Hiring: Educational Psychologist Consultant

15th September 2023Website Admin

Required for: As soon as possible

Hours and Pay:  Pay dependent on experience. 2 days per half term

Condition of employment: Permanent/Contacted/Freelance

‘Therapists, teachers and teaching assistants work together seamlessly as one team. They truly understand how to meet pupils’ complex special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). While staff are nurturing, they also have high expectations of all pupils. As a result, pupils work hard and learn well’. – OFSTED September 2022.

Gesher School is a unique all-through school providing a specialist, meaningful and functional learning environment for young people with mild to moderate special educational needs. This includes ASC, ADHD, Down’s Syndrome and MLD.

We are seeking to appoint an experienced, enthusiastic and innovative Educational Psychologist to join our team.

The successful Educational psychologist will:

  • Assess children’s learning and emotional needs
  • Design, develop and support therapeutic and behaviour management programmes
  • Work collaboratively with colleagues to advise on the best approaches and provisions to support learning and development
  • Support parents, teachers and others involved with the education of children and young people
  • Write reports making recommendations on action to be taken
  • Attend regular meetings involving our multidisciplinary team on how best to meet the social, emotional, behavioural and learning needs of the children and young people in your care
  • Develop and apply effective interventions to promote psychological well being, social, emotional and behavioural development, and to raise educational standards.
  • Make recommendations on students Educational Healthcare Plans (EHCP) and contribute to the annual review/ EHCP process
  • Work with children and young people who are experiencing problems that hinder their successful learning, participation and opportunity to flourish at school and other extracurricular activities.
  • Promote and support children/young people’s emotional well-being and mental health and work alongside other key professionals to reach a shared understanding of the children/young person’s needs, and what support and interventions can enable their progress, which includes observations, interviews and assessments of the child.
  • Provide and support in-service training for teachers and other professionals.

The Successful candidates will have:

  • Honours degree in psychology or equivalent, recognised by the British Psychological Society as conferring eligibility for Graduate Basis for Chartered Status, a professional postgraduate qualification in Educational Psychology (MSc or Doctorate)
  • Registered member of HCPC (Health Care Professions Council) or registration in process.
  • Excellent communication, organisation and time management skills.
  • The ability to work well as part of a collaborative team
  • A right to work in the UK
  • A passionate commitment to ensuring all children are given the opportunities to shine and achieve educationally;
  • They are able to work collaboratively in the best interests of the child/young person with other professionals;
  • They understand and can articulate what constitutes high quality inclusive education provision; They are open-minded and have a sensitive approach when dealing with children and young people
  • Experience and expertise in autism and supporting staff in managing challenging behaviour is also essential.

See us in action here:

https://vimeo.com/407682934/a9a6af1bc8

You will join a supportive staff team where teamwork, flexibility and a positive personality are essential attributes.

For more information relating to the above role, or to apply, please contact Victoria Rutter, Head of Therapies 0207 884 5102 or email [email protected]

Learning to ride a bike tips & tricks

30th June 2023Website Admin

Learning to ride a bike tips & tricks

Balancing:

  • Supporting balance is important to teach as a separate skill from learning to pedal. 
  • Encourage children to scoot along using their feet to push against the ground. This way you are breaking the task of balancing down.
  • Use a scooter- this allows the child to isolate the skill of balancing two feet on the scooter deck (when gliding).
  • Children need to be going fast enough on the bike/scooter, so you can incorporate a game to encourage a “gliding” movement

Eg. The floor is lava game, use chalk to draw lines on the ground and instruct your child to not touch the lines (picking up their feet over the chalk lines), Follow the leader or simple obstacle courses on bikes, trikes or scooters.

  • Have your child practice safely putting their feet on the ground to avoid falling. Our goal is to develop a “self-protection” reflex, where children will recognise their change in equilibrium and catch themselves when they experience a disruption in balance. 

 

Walking with the bike:

  • Support walking along in a straight line whilst holding onto the handle- bars, with the bike on their right-hand side. When they can do this, teach them to use both brakes to stop the bike suddenly on command.
  • Whilst still walking beside the bike and not yet riding on it, teach your child how to turn corners (using plenty of space). This will help them begin to learn how to handle and steer the bike, and how the weight of the bike is distributed and managed.

 

Pedalling:

  • Teach your child to kick the pedals into position ready for push off, with their preferred foot just forward of the highest position to get good leverage.
  • It may also help to get the child to lay on the floor on their back and practise the pedalling action with their feet in the air so they understand the action required. 

 

Riding:

  • Whilst scooting along and building balance skills, repeat the same stages of learning as before when learning to walk beside the bike – first learn to go in straight lines and to use the brakes well, and then to turn corners.
  • Hold the back of the seat to give some help with balance at first as the child gets used to pedalling whilst balancing. If you can use two adults, one each side if the child really struggles with balance.
  • You will gradually feel your child managing to balance without your help.
  • As they pedal and gradually release your grip to allow them to feel their body adjusting to the fading support.

 

Surfaces to practise on:

  • For some children, practising on a smooth, flat surface (such as the concrete) is preferred because it makes pedalling a bit easier (requiring less strength or force). 
  • For others, pedalling on a flat grassy surface, although it may require more strength to pedal, it can provide them with more proprioceptive feedback (resistance that is recognised by joints and muscles) so their body can better understand the motion.

 

Issue 03

13th June 2023Website Admin

Issue 03 Articles

What All Schools Can Do to Support Neurodiverse Learners

13th June 2023Website Admin

What All Schools Can Do to Support Neurodiverse Learners

With thanks to Pete Wharmby (Centre for Research in Autism and Education, CRAE Annual Lecture, 2023)

10 Things All Schools Can Do

  1. Make sure that all staff know the profile for all relevant learners.
  2. Have a mentor for each neurodiverse learner – one in which they have some agency.
  3. Educate all staff about autism – if they have knowledge, they can do a lot.
  4. Work with your community – employers need to understand neurodiversity, too.
  5. Open up the issue of difference – move it from insult to fascinating.
  6. Promote tolerance of and accommodation of difference.
  7. Accommodate idiosyncrasies (e.g. stimming, walking around, repetitive behaviours, sensitivity to noise, obsessive interests).
  8. Make the school sensitive to known or potential triggers “of stress or behaviours”. e.g.
    • Changes to routine or schedule
    • Group work
    • Work deadlines
    • Presentations
    • Reading aloud
    • Picking teams
  9. Prioritise positive relationships with learners and parents (e.g. regular dialogue with parents; support groups for parents) – working together is in everyone’s interests.
  10. Have available appropriate therapeutic strategies.

Guidance for Schools

The 10 suggestions above provide a useful checklist. They can also be used to create a workshop activity for staff that will sensitise everyone to the issue of supporting neurodiverse learners. They were stimulated by Pete Wharmby’s presentation at the 2023 CRAE Annual Lecture, and most of them were specifically referenced there. Pete is an autistic teacher, writer, speaker, advocate and author. Below are two suggestions about how “10 Things” might be used.

  1. The first is a simple “bright spots” activity, designed to identify the best of what is currently happening in all 10 areas. The logic of discussing bright spots is to build from the best of what currently happens. “What are the characteristics of this that could be applied more broadly?” and “What would be required to have more like this?”
  2. The second is an evaluative activity to identify strengths and areas for growth – what is going well (or not) and what more might be done.

Activity 1

  • Pre-arrange groups so that there is a good mix of experiences and roles in each group. Prepare a facilitator for each group – someone who will advocate for the activity.
  • In groups, discuss the “bright spots” in your school for each of the 10 items. What is the best of what you do? What are the key features of these bright spots?
  • Then, come together with new ideas being suggested for each of the 10 items, where relevant, based on the principles or features of your bright spots.

Activity 2

  • Before the activity, create sets of cards with one of the 10 suggestions on each card plus five blank cards (to add new things). One set is required for each group.
  • Pre-arrange groups (as above).
  • First, each group discusses whether they have additional ideas to add on the blank cards.
  • They then sort out their top 10 as a group.
  • Groups come together and are facilitated to create a composite or consensus top 10 across the groups (“Our school’s top 10 ideas”).

Subsidiary activity either in groups or as a whole staff:

  • Arrange this top 10 into three groups – things we do well; things we need to improve on quite a lot; things we value but are not currently ready to do.
  • Using post-it notes (green for positive affirmation, amber for creative improvement ideas, red for “we’re not close on this”), decorate ideas around the ten cards, starting with amber, then green, then, if time, red.

Anti-Idling Project

13th June 2023Website Admin

Farmington Public Schools

Grade 5

Our fifth graders took action in collaboration with the Farmington green Efforts Commission by participating in a local anti-idiling campaign. As civic-minded contributors, this was a wonderful opportunity to engage in stewardship in our town. Students have been studying how human activities impact the Earth’s sphere, and more specifically, how the burning of fossil fuels impacts the atmosphere.

As part of this project, fifth graders collected and analysed data about idiling in the west woods parking lot before and after school. They learned more about idiling from Ms. Caitlin Stern, an enivronment analyst in the Bureau of Air Management at the Department of Energy and Environmental protection.

Next, in a special appearance on the Wildcat News, Ms. Cate Grady-Benson of the Farmington Green Efforts Commission explained the charge of their committee and its campaign. She invited students to participate in a sign-making contest to promote anti-idling in our town.

In order to learn what makes an effective sign, students used several resources, including a presentation from the West Woods art teacher, Mrs. Lantange. She offered tips and suggestions on how to think like an artist while creating designs (colours that work well together, the right medium, and excellent craftsmanship).

Eight of the signs designed by students were selected by the Green Efforts Commission. Final image edits were done by a Farmington High School students under the guidance of the art teacher. The signs will be professionally printed by DEEP and posted at each of the Farmington schools and the Town Hall.

Learning Targets

As a civic-minded contributor, I can take action to protect the Earth’s atmosphere. I can promote community awareness about idling by collaborating with the Farmington Green Efforts Commission & DEEP.

Students’ Reflections

“I think it’s good to take action because there’s things in the world that we need to stand up for. Before this unit I didn’t know about idling. I’m pretty sure even my parents didn’t, but I told my parents and they haven’t been idling ever since.”

– Jahnvi

View all project cards