SPOTLIGHT ON SEND Guide to anger
This month, in the first of our columns on all aspects of SEND, regular Education Today contributor DR ASHA PATEL, CEO of education not-for-profit Innovating Minds, offers some advice for teachers dealing with angry students.
Anger is scary. You have a child who is out of control, with menacing body language, shouting and threatening other students in your class and it's your job to sort it out. Some teachers try to reason with the student. It might work. It
depends on how well the teacher knows the student and whether there is a history of mutual respect, but it is a risky strategy. The first and most important thing is to separate the angry student from the rest of the class. This is a safeguarding issue so if necessary, get help from another member of staff. Anger does not come out of nowhere. It has stages and you
need to reflect on what has happened. Often the student is having a bad day, is depressed, tense and irritable already. An incident occurs which is a flashpoint. They get an adrenaline rush that triggers a fight or flight response. They respond emotionally and lose control but so often anger is a response not just to the one incident but to many other things in their life. One of the students we work with told us: 'Being in a gang creates a lot of violence. It means reacting in an aggressive way.
It
makes you psychologically disturbed, maybe in love with violence so that the slightest thing others do, you react to it violently.' Even those who are not in gangs can develop patterns of behaviour, almost an addiction to anger as their default response. It is tempting to react aggressively in return or to move to a
punitive approach, but this is not wise. For many young people the home and their neighbourhood will be scarier than anything the school can threaten so the offer of a cup of tea may be more effective than a telling off. It is a distraction, may normalise blood sugar levels and be a comfort to a child in the grip of strong emotions. The advice from one of our students was: 'You need to look at
what’s good and what’s bad for you. You need to look at the people you surround yourself with so keep your focus, sit down and think about what you are doing.' The school can help with this; • Does your school have proactive measures to deal with angry students?
• Can students signal to a teacher that they need to leave the room to regain control of themselves?
• Is there a safe space young people can go to when they fear they will cause harm or damage?
• Is there a named person who can advise them on managing their emotions and behaviour?
Young people need support to move from aggression to a more
assertive approach and this can be hard if aggression is the main form of communication at home or in their peer group. Try to help them find ways to step back from acting on the spur of the moment and making the situation worse.
uFor more ideas about dealing with strong emotions, see our leaflet Surfing the Emotional Wave
http://www.innovatingmindscic.com/wp- content/uploads/2016/05/IM-Leaflets-A5-EMOTION.pdf
Supporting SENCOs is crucial to maintaining
effective provision This month, in her regular Education Today column on all aspects of SEND, KATE SARGINSON, Assistant Headteacher and former SENCO, examines the vital role of the SENCO, and looks at how practice and expectation has changed over the years.
The expectation of the role of SENCOs has evolved over the years. Reforms to the SEND Code of Practice have shifted understandings of the position away from operational, day to day management to one of strategic leadership and whole school improvement. This new recognition contests some long held perceptions. Thinking back to early incarnations of
‘Special Needs’ and what might you get? Images of a nice person, who takes a few kids out of class to do worksheets in a cupboard- esque room for 20 minutes every week. There was a mystique about what happened and why; the separateness was somewhat essential to the process. Fast forward to today, more often than not, provision is in-class and the mantra repeats, quite rightly, that SEN is now everyone’s responsibility. Through the Code of Practice, we are introduced to a post-holder who is knowledgeable, strong and effective – someone with charisma and influence; a leader. Sensible knitwear has been thrown out in favour of some power dressing. The SENCO is required develop policy; to be an expert in
learning, guiding colleagues about best practice and passionately advocating inclusion – justifiably a role with whole school responsibility. In many schools the nature of the job is still not fully grasped. The SENCO has a low status and lacks the authority to ensure change takes place. SENCOs are charged with the task of changing practice to be more inclusive, but may not have the authority to do so. The Code assume a rank which commands respect and ensures compliance, and as such it seems logical that due to the level of responsibility and scope, the SENCO should be a member of the school’s senior leadership team. However, many SENCOs are not on the SLT. It is therefore
unsurprising that lack of status is cited by SENCOs as one of the key inhibitors to their performance. Many SENCOs do not feel they have the standing to insist upon practice changes and/or their colleagues as they don’t recognise their authority to instruct them. If a SENCO is not on the senior leadership team, what guarantees are there that colleagues will respond positively to the advice, instruction and feedback they are given, and what follow up procedures are in place to ensure accountability? Having Senior Leadership support and backing is therefore crucial to the effectiveness of SENCOs. Their credibility can be upheld by strong line management, which manoeuvres SENCOs into the spotlight and reinforces their instructions to the teaching team. However, there is a distinct difference in framing the SENCO role
as one where they are a member of the Senior Leadership Team, or when the SENCO responsibilities are bolted onto a Senior leadership job description. In a number of schools, it is common for Deputies to combine the role with their other duties. Growing financial pressures on school budgets mean that leaders have to justify their staff spending. Having someone in the distinct SENCO role might become a luxury that schools can no longer afford. The assumption that an SLT SENCO equals impact will be under threat if the post holder is stretched too thinly.
February 2019
www.education-today.co.uk 19
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
