Working better together Our projects : Our Stories

An emerging plan

Building the plane while we’re flying it... Broad Objectives

• Establish a model of working differently

• We wanted to explore how we could track

learning journeys of students

• Share knowledge and develop capacity of

teachers across schools

• Supporting a wider view of schooling

communities

• Review the role of SENCo

Relationships

Who is Special Education?

● Principals

● SENCO

● Special School

● RTLBs

● MOE - service managers

Agreed Principles

● Our kids are not broken and they don’t

come with a manual

● Relationships are central to effective

teaching and learning

● The way forward needs to be pragmatic

and practical

● Transdisciplinary model not medical

(one student at a time)

● Grounded in teaching as inquiry

● Working together and collaboratively

The Challenges • That there is no new funding

• Significant social challenges in our communities

• Our schools are complex and diverse

• Teachers aides are not by themselves the answer

• Numbers of students with severe behaviour

challenges

• Schools under stress are not able to take on new

systemic changes

• Limitations of the ‘packages’ of supports

BUT ….We didn’t know

who the students were

The Data

We found that schools

● Had no consistent way of

collecting data or keeping record

● Up to 21 services can be

working in one school, and 6 for

a single student/teacher

● There was no common language

for identifying needs of students

or supports they were receiving.

● Supports look different across

school

We found that Students

● 19.4% of all our students across the 5

schools were on the SEN register

● 62% of these were boys

● 58% were referred for ‘learning’ (

being well below NS in Reading,

writing and maths) - Other areas

included behavioral (12.8%),

health(10.8%), language and

communication (4.5%), social /

emotional (10.8%) or sensory (2.8%)

● 49% of these students received no

additional supports outside what the

school was providing

Emerging picture • Little or no supports for SENCO in schools

• Schools didn’t know what was available and how to access resources

• Supports were often reactive not proactive and very constrained by the rules

of engagement

• Relationships with key people were often the difference in the success of the

intervention

• Frustration at lack of information or continuity when transitioning into school

or between schools

Leadership & Culture

UPER SENCO

SENCO

Teacher Practice

Students &

Whanau

Specialist School

RTLB

Learning Support

Leadership & Culture

SENCO

Teacher Practice

Students &

Whanau

Leadership & Culture

SENCO

Teacher Practice

Student &

Whanau

Leadership & Culture

SENCO

Teacher Practice

Students &

Whanau

Leadership & Culture

SENCO

Teacher Practice

Students &

Whanau

UPER SENCO

What are the opportunities that

this role could offer in your

context ?

What are the challenges this

model could present in your

context?