Most Innovative Special Needs Intervention
The Limes College
Entry Introduction:
The Limes College Art department creates innovating and exciting projects to engage students in Art and Design. During Halloween 2015 we created an exhibition inspired by Mexican Day of the Dead at The Lyric Theatre. Students and families were invited for a private view of the work before the exhibition was open to the general public for a week. The artists and their families were also given free tickets to the show which gave them the opportunity to attend a West End Show for the first time. We are currently working on a Surrealist project using inspiration from www.touretteshero.com this project will culminate in an exhibition for the Tourettes hero organisation’s 6th birthday at Battersea Art Centre. Our project challenges student’s preconceptions about the Tourette’s condition and disability in general.
Most Inclusive Practice Across a School
St Phillip’s C of E Primary School, Southport
Background
B, a bubbly and excitable 4 year old, suffers from the degenerative condition Ullrich’s Muscular Dystrophy. I was approached by B’s parents in the February of 2014, before B was due to begin school. His parents were committed to the idea that B should be able to attend the same school as his older brother and sister. They had been advised by the Local Authority that B’s needs would be better catered for at another local primary school but were determined that he should be educated in the same school and in same way and by the same team of teachers and teaching assistants as his siblings.
There were many reasons why it would have been very difficult for St Philips to meet the needs of such a special little boy, but just like his parents we were determined to ensure that our commitment to equality was upheld and decided that we would make whatever adaptations B needed, meeting the challenges of funding head on.
We invited B’s parents into school and in consultation with an advisor from the Local Authority assessed the whole school environment to identify challenges which would need to be addressed.
Best use of external SEN professional
Nelson Mandela Primary School
In the Autumn of 2013 we sought help from an independent speech and language therapy (SLT) service. We knew that despite our best efforts, the language levels of our pupils could be improved. More pressing for us at that early stage however, was the number of children with obvious speech, language, communication and interaction difficulties (SLCN) who were not receiving any input from local services. We wanted a therapist who would come into school and provide treatment!
Initially the therapist assessed our most needy children: plans and programmes were put into place.
