Why Faring Well Really,Really Matters – Laurel Freedmman

31st March 2022realsmart admin

Why Faring Well Really, Really Matters

 

Laurel Freedman

Looking at what ʻhappinessʼ means to Gesher, it is defined as the need for children to feel broadly secure, to feel satisfied about whatʼs going on with them and to experience a sense of safety in their wider environment In this article we speak to Laurel Freedman, an Educational Psychologist and chair of the Mental Health, Wellbeing and Happiness committee at Gesher, and unpick the schoolʼs Mental Health, Happiness and Wellbeing work, to explore why faring well really matters for children and how you prioritise it in a school.

At Gesher the mental health, wellbeing and happiness (MHWH) of children and adults are core to our ethos. This is grounded in, and driven by, an understanding of what is most important to children and young people.

Children often come to the school having not had their sensory and emotional needs met in mainstream settings, leading to ʻoverwhelmʼ. Overwhelm, and the anxiety that comes with it, blocks children from flourishing and reaching their full potential.

Alternatively, security, safety and solid attachments create the foundations for children to take risks. Learning is all about taking risks; managed risk is at the core of all exploration and education. In short, happy children learn.

“In short, happy children learn.”

This isnʼt only true for children. Staff and parents also need to feel safe, secure and listened to, in order to create the same environment for children. When concentrating on mental health, happiness and wellbeing, Gesher also wanted to create the space and mechanisms for adults to voice their opinions, hear praise and talk about what they needed for their own wellbeing.

The schoolʼs MHWH policy was developed as a means to articulate and pin down the practices they had been developing and refining, in order to keep a record of what they had been doing and to share that with others. The following five steps are drawn from this policy & accompanying work.

Five steps to embedding a Mental Health, Wellbeing and Happiness school ethos

1. Learn from others

Look elsewhere for inspiration and to gather ideas.

For example, Gesher gathered ideas from:

  • The ʻMentally Healthy Schoolsʼ work of the Anna Freud Centre;
  • The Carnegie Schoolʼs Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools, working with the centre in the form of grantees, as well as governors
  • Schools with similar cohorts to the children at Gesher, where they asked to review the schoolʼs policies, undertake visits & take ideas

“Itʼs important to note that Gesher is still in learning mode, and probably always will be.”

2. Establish governance for the work

Gesher established a Wellbeing Committee, comprising the CEO, School Wellbeing Lead & Music Therapist, and School Educational Psychologists, focussed on:

  • Bringing challenge and rigour to the development of the schoolʼs approach
  • Building a MHWH curriculum
  • Establishing impact measures & celebrating successes
  • Embedding the work across the whole of the school.

(A school wanting to establish its own committee might also want to include pastoral care and safeguarding leads.)

3. Build the right team, skills and approaches

On top of the committee, the school also appointed multidisciplinary specialist workers to meet specialist needs that some children might have. These included:

  • A SENDCo
  • A wellbeing lead
  • A drama therapist
  • An educational psychologist
  • An Occupational Therapist, and
  • A Speech and Language Therapist.

However, Gesherʼs MHWH approach is ʻwhole schoolʼ, meaning itʼs owned by everyone. The work is designed to feel connected and to promote the fact that everyone has skills and a role to play in promoting it.

Whilst some staff are appointed for their specific expertise, every member of staff is trained and supported to spot early warning signs and the different needs of each child. There are also displays, celebration assemblies and constant discussion opportunities in the school to talk about it.

4. Create tailored support strategies for each child, promoted by your curriculum

Each child has a tailored support strategy, focusing on hearing each young personʼs needs and voice.

This strategy closely involves families, building important links between home and school. These strategies, and the emotional scaffolding tools used within the curriculum encourage:

  • Children to feel confident
  • Effective expression of emotions
  • Relationship building
  • Ability to cope with stresses of life & deal with change
  • Independence

Activities that promote this include:

  • Pupil-led activities: self expression day; opportunities to share feelings or lead activities
  • Class activities: Middah slips where staff recognise the positive impact of student action; timetabled relaxation time; mindfulness
  • Whole School activities: Jewish faith ethos to ʻlove thy neighbour as thyselfʼ; celebration assemblies; and displays about positive mental health.


5. Think about your impact & how you assess wellbeing

Observe changes in the resilience of children (and adults) who face adversity and struggle. The coronavirus pandemic, for example, helped the school to see this in action. Gesher was able to stay open during lockdown, knowing that stability was needed for children. But staying open wasnʼt the only thing that created that safety. The children were still able to thrive and learn during such a difficult time because of the consistent and tailored support strategies put around them. supported and listened to? Do they feel like owners of the work?

Talk to parents. Parents have told us that they have a ʻdifferent childʼ, they describe the changes to their childrenʼs interests, interactions, appetite for learning and in the way they look forward to things. All teachers will observe this themselves, but itʼs really validating to hear parents observe it too.

Ask your staff for feedback regularly. Do they feel supported and listened to? Do they feel like owners of the work?

The above steps are drawn from one schoolʼs learning journey to date. Itʼs important to note that it is still in learning mode (and probably always will be). Their next focus is an exploration of adolescent transitions and good mental health.

Professional Prompt Questions

  • Whatʼs needed to guarantee children feel secure and valued in school?
  • How can schools ensure that children are really well known, and that they know that they are known?
  • How do you build security and support for staff in SEND schools?
  • How can you make mental health, wellbeing and happiness everyoneʼs business in school?

Laurel trained as a primary school teacher over 40 years ago and has had a number of roles and professions both in England and Israel, including teaching adults and pre-school children, and childminding. After qualifying as an Educational Psychologist (EP) in 1996, she worked for the London Borough of Enfield for seven years and then moved to Norwood (Binoh) where she managed the EP team, working predominantly within the Jewish community. During this time, she also spent five years on a secondment to the Tavistock Centre, working as a part-time course tutor on the Doctorate for Child, Community and Educational Psychology. Since leaving Norwood in 2013, Laurel has worked as an independent EP and is now semi-retired.

Gesher Design Principles

29th March 2022realsmart admin

Gesher Design Principles

EVERY YOUNG PERSON IS PROFOUNDLY WELL KNOWN
Learning at Gesher is founded on relationships and attachment:

  • Adults know students as both young people and learners
  • Young people know and support one another
  • Gesher is a community of ambition built on relationships and compassion.


PERSONALISED LEARNING INFORMED BY YOUNG PEOPLE’S PASSIONS AND INTERESTS
At Gesher young peopleʻs learning will be highly personalised:

  • Fostering curiosity and discovering passions and interests
  • Developing from that to ambition and engagement
  • Ensuring holistic growth and development


ACADEMIC RIGOUR AND AUTHENTIC REAL-WORLD LEARNING

  • Learning at Gesher will be academically rigorous and authentic – connected to real-world tasks in the adult world
  • Learning will take place in school, in the community and through internships in the workplace
  • Young peopleʼs learning will include real-world projects, appropriate skill-based learning, and authentic real-world assessments
  • We will design together rigorous and engaging projects that will develop young people’s sense of agency, ability to collaborate constructively and encourage collective
    achievement.


A CULTURE OF REFLECTIVE PRACTICE AND COLLABORATIVE PEER LEARNING

  • Gesher has a culture of staff reflecting and thinking about their practice together, and collaboratively planning how to improve outcomes for each and every young person
  • Gesher has a culture of peer teaching and tutoring enabling young people to learn from one another.


PARENTS AND COMMUNITY AS PARTNERS IN LEARNING

  • Parents are critical partners – expected to play an active role in their child’s school and home learning
  • At Gesher, parents are our partners in their child’s education, and our community supports and enables learning to happen
  • Gesher engages with the wealth of experience and expertise in our community, and we create opportunities for volunteering.

 

The Value of Getting it Right for Each Child: A View From Parents

29th March 2022realsmart admin

ʻThe Bridgeʼ is an adult learning journal for and by educators — which includes community members with an interest in young peopleʼs learning. This first issue would not be appropriately balanced if it didnʼt include the voice and reflections of parents. In fact, we intend that every issue of ʻThe Bridgeʼ will include articles by parents and community members who have experiences to share.

What it feels like when a school doesn’t understand your child?
Our daughter was previously in a local mainstream school with 1:1 support. She would regularly be separated from the other children in her class in order to receive various therapies and in order to carry out her learning. We knew she wasnʼt happy because we had frequent reports of her pulling her learning assistantʼs and other teaching staffʼs hair. She started stimming (self-stimulating behaviour) at this time by waving her arms around; this was evidently her way of coping within the experience of boredom and isolation and yet it marked her out as different, leading to yet more of a sense of alienation both on her part (and mine).
Our daughterʼs difficulties in all areas such as speaking, attention, large motor movements, were making it difficult for her to join in classroom activities. It was clear that she was suffering from anxiety.

She was being and would be increasingly failed by the mainstream education system

and I could see things would only get worse if we didnʼt find another school for her. The staff within her school were clearly overwhelmed and they didnʼt really know how to support us or how to deal with us. This was obvious from our meetings with them. They didnʼt know how to help our daughterʼs learning, nor did they know how to help manage her behaviour and it was evident that we represented a burden or a problem for them. I didnʼt have much of a connection or common point of contact with other parents owing to our experience being so different. Our daughter lacked confidence when she was in peer group situations and she would often shrink back and stick to the adults in the room. I recall birthday parties and park playgrounds being particularly tense times for both of us.

How did you know when you had found the right school?
You can tell when a school knows what it is doing. When we found Gesher, the corridors were calm and distraction free and there was an atmosphere of peace and contentment and also a positive can-do attitude amongst the staff. It was clear to us that this was going to be the best place for our daughter, not least because her severe speech dyspraxia was making any kind of integration into mainstream schooling increasingly complicated. We knew that people would take the time to listen to her and to try to understand what she was saying, that she would be encouraged to communicate. She would be able to join in group activities without being separated. Immediately, we felt that Gesher would see us not as a problem or hindrance, but rather as an opportunity.

What it means to belong
When children are encouraged to feel a sense of belonging to their school, not just to their class, that is really important. A whole-school focus on inclusion, support and nurturing of children means that children are encouraged to learn good values and the importance of taking responsibility for themselves and for others. This is crucial.

I really appreciate here that therapy is integrated, meaning no child is singled out or isolated, while at the same time each student has their own learning plan. Each child is included and also cared for.

When your child (and you) are truly seen and valued
Our daughter has flourished, blossomed even, into a confident young girl who has a strong sense of who she is. She is no longer scared to try new things. Her ability to focus and to give her attention to a task has grown too. Her speaking is improving day by day. She is so happy to be part of a wider community. She wakes up each day with a sense of purpose and curiosity which is exactly how we should all be in life.

As parents, we no longer feel alone in the experience of having a special needs child.

When we go through a difficult time, or we have a specific issue, or we need some practical help, we know that we have other parents and teachers to whom we can reach out. That has made a phenomenal difference to our lives. We have started to feel a sense of optimism about our future as a family.

How to Lead Profound Educational Change: A Reflection from Big Change

29th March 2022realsmart admin

How to Lead Profound Educational Change

Caitlin Ross and Caireen Goddard, Big Change

Have you looked at our traditional systems of education and thought, “Surely we can do better for young people?” Big Change is an organisation that is generating a national conversation around ten hopes for how we could do just that.

Gesher School caught up with Caireen Goddard and Caitlin Ross, who lead the impact team at Big Change, to hear about these hopes and what it might take to change the system.

Gesher
First of all, thanks for speaking to us today and for letting us hear about the hopes of Big Change. I’m going to dive straight in: What needs to change about the education system?

Caireen Goddard
When I came to Big Change I had spent a lot of time in and around the education system, including learning from educators in the UK and examples from around the world where people were doing things really differently. I recognised the frustration of people in our schools and local authorities who wanted to do things differently, and to support young people in different ways, but who had blockers put in their way or were under pressure to deliver against certain kinds of outcomes. There was, or is, a double tension of a narrowing focus from above together with a lack of autonomy or freedom to lead education in a way they thought was really needed for young people.

I think it boils down to two really key questions:

  • What should be the purpose of education?
  • Whatʼs really important for children and young people to learn – for themselves and for society?

Across 2021 we ran a Big Education Conversation where we asked these two questions. Most people we heard from agreed that we need to rethink the purpose of education and shift to a system where childrenʼs enjoyment of and engagement in learning is paramount.

Gesher
It sounds like thereʼs a real drive for change, but what should that change look like?

Caireen
Thatʼs right, we know thereʼs an appetite for change. And we think that ʻbig changeʼ would:

  • Recognise that a one-size-fits-all model actually fits no-one.Even children who are ʻdoing wellʼ within the current system arenʼt satisfied with it because of the modes of learning and pressure from exams.
  • Create an inclusive learning system that prepares all children well for the real world.
  • Take a broader perspective on who our educators are. If we want our young people to learn skills that equip them for life, look at the degree to which the broader community,
    employers, parents, and young people themselves are involved in the nature of learning provision.

Gesher
So, tell me more about Big Change and your hopes for changing the system?

Caitlin Ross
We want to be a catalyst for change by working with and through others. We want to learn from others and create the space for hope and ambition, and to disrupt the status quo. Our Ten Hopes, which have been published as a call to action to frame our work and invite others on the journey, have really resonated with a lot of people. Instead of getting caught up in how negative the system and all its problems can feel, we wanted to orientate towards the hopeful.

Gesher
With that in mind, how do you work with change-makers like Gesher?

Caitlin
I lead on our grantmaking work and was lucky enough to be part of Gesherʼs application process. Before we met today, I took a look back at their application to see what it was that stood out.

What we really liked, and what we would look for with change-makers, was the drive to challenge the status quo on what education is and how it can be delivered. We really liked their goal around ensuring that all pathways through education and into work are valued, and also:

  • An ability to think outside the box about what traditional models of ʻsuccessʼ should be
  • The ambition for young people with special educational needs and disabilities to have meaningful professional and wider lives
  • The desire to convene everyone who will be supporting these young people at different stages of their lives
  • Challenging common sense and really looking at what young people with SEND need to live rich, fulfilling lives
  • The drive to bring other schools and professionals along with them on their learning journey. They really want all ships to rise with their tide and that is the perfect service we can provide for children.

Gesher
What advice would you give to Gesher, and others, when trying to implement change?

Caitlin
You need the right conditions to see these goals through. So, I would really say that you need:
• An ability to think about the whole system
• To be open to insights from elsewhere, all over the world
• To observe what you are learning and question yourself – to interrogate
• Be ambitious about the change you want to create with and for young people, while being humble enough to work collaboratively and learn from others
• To be strategically generous – donʼt hold on to your knowledge
• Recognise that you will always be learning.

Gesher
It feels like this could be quite a daunting challenge to take on. Whatʼs one thing people who want to lead change should think about?

Caireen
I donʼt think itʼs helpful to give the impression that any of this is straightforward or easy. Being a path-finder means you are taking a risk in the context of young people and their learning, which understandably isnʼt a hugely risk-inclined environment. I think itʼs about finding opportunities to do things differently and being confident to try new approaches. Looking to others for support and inspiration, both domestically and internationally, because we need real collaboration over competition.

Caitlin
I agree with that and would also say, donʼt just surround yourself with like-minded people. One way to create significant change over time is to collaborate and align with people who
have quite different views from you. Those unlikely alliances are really important, but like all partnerships they take a degree of willingness and trust to make happen, as well as humility.

Gesher
This has been fascinating. Just to end, do you have any final thoughts or advice you would like to give to Gesher or other change-makers?

Caireen
I would say that itʼs easy to lose sight of the quick wins, so celebrate the small successes!

Caitlin
I think having a clear vision of the change you want to create for and with young people and putting them at the centre of the work is really, really important to drive any change.

 

Caireen Goddard leads Big Changeʼs global insight network and their system change strategy in the UK, which is centred on Subject to Change, a new national project that will empower young people and the public to set a new direction for learning. For over 20 years Caireen has worked on learning, strategy, networks and innovation projects with schools, local authorities, charities, various national and global bodies, and central government.

Caitlin Ross leads on the identification, funding and support of pioneering project partners. She also leads on Big Changeʼs impact strategy, making sure that they gather the insights needed to keep growing and learning, both as a charity and as a funder. Caitlin has a frontline background in microfinance and in youth work, working on the ground with organisations in Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. She brings her experience delivering scalable, impact-focused interventions to Big Changeʼs grant giving and impact work to support pioneers who are helping young people to thrive in life.

 

Professional Prompt Questions

  • What would you want life to look like in 20 yearsʼ time for the children you teach and how well are current schooling practices preparing them?
  • What would you choose to assess if you set up an education system that prepared children to be good citizens?
  • Who do you view as educators of children and young people?
  • How do you raise all the ships around you when you are gaining knowledge and trialling new educational approaches?
  • Who do you look to for ideas?

Where are all the SEND Teachers? 

21st February 2022Website Admin

By Rowan Eggar

Nearly half a million children in the UK have Educational Health Care Plans (EHCP). This represents a 480% increase since 2016. State-funded special schools have seen a 22% increase in pupil headcount over the same period. In addition, a further 12% of mainstream pupils require SEN support from nursery to the end of secondary school.  

Yet despite this, recruitment of SEND teachers continues to be an uphill struggle. Only 5% of qualified teachers work in special needs settings or PRUs (ONS, 2021) and there is a distinct lack of data on retention rates and the number of foreign teachers. This further highlights the problem, SEND teachers are not considered when looking at recruitment and retention despite the ever growing number of pupils with additional needs (OECD, 2019). 

A solution to this problem needs to be found to help these vulnerable and extraordinary pupils.  

Retention of Teachers   

The special needs teacher shortage is not limited to SEND.  It is a nationwide problem. Teacher retention is another uphill struggle. Current statistics are telling, with only 67.4% of teachers remaining in the profession after five years (EPI, May 2021). The government is attempting to address these issues with the roll out of ECT training, designed to better support and mentor new teachers. However, I would argue that placement of ECT teachers in schools they already have a relationship with would produce more high quality teachers. Firstly, these teachers have a solid understanding of the ethos and values of the school, which they may also embody. Secondly, knowledge and practice of key areas including behaviour, curriculum and safeguarding procedures. Finally, their interpersonal relationships with colleagues and the senior leadership team will provide a support network during those early and overwhelming trainee years.  

Retention of teachers is a huge problem and workload is at least partially to blame. A primary teacher is averaged to spend 52 hours a week working, which when coupled with relatively low pay and a public sector pay freeze highlights the complexities of the problem. Special needs teaching is notoriously challenging and does require a certain type of individual. However, if the right training route was in place perhaps we would be better able to identify and support the issues of teacher retention. 

COVID 19  

COVID 19 has affected SEND staff shortages significantly and is having a profound impact on staff recruitment. Unlike here in the UK, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand all have specialist SEND teacher training, whose highly skilled teachers previously made up a large proportion of our SEND teachers. Now with Covid 19 continuing, many of these individuals have gone back home. With ever changing regulations and differing quarantine regulations, there is no clear return date for them. Anecdotally, our school alone has lost 10% of teachers and teaching assistants.  

No specialist training  

In the UK, there is no specialist SEND teacher training in either the PGCE or BA education route.A recent survey showed the top two reasons for teachers handing in their notice were lack of training in managing student behaviour and SEND (TES, 2019). ⅓ of teachers would like further training or CPD on SEND. Pupils in specialist settings have a range of mild to severe needs from social communication to social emotional mental health to profound learning disabilities. Therefore, they require bespoke and comprehensive training to help them overcome their barriers to learning. While some schools are able to offer CPD and paid for training, many are underfunded and unable to. Often the needs of SEND pupils are so complex that without the correct tools and skill sets behaviour can become dysregulated and pupils are unable to learn. Without appropriate training or the right supportive setting, how can we recruit teachers into SEND? 

Should the UK not be a leading specialist in special needs training like South Africa and Hungry? Being able to be part of a world wide initiative would further attract new teachers and upskill our current educators.  

What can we do about it?  

The first step is to acknowledge the problem and raise awareness. Working together with the government, local authorities and educational think tanks will enable us to discuss the problem and come together to think of solutions. 

The next step is to develop SEND specialist training programmes. Both postgraduate and apprenticeship routes should be considered. Utilising and mentoring the extraordinary teaching assistants already present in schools is one solution. Including SEND placements onto teacher training courses would also increase awareness and provide opportunities for all teachers to learn from our SEND pupils before bringing those skills back into the mainstream and specialist learning environments. 

– Written by Rowan Eggar