SEND Communities of Practice for managers and practitioners

The four Centres for Excellence (CfE) in SEND are each hosting Communities of Practice (CoPs) covering topics within their individual themes (People – Weston College, Community – City College Norwich, Careers – Oldham College and Specialist Support – Natspec). These CoP are open to anyone working in Education and Skills with an interest in improving experiences for learners with an inclusion need (SEN). The focus of the CoPs is to share and identify effective practice and to work collaboratively as a community of professionals to address challenges.

In addition to our CfE and Employer Spoke events, you might want to check out joint school and FE ‘Specialist Spotlight’ CPD events delivered by nasen which are part of the Universal SEND Services programme. The events are booked via the Whole School SEND website events page. Those events highlighted as Post 16 are listed below with a direct link to book.


Events

December

11th, Preparing learners with SEND for adulthood – Non Verbal Learners (NVL). This Community of Practice event, facilitated by Natspec, brings together professionals working with learners with SEND from across the FE sector to share tools and approaches used to engage and motivate Non-Verbal Learners (NVL) with SEND. Discover how different settings enable and facilitate this. Share your own experiences, resources used, your challenges and successes. 15:45 – 16:45

January 2024

8th, How learning support staff can deliver positive outcomes for our learning community. In this webinar, learn about City College Norwich’s learning support staff’s skilful approaches to learner support. They will share their resources and findings from Ofsted, as well as offer follow up personalised support for your LSA (Learning Support Assistant) community.14:30 – 16:00

11th, RARPA. This Community of Practice, facilitated by Natspec, provides an opportunity to share tools and approaches used in target setting for RARPA. Find out how different settings do this15:45 – 16:45

16th, Strategies for developing and supporting effective teaching and learning in a SEND provision. This Natspec-run session will cover exploring effective teaching and learning in SEND, identifying strategies to support delivery, reflecting on current practice and learning from Natspec colleagues. 16:00 – 17:15

17th, Inclusive approaches for our Maths and English for Post 16 learners. In this webinar, City College Norwich share their effective inclusive practice of how they support learners with Maths & English, including initial assessments, strategies to integrate inclusive learning and English and maths to ensure greater collaboration between delivery staff to benefit learners.15:30 – 17:00

18th, Behaviours of concern. This Community of Practice, facilitated by Natspec, provides an opportunity to focus on understanding what are ‘behaviours of concern’ and discuss how to identify triggers and appropriate strategies. 15:45 – 16:45

18th, Understanding anxiety and creating a supportive learning environment hosted by nasen. Join nasen for a discussion exploring the topic of anxiety and approaches to creating a supportive learning environment in Secondary and FE settings. This hour-long live online discussion session is designed to be complimentary to the online unit: Understanding anxiety and creating a supportive learning environment (Unit 11) 16:00 – 17:00

22nd, Promoting mental wellbeing in your setting hosted by nasen. Join nasen for a discussion exploring approaches to promoting mental wellbeing in secondary and FE settings. This hour-long live online discussion session is designed to be complimentary to the online unit: Promoting mental wellbeing in your setting (Unit 9) 16:00 – 17:00

24th, Understanding and promoting resilience hosted by nasen. Join nasen for a discussion exploring understanding and promoting resilience in secondary and FE settings. This hour-long live online discussion session is designed to be complimentary to the online unit: Understanding and promoting resilience (Unit 10) 16:00 – 17:00

31st, Supporting sensory differences in the learning environment hosted by nasen. Join nasen for a discussion exploring how to support learners with sensory differences in the learning environment in secondary and FE settings. This hour-long live online discussion session is designed to be complimentary to the online unit: Supporting sensory differences in the learning environment (Unit 12) 16:00 – 17:00

February

1st, An introduction to teaching learners with physical needs hosted by nasen. Join nasen for a discussion exploring teaching learners with physical needs in secondary and FE settings. This hour-long live online discussion session is designed to be complimentary to the online unit: An introduction to teaching learners with physical needs (Unit 13) 16:00 – 17:00

6th, Ticket to employment programme. In this webinar, hear about City College Norwich’s employment pathway, our intent rational which led to the introduction to our TICKET to employment programme and how we have adapted over time to meet sector needs. 13:30 – 15:00

13th, Inclusive approaches for our Maths and English for Post 16 learners. In this webinar, City College Norwich share their effective inclusive practice of how they support learners with Maths & English, including initial assessments, strategies to integrate inclusive learning and English and maths to ensure greater collaboration between delivery staff to benefit learners.13:30 – 15:00

20th, Sustainability programme for learners with SEND. In this webinar, City College Norwich share their their road map to sustainability and the curriculum activities they have developed and are developing for their learners to have a sustainable future. Hear about their approaches leading to employment.15:30 – 17:00

March

6th, A toolkit – Effective inclusive support strategies for tutors and support staff. In this webinar, City College Norwich share their approaches and toolkit which ensure that learners with learning difficulties, differences or inclusion needs have their needs met and can achieve their aspirations. We want our learners to live full lives by thriving independently in their community, moving on to further or higher study, an apprenticeship or into the world of work. 15:00 – 16:30


Resources

As part of our Community of Practice offer, we have produced a number of resources and delivered a number of free training sessions. The resources and recordings of webinars can be found on the Resources from the centres page under the headings used across the SEND Exhibition website.