Interview with Paul Cooper – Part 2: Words of wisdom for new and experienced teachers
“It is probably wise to recognise the possibility that SEBD are not only encountered in the classroom – staffrooms have their fair share…”
Tag: education
Interview with Paul Cooper – Part 1: The role of teachers in the lives of children with Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties (SEBD)
“It is easy to be fooled by the apparently dismissive attitude that some young people show towards to school. It may be the case that for many students school is, indeed, ‘boring’ but this does not mean that it is unimportant to them. On the contrary, the school is the main site where young people establish their independent identities outside the family unit. From their earliest experiences of schooling, children are engaging with a key social institution as individuals in their own right. Whether they see themselves as succeeding or failing, socially and academically, they cannot escape the impact of these experiences on their developing identities. Relationships with teachers are central to this identity formation process.”
Interview with Ellen Power – Part 5: My Top 5 Back-to-School Tips for Parents of Children with SEN
“My boys go back to school next week. I can’t believe how quickly the holidays have passed by! In addition to all of the usual preparation, next week I will be performing some extra tasks to make sure that the school year gets off to as smooth a start as possible. Here are my Top 5 Back-to-School Guerrilla Tips…”
Interview with Ellen Power – Part 4: How to create an educational system that fully meets the needs of children with SEN
“When you look at it on paper it is difficult to see why the current system for meeting the needs of children with SEN is so prone to failure. On paper it seems to work, but in practice there are some big weaknesses that lead to its failure.”
Interview with Ellen Power – Part 3: Where does SEN fit into the academies and free schools models?
“I have had email correspondence with our children’s school and government on this issue, and I have to say that they are all very vague about how SEN will be managed in academies and free schools.”
Interview with Ellen Power – Part 2: Picking your battles in the fight to have your child’s special educational needs met
“Prior to our children having statements, we had to fight for everything each time a problem arose, mostly without success…It was extremely labour-intensive.”
Interview with Ellen Power – Part 1: My Transformation from mild mannered parent to…GUERRILLA MUM!
“Although I could hardly believe it, it began to dawn on me that although I wanted my children to have more help at school, the school did not want to do anything ‘extra’ for them and I could not understand why…”
Atle Dyregrov on Supporting Traumatized Children and Teenagers
“There are a variety of self-help techniques that the individual can use for their own sake…In addition to individual methods, there must be systems in place to secure good follow-up for personnel involved in critical incidents or in work with traumatized children over time.”
Liz Hoggarth: Outcome evaluation – help is on the way
“Many of us react instinctively against further demands to produce evidence, especially quantitative information – we know all too well that progress with clients is made up of tiny, often faltering, steps forward that are extremely difficult to demonstrate or quantify. There are downsides to the outcomes approach as there are to other systems of planning and evaluation. But the question of outcomes is a perfectly legitimate one. The number of visits made to a family is beside the point if the risks are not picked up and appropriate interventions are not identified to begin to help people deal with the problems. The number of counselling sessions provided is hardly important if in the end they made no difference for the person seeking help. We must address outcomes in order to improve services.”
Deborah Plummer on Imagework and Helping Children to Cope with Change, Stress and Anxiety
“When a child comes up with an image that represents how he feels about a situation, he is tapping into something that goes way beyond logical thought processes. And when he realises that he can ‘play’ with these images and be creative in forming new images, then he can begin to take more control. Imagework often triggers insights and shifts in perspective which may not come through logical thinking alone.”