Welcome to our latest edition of the Catalyst Courier. If you have information to share or topics, you’d like us to cover please get in touch ([email protected]) 

Our November SENDCO Network was held in person, at the Old Parsonage, with information from Dr Teresa Regan, Managing Director and Principal Educational Psychologist who led discussion around the new MCC EHCP pilot and subsequent Catalyst audit with input from SENDCos and feedback from SENDCos on experiences of recent OFSTED inspections.

Welcome to our latest edition of the Catalyst Courier. If you have information to share or topics you’d like us to cover please get in touch ([email protected]) 

Due to the conference preperations we did not send out a Catalyst Courier in May or June, so we have included information, slides and resources from the May SENDCO Network, and the Catalyst Conference in the July edition of the Courier. 

• The May SENDCO Network at the Old Parsonage included a workshop with Dr Rebecca Wright on Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism. 
• We have also published a page with information from our June conference: Inclusion Matters 2023: "It takes a village to raise a child...fostering resilient communities through inclusive practice.
• The July SENDCO Network was also held at the Old Parsonage, with information from Dr Rhonda Boaler, Educational Psychologist on her doctoral research into Emotionally Based School Avoidance. Dr Teresa Regan then facilitated a discussion on the Manchester LA EHCP pilot. 

Welcome to our latest edition of the Catalyst Courier. If you have information to share or topics you’d like us to cover please get in touch ([email protected]) 

This SENDCO Network was held at the Old Parsonage, with information from Kivlan Legate, Trainee Educational Psychologist on his doctoral thesis project 'Community Cohesion in Schools'. Dr Teresa Regan and Grace Stevens had updates on resources that have been posted to the website.  

Welcome to our latest edition of the Catalyst Courier. If you have information to share or topics you’d like us to cover please get in touch ([email protected]) 

With the Easter holiday starting next week, you might like to take time out to visit the Primary Schools Spring Art Exhibition at The Old Parsonage, set in the beautiful grounds of the Parsonage Gardens. Local schools represented include: Beaver Road, The Birches, Cavendish, Lancasterian, St Catherine's, St Wilfrid's, Broad Oak, Didsbury CE and West Didsbury CE.

Download the poster and further information here.

Welcome to our latest edition of the Catalyst Courier. If you have information to share or topics you’d like us to cover please get in touch ([email protected]) 

This SENDCO Network was held virtually, with information from Sally McCormick on parents and carers of autistic girls 

You can access a copy of the slides here: Working with Parents and Carers of Autistic Girls

In the session, we heard from Sally about her research carried out as part of the Doctorate in Education and Child Psychology at the University of Manchester. Her research aims to explore how Educational Psychologists can work effectively with parents or carers of autistic girls. Autistic girls are underrepresented in the literature, and there is also a gap in the literature on how to support parents and carers of autistic girls.

Welcome to our latest edition of the Catalyst Courier. This year, our aim is to produce a newsletter following each of our SENDCO Networks, with news and information arising from the monthly SENDCO Network meetings. If you have information to share or topics you’d like us to cover please get in touch ([email protected]) 

The first SENDCO Network of this academic year was held virtually, with information from our Early Years Intervention and Support Service (EYISS) Senior Educational Psychologist Hannah McHugh, and Assistant Psychologist, Grace Stevens. 

Dr Teresa Regan also led a session with an update on the SEND review, a discussion on the Ofsted research paper: ‘Alternative provision for primary-age pupils in England: a long-term ‘destination’ or a ‘temporary solution?’ and signposting a report from the Children's Commissioner.

“Networking is not about  just connecting people. It’s about connecting people with people, people with ideas and people with opportunities”

Welcome to our latest edition of the Catalyst Courier, after a long absence. The Catalyst Courier was a source of support and information during the long lockdowns in 2020, but we were unable to keep it going during the hybrid disruption of the past year. This year, our aim is to produce a newsletter following each of our SENDCO Networks, approximately one each month, with news and information arising from the monthly SENDCO Network meetings. If you have information to share or topics you’d like us to cover please get in touch ([email protected])

Well, we have made it to the last week of term in this extraordinary year. Whilst the future remains uncertain, and it is difficult to look forward to September without some degree of trepidation, there is time now to take some time out, refresh our batteries and recover some resilience in preparation for whatever the future brings.

Whilst many of us will be fortunate enough to be able to get away for a few days, lots of our children and young people have a long stretch of time ahead before they can be back in school with their teachers and friends, so this week we are taking a look at what Manchester has on offer for families this summer. Here is our Top Ten:

Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) says that children and young people have the right to have fun in the way they want to, whether by playing sports, watching films, or doing something else entirely. They have the right to rest, too.

Children and young people should be able to take part freely in cultural activities, just like adults. The government should make sure it’s easy for them to do this whether or not they have a disability.

This is the basis of the work underway in all four nations of the United Kingdom promoting the Right to Play for children and young people. As we prepare for the coming summer break, we hope that all adults and children will have an opportunity to pause for some rest and relaxation. With this in mind we have curated information about Play – for children, teenagers, young people, parents and, by extension, all adults too.

 How can we make a difference to the outcome?

Last month the Royal College of Psychiatrists warned of a “tsunami of mental illness after lockdown”, followed last week by press reports that “school closures will trigger UK child mental health crisis”. One proposed solution is that ‘every school should be assigned a child mental health counsellor’ “who can work directly with children who need specialist mental health support, but whose responsibility would also include working on whole-school approaches to improving the mental health of all children”. I am sure that schools would welcome the provision of mental health counsellors. However, this suggestion illustrates the fact that the world outside education appears unaware that schools have been on the frontline of mental health support for children and their families for many years, just as they have been on the frontline of social care for far too long – another fact that has come to the fore in the current crisis. Behind the inspirational stories of headteachers that have made media headlines in the past 3 months are many thousands of educational professionals who have been working hard, throughout the period of partial school closure, to support children’s health and well-being as well as their learning.