CONTRIBUTORS
Caring conversations: children should be seen AND heard
This month, in our ongoing collaboration with Edge Hill University curated by ALICIA BLANCO-BAYO, Early Years Lecturer and WTEY Programme Leader at the University’s Faculty of Education, we’re delighted to hear from JOHN CLARKE, Early Years Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Edge Hill University.
Anyone who knows me well knows I love to talk. Some conversations are easy and some less so. Some we have a pretty good idea of the road map they will follow, and others take detours to places we had never even considered. People often refer to ‘the art of conversation,’ and it is an art which we all engage in whether we feel proficient or a novice, a seasoned performer or a reluctant participant, but how do we provide the opportunities for children to feel valued and heard particularly when their early experiences may not have offered up these chances? As teachers how can we facilitate the necessary but sometimes uncomfortable discussions children need in order to support their development? ‘We really want to talk to you about adopting. We’ve given it a lot of
thought and we have some questions. If we go for dinner and have a chat would that be OK?’ I put the phone down and turned to my son. ‘Who was that daddy?’ he asked with a raised eyebrow. ‘Just a friend who’s considering adopting. Her and her husband would like to adopt some children of their own and want some advice. What do you think about that?’ His face said it all. ‘They don’t want to adopt YOU!’ I reached out and tussled his hair. His face broke into a smile. I hugged him and he laughed. ‘So what do you think I should tell them? What would you say to them?’ As I heard the words leave my mouth, they were a surprise to me. I genuinely wanted his opinion. After all, I already knew how it felt to want to be a parent and whilst we have spoken about our family makeup quite openly, I had never really asked the question directly; how did he feel about this? As an adoptive parent I knew that the transitions my children would need
to make from one family setting to another would be difficult to navigate. Leaving any relationship takes an emotional toll which can be difficult to comprehend as an adult. To experience it as a child does not bear thinking about. Still some children can muster levels of resilience I can only marvel at as they negotiate their daily interactions.
‘Is It weird that we’re adopted? That’s what somebody said to me today.’ ‘They don’t understand why we don’t live with our first family.’
These are comments we have had to unpick with our children on the
walk home from school. The result of multiple playground and cloakroom interactions. Far from growing adept at trying to untangle the inquisitive exploration of other children from the resultant gaslighting it produces, we have rather tried to develop the resilience required to tackle them. Inevitably it will be a reoccurring event in the lives of our children as they decide which aspects of their story they share and with whom. Such discussions pose multiple problems for teachers. Aside from the
legalities there is the very real emotional repercussions of mishandling the delicate nature of these interactions. Questions like what are the family happy to share? How much does the child know? What if they say the wrong thing? How do we tackle these sorts of comments? Will these discussions further traumatise the child? Ultimately is it easier to dismiss or shut down these interactions and report it to parents? What strategies do you find useful or successful to facilitate difficult
childhood conversations? John will continue his exploration of this fascinating topic next month.
18
www.education-today.co.uk SEND in science
In her regular column this month, STEMtastic! founder KIRSTY BERTENSHAW offers some pointers on teaching science to students with SEND.
Science is a practical subject with a considerable amount of content to learn in a relatively limited period of time, with barriers to learning presented by the very nature of the subject.
Access to practical science Practical science can involve smells, some of which are obviously pungent, others might not be apparent to everyone but can be offensive to some. Opening windows can help with dissipating the smells, but this isn’t always possible if Bunsen burners are in use or inclement weather prevents it. Internal doors can be opened, and students with olfactory issues can be placed near the doors. Alternatively, set up an area of the room with a pleasant smell, maybe an air freshener such as a reed diffuser. Touch can also be an issue if practical science involves handling
something that can be considered dirty, such as soil when planting seeds or organs for dissection. Students can take a supervisorial role in group practicals to avoid having to touch the equipment but still be involved in the experiment and observe the results. Multiple sensory issues can make practicals such as organ dissection
impossible for some. An excellent way to still allow students to explore these organs is to use commercially available foam organ models. They are usually labelled inside and are made of at least two parts so they can still be handled and ‘dissected’ without mess or smells. Tables that can be height adjusted should be available in schools,
which can allow practical equipment to be easily reached by all. Long tubed Bunsen burners can be used to ensure lowered tables still have access to gas taps, but care should be taken to ensure the gas taps can still be turned on and off easily for safety.
Vocabulary Science involves a lot of language, some of which is repeated in different contexts which is confusing for students. An example would be the use of the term ‘nucleus’, the centre of an atom and the cell organelle that contains genetic information. It is important to be clear on the topic area in each lesson and the context of each word. Vocabulary lists are useful for each topic and can be stuck into exercise books or stuck on tables. Because such a lot of language is introduced in one go, making a dictionary or glossary of each word is helpful. Deepening learning The amount of content in the science curriculum and the time
allocated to it in the school timetable can lead to a fast pace of teaching. The danger of this is that shallow learning takes place and content is forgotten after a few weeks. Recapping ideas regularly can help to embed learning. Using cloze exercises is out of fashion but they are a great way to
practice using vocabulary correctly and confidently, as well as revising content. Modelling answers to long answer exam questions using cloze exercises assists students in seeing how to answer these questions and how to construct sentences using scientific vocabulary. P uzzles are another way to recap content and can be used as homework or starter activities, with code breaking, crosswords, mini quizzes or even spot-the-mistakes to revise content already covered in the recent past. If there is a lot of content to remember, for example when learning the electromagnetic spectrum, poems, rhymes, songs or even dances can help to embed the concepts by employing muscle memory alongside the learning - making it fun too.
Kirsty is the founder of STEMtastic, an education consultancy with a focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths
www.stemtastic.co.uk
October 2021
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