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 June SENDCO Network was held in person, at the Old Parsonage, with information from Dr Teresa Regan who introduced and led discussion around a new resource from the Bell Foundation supporting children who are new to English and also have Special Educational Needs. Alongside this there was information from Grace Stevens, a former Assistant Psychologist with Catalyst who is now working as the researcher for the international Think Equal programme. Grace brought us up to date with the programme and shared opportunities for Manchester schools to become involved in the research project.
The first part of the network was led by Teresa Regan and involved SENDCOs in a reflective ‘Glows and Grows’ activity. Below is the feedback from SENDCOs across these two areas:
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Research Project - Think Equal Social Emotional Learning programme rollout in Greater Manchester
Grace returned to the SENDCO network this month to discuss her research project, exploring the Think Equal Social Emotional Learning programme rollout in Greater Manchester.
Think Equal is a social emotional development support program and this PHD project has been commissioned to evaluate the impact and implementation of the programme. The research project follows reception children across the 10 Greater Manchester local authorities over a period of time.
Think Equal is a universal but explicit program with clear taught lessons that are easy to deliver and are beneficial for all children. The program is underpinned by research however there has not been research which explores the impact of program delivery and ‘how it is delivered on the ground not in principle’ in the English education system where schools have autonomy over the resources and how they are used.
The project will be exploring and evaluating the ‘real world’ implementation of the social emotional learning programme as there is recognition of the variation in delivery of the program across classrooms. The impact evaluation will involve interviewing children over two time points to see the trajectory of social, emotional learning as well as, asking for parent and teacher perspectives. The implementation and process evaluation will look at linking the data on how it is implemented and how effective the program is.
The project is underway, and Grace is currently conducting interviews with reception teachers on the quality and effectiveness of the program. Grace is recruiting reception teachers to share their experiences using the Think Equal level 2 programme. If anyone would like to take part in Graces research or have members of staff in school who would like to participate you can contact Grace by email at [email protected]
Catalyst Connects: Belonging Matters Training
Lastly, Teresa Regan gave an overview of Catalysts current project Catalyst Connects: Belonging Matters. The project has 3 strands, training for Ambassadors to support newly arrived children, the Belonging Matters Charter Mark to celebrate good practice in schools and the development of an evidence base. During the network Teresa shared an overview of sessions 4 which looks at identification of EAL pupils who may have additional or special educational needs and shares approaches to assessment and provision for these pupils.
Teresa shared how learning EAL is not the same as having a SEND. Depending on their level of proficiency in English, multilingual children who are learning EAL may face linguistic challenges and may need targeted language support, devised by EAL specialists, to help them learn both the language and all their subjects in English.
There are, however, significant numbers of multilingual children who do have SEND. For those children to thrive and reach their potential it is vital that they are identified as early as possible, so they can receive targeted and integrated support that addresses both their linguistic challenges, and their special learning needs.
The process of early identification takes many forms including, baseline assessment using EAL framework/ levels of English proficiency, monitoring of progress and ongoing formation assessments. The Bell Foundation shares a wealth of guidance and resources for schools to use in this process including. Bell Foundation Guidance – EAL/SEND February 2024 which includes a flow chart for identifying and providing for EAL learners who have SEND. As well as illustrative example documents including:
- New EAL learner information (Pages 74-76)
- Key assessment points (Pages 138-141)
- SEND indicator matrix (Pages 119-127)
- ABC observation form (Pages 113-115)
(Page numbers above corresponded to the Bell Foundation Guidance – EAL/SEND document)
For more information or to sign up to the project (training, charter mark or evident base) please click here.