisa Franklin – 18:13
OKey dokey
I thought it would be good to start with what settings and clients we work with so that we have an idea as it’s been a while for many and new meeting for others
I am currently working in a mainstream Primary school, priority is EYFS

Helen – 18:15
I am working at the shires which is a residential school for ASD 11-19 and then I also do some work in the post 19 house

katherine – 18:15
I work in a specialist support provision for children with learning difficulties attached to a mainstream primary school

Sai – 18:15
I work in a primary mainstream school and a resource unit for teens with autism

Victoria – 18:15
I am working in a mainstream secondary school with KS3 pupils with literacy difficulties

Karen – 18:15
I’m working at Sutherland House School, Nottingham 2 days a week. Specialist autism school (non residential) 14-19 age group (mainly 16-18)

Rosie – 18:15
I’m at Kisimul, a special residential school for ASD/LD ages 8 – 19

Danyaal – 18:16
Im currently working with ADL , 18+. Ranges from Autsim, to down syndrome

Lisa Franklin – 18:16
Fabulous!
So the purpose of this meeting is to share good practice, ideas and for people to also raise their concerns/frustrations so that we can help each other find the best solutions
An aspect I am struggling with is group programme writing for SaLTs while assessing and doing reports
with a limited 4 hours per day

Helen – 18:19
the time never seems enough I struggle I think it is because we see the potential im sure we could all find enough work to work full time in the settings

Lisa Franklin – 18:19
yes with a caseload of 32 🙁
All need assessments – I’ve got through 20 in the last half term
Oh yes we could Helen!!

Victoria – 18:21
I suppose it’s not that different to teaching and you always hear teachers saying how much planning/marking they have to do!

Helen – 18:21
having spoken to you lisa this week I also feel management priorities also play a apart

Lisa Franklin – 18:21
they absolutely do!

Karen – 18:22
I think in these cases Lisa, I ask the SENCO or headteacher who/what the priorities are and work through those, maybe reviewing every half term..

Danyaal – 18:22
what is the group programme writing?

Sai – 18:22
I do the same
We prioritise depending on the needs

Karen – 18:23
I’m lucky in that respect, I’m working with another SaLT who is realistic with what can be achieved within the time we have and they have planning/priority meetings and we stick as best we can to that. As you say..still never easy though

Sai – 18:23
I also support in class

Lisa Franklin – 18:23
Yip we have done that…problem is they need it all ha ha with an upcoming ofsted inspections so I have just set the targets

Sai – 18:23
And feedback to the teachers

Lisa Franklin – 18:23
and presented them and they agreed
I think it is just letting them know what is achievable in the time we have
and us learning that lol!!

Sai – 18:24
I struggle with writing casenotes though. I was wondering if you have any ideas about managing time for casenotes

Helen – 18:24
yep definitely learning small steps are often great successes

Karen – 18:24
Yes, I think it’s best to set it out really clearly from the beginning but always easier said than done!

Lisa Franklin – 18:25
Basically they have a really poor TA and want her to deliver gropu therapy and need specific instructions so I need to develop each week specifically for them

Sai – 18:25
I recently had a training session on whole class approaches for the teachers. Any feedback/experiences?

Karen – 18:25
Write less Sai haha! I could waffle all day but am learning to pick out key points and make them shorter. Longer isn’t always best for me!

Helen – 18:25
what about a package like language land that has all the resources and instructions for the TA to carry out?

Lisa Franklin – 18:25
Ha Ha Karen
THough I agree Sai – my notes are minimal!

Sai – 18:26
Prof Joffe’s programme is very good
the vocab enrichment one

Karen – 18:26
Do we have that resource Helen as a download?

Lisa Franklin – 18:26
I will look into language land Helen- Thanks

Sai – 18:26
I had a look at the intervention last week.

Lisa Franklin – 18:26
Ah I think that is the one I gave to you Victoria

Helen – 18:27
no but i have used it in previous settings and it works really well was written by the department i use to work for

Lisa Franklin – 18:27
I guess it needs to be suitable for Nursery and Reception
I will look into the costings 😉

Sai – 18:27
There are about 20+ lesson plans, well-structured and easy to implement. This is evidence-based.

Helen – 18:27
yes language land is nursery, reception and key stage 1 i think its on blacksheep press

katherine left the conversation – 18:28

Lisa Franklin – 18:28
Fantastic – will have a look!

Sai – 18:28
The Talkboost kit has loads of valuable resources for 4-7

Karen – 18:28
We need to scan upload the vocab programme and the narrative programme at some point – very large files!

Lisa Franklin – 18:28
Yes I have the kit Sai but they won’t commit to the Training as yet or finance the resources – I am working on this
HUGE!

Sai – 18:29
My school is implementing Talkboost and they are really pleased with the results
I received loads of feedback last week from the TAs

Victoria – 18:29
oh in the big orange folder?

Lisa Franklin – 18:29
I was shown the NHS ‘report’ following a session which is landscape with a small paragraph box which they say what happened in the session and write 3 targets under it

Victoria – 18:29
It looks very good but you need a lot of sessions to implement it in

Karen – 18:29
Yep Victoria – the other one is pink. Technical hey!!

Victoria – 18:30
yes absolutely huge files!
vv heavy

Lisa Franklin – 18:30
Now my reports were written at half term and are 2 pages – 3 pages per child so I thought we could share discuss your report templates, length etc

Helen – 18:30
i like to keep them brief lol

Sai – 18:31
Mine too as requested by Headteacher.

Lisa Franklin – 18:31
Now wondering if I’m overdoing it…applying my usual individual report

Danyaal – 18:31
My reports are about the same, 2-3 pages

Rosie – 18:31
Mine are usually quite lengthy too, about 2 pages

Lisa Franklin – 18:31
to school setting and I am not sure this is condusive
Helen would yours be one page?

Helen – 18:32
this is something i have raised with the setting at the moment the setting requires reports three times a year but for some of these children not much has happened in the term i feel one report which leads into the annual review would be much better and more informative giving the child longer to achieve targets. Usually 1-2 pages

Karen – 18:32
Ours are long – 3-4 pages sometimes. We use headings such as language profile, summary of support given. Progress made ..rather than expressive lang, receptive etc although I did use more that format for a transition report – also with a summary box of key bits of info in case they didn’t read the whole report!

Victoria left the conversation – 18:33

Karen – 18:33
Only written once a year though

Helen – 18:33
but i have thought about doing a communication profile/summary that would be more user friendly and picks out relevant information would be more helpful

Lisa Franklin – 18:33
Ha! used to do that for courts Karen. 10 page report always had the ‘snapshot’ section for those who haven’t bothered reading

Sai – 18:34
I write termly reports that run into two pages

Lisa Franklin – 18:34
32 reports termly is just madness in my eyes

Rosie – 18:34
Ours are like that too, Karen, they mostly outline any assessments they’ve had, what input they’ve recieved, progress they’ve made etc, then a short bit about their language levels etc.

Lisa Franklin – 18:34
So I think a wave approach of X per term and only updated annually may be best

Sai – 18:34
The end of year report for one school setting goes along with their annual report

Rosie – 18:34
they also have a communication profile which is 1 page and outlines their expressive lang, receptive lang and social communication

Sai – 18:34
this is as requested by the Head Teacher

Lisa Franklin – 18:34
Trouble was they had 16 new referrals NHS had not seen

Karen – 18:35
Sounds like you need to negotiate more hours Lisa!

Lisa Franklin – 18:35
By communication profile is that ticking the box whcih they struggle with?

Danyaal left the conversation – 18:35

Lisa Franklin – 18:35
ha ha
Managed to for the first half term to clear the back log!

Karen – 18:36
Yes, I guess it outlines strengths and difficulties

Helen – 18:36
not necessarily concentrating more on what method of communication they use, progress made i just feel for some children who have always been non verbal the reports are not adding anything new only that they have been seen as per the statement

Karen – 18:36
Trouble is, if you are too good at it, they will expect it constantly!

Rosie – 18:36
the communication profiles have bullet points under ‘comprehension’, ‘expressive language’ and ‘social communication’ and basically just sum up their strengths and weaknesses and what strategies help them

Helen – 18:36
so strengths and difficulties

Lisa Franklin – 18:38
okey anyone have a sample of this?
If it is a need – we could develop an ITS format

Helen – 18:39
no it was just a thought in my mind but could think of something?

Sai – 18:39
Is this the strengths and difficulties questionnaire? Do you use TOMs as well?
I mean for outcome measures?
I use the social skills rating scale for a baseline
for my resource unit

Rosie – 18:40
I can get a copy of the communication profile template on thursday if that would be helpful to anyone?

Sai – 18:40
yes that would be great

Danyaal joined the conversation – 18:40

Helen – 18:40
oh yes please

Karen – 18:41
That would be good and then we could all chip in with comments and design our own

Rosie – 18:41
okay will do 🙂

Sai – 18:41
thanks that would be great!

Lisa Franklin – 18:42
Hi Rosie, yes if you could that would be great 🙂

Sai – 18:42
I was thinking of developing a checklist for classroom observations. Do you use any specific ones?

Lisa Franklin – 18:42
In terms of school caseload management – does anyone have any particular strategies/porgrammes which are running well?

Victoria joined the conversation – 18:43

Victoria left the conversation – 18:43

Sai – 18:43
I’m running a Friendship skills group which is all new to me but I really enjoy it
probably more than the children do!
I also need some guidance to start my Lego club

Danyaal – 18:44
what does that entail sai?

Sai – 18:44
I’m using the Talkabout manual, Danyaal
The worksheets are really great

Danyaal – 18:44
ah yes I know!

Sai – 18:45
This was a concern raised by the Head teacher

Lisa Franklin – 18:45
Has anyone been running cofffee morning or sending staff newsletters?

Sai – 18:45
Some of the children at the Courtyard struggle with making friends and building friendships
we did plan one last year but it did not materialise

Helen – 18:46
there is a class that has been problematic at my setting in the the teacher is overloaded and has little time to do anything so i have started to run a communication group in the morning this non verbal class had very little in place today was group number 3 we (myself and the teacher) have adapted hello time to include talking tiles, they use a symbol chart to say whats the weather is like not relying on staff saying for them and today we had a bingo session using pecs finished with the use of talking tiles to say BINGO!!!! Loving it!

Karen – 18:46
I’ve just shared a classroom observation resource – you could pick out of it what’s useful. You may already have it

Lisa Franklin – 18:46
I know this is something Stav is trialing and providing a newsletter to the teachers each week
with a different type of SLCN as they struggle for designated training time

Danyaal – 18:47
I helped run a coffee morning for parents last term for HIP that was meant to be a morning for parents to socialise and for social support. Ended up being somewhat of a Q and A session from the parents

Karen – 18:48
Sounds great Helen 🙂

Rosie – 18:48
We don’t do coffee mornings or staff newsletters but we do run class forums every week where somebody from Ed Psych/SLT/OT goes into one of the classes and talks to the teachers/TAs about any issues they have with their class, different class each week, works quite well 🙂

Lisa Franklin – 18:49
Cool I just think if we can share any resources, handouts, advice sheets we created we can format them and get them all online so we aren’t spending so much time creating resources and information

Rosie – 18:49
Sounds good 🙂

Helen – 18:49
its hard work Karen but the main thing is i am in the class now and hopefully making a difference hoping the modelling of the group encourages staff to want to do it more
yes Victoria said that about the boardmaker pictures maybe we can get a file on the google drive going

Sai – 18:50
Social stories work really well in my resource unit. I’ve received feedback from teachers as well.

Karen – 18:50
I’ve been running a lego club and it works really well. Other game based social groups work well, we’ve been doing a small group for AAC users playing games such as mr potato head, simon says, connect 4 (pattern matching and the students have to ask each other for counters) All using gridplayer on the iad
ipad

Rosie – 18:51
do others have access to communicate in print? that programme is a god send!

Helen – 18:51
no but kat suggested i borrow and download it its on my list of things to do

Sai – 18:51
Yes it is

Danyaal – 18:52
I dont unfortunately! Defo need to get it

Karen – 18:52
Oh yes CIP is my new best friend!

Sai – 18:52
Did you pay for the license?

Lisa Franklin – 18:53
Yep I can upload all the boards on the website under Boardmaker or Symbols?

Sai – 18:53
All the teachers’ laptops have it. They could only get 5 I think

Danyaal – 18:53
that would be awesome lisa

Helen – 18:53
brill either just so we know where they are

Sai – 18:54
wow

Lisa Franklin – 18:54
Cool I will ask Anna to action
Okay all AOB or burning questions from anyone?

Sai – 18:54
it’s nice to have a chat
I feel a bit isolated sometimes

Lisa Franklin – 18:54
it is – to get some ideas and new resources and thoughts 🙂
I feel you Sai!

Rosie – 18:55
can I suggest we make the school meeting a recurring thing? 🙂

Sai – 18:55
yes please

Karen – 18:55
I think our CIP disk is multi licence and can be put onto your own laptops. Helen, email me your address and I’ll send it to you. I’m sure I still have it at the mo

Sai – 18:55
could we have peer supervision as well?

Lisa Franklin – 18:55
Oh yes we will Rosie, We ahve suggested once per half term would that work with you all?

Sai – 18:55
We could arrange within the London team?
Is that doable?

Helen – 18:55
i have had reading between the lines teaching children to understand inference delivered today so will let ppl know what i think once i start using it

Lisa Franklin – 18:55
We could link you with a peer and you meet with them?

Karen – 18:56
Yes I agree, regular would be good

Sai – 18:56
yes that would be great

Helen – 18:56
thanks Karen will do

Sai – 18:56
also if we could meet once every half-term online?
like we did when Sabrina was here?

Helen – 18:56
maybe another night out in Leicester for the midlands people?

Rosie – 18:57
all sounds good 🙂

Sai – 18:57
Also re: staff training

Lisa Franklin – 18:57
YES yes and yes

Sai – 18:57
I have prepared some presentations which I’m happy to share

Lisa Franklin – 18:57
Please do Sai – I will get these uploaded to the site

Sai – 18:57
ok cool
Thanks Lisa

Lisa Franklin – 18:58
Lovely to speak to you all tonight xx

Karen – 18:58
We really need another team day soon to be sharing all the info we have had from courses etc!

Rosie – 18:59
that would be great Sai 🙂

Sai – 18:59
I’m sorry I have to get going. It will take me an hour to get home. Today’s topic was Domestic Violence. It’s really overwhelming…
I’m still at City…

Lisa Franklin – 18:59
We are going to have one in Sept
I am just going to put out a poll for August or September

Karen – 18:59
Great 🙂

Rosie – 18:59
Cool 🙂

Sai – 18:59
I’m happy to share info on Child Protection and Safeguarding
There’s so much going on…
It’s made me so aware although I do freak out sometimes

Karen – 19:00
Always a difficult subject Sai

Lisa Franklin – 19:00
Indeed

Sai – 19:00
Please check NICE guidleines
guidelines 2014

Karen – 19:01
Night all, I need to go too, been a very long day!

Sai – 19:01
See you all
And thank you

Rosie – 19:01
speak to you too guys! x

Sai – 19:01
x

Rosie – 19:01
*soon

Danyaal – 19:01
thanks everyone !

Lisa Franklin – 19:01
Night guys speak soon

Sai left the conversation – 19:01

Lisa Franklin – 19:01
🙂

Helen – 19:01
speak soon bye x x