Review by Jess Mahdavi-Gladwell

Freelance SEND consultant

18 Jan 2025, 5:00

Blog

The Conversation – with Jess Mahdavi-Gladwell

Different strokes

2025 is upon us and last week I was lucky enough to attend Great Big Small Schools INSET organised by the Chartered College of Teaching and the Church of England.

Reference was made to Flourishing Together, a document published in November last year, which speaks of the class of 2040 and to the fact that some of these young people are in our early years classes right now. It was a shocking moment in the midst of an uplifting day, possibly harder to believe than the myth that 1995 is 30 years ago.

As I was looking forwards, Helen Tarokh’s latest blog gave me cause to reflect. Here, Tarokh discusses the pros and cons of headship in maintained and academy trust schools and considering the impact of COVID on her experience as a head.

I’ve not (yet) been a head. However I think the consideration of benefits of each system is valid beyond COVID days and for those at all stages of their career. When is a team experienced as collaborative and supportive, and when might we feel frustrated or stifled by limited autonomy?

I am sure that is different in every trust, local authority, federation and even in each individual school. And to complicate matters, what feels ‘right’ is different for each one of us.

That leaves each person considering or seeking a new role in essence hopeful of finding the place where they can best serve children and community alike.

That’s me right now, and if that’s you too then I highly recommend Tarokh’s blog.  

Protected time

Having worked as a SENCO, line managed one SENCO and provided supervision for another, I know the role is both immensely rewarding and uniquely challenging. Chief among those challenges is time management: needing to ask people who are outside of your line management responsibility to do things and being a focus for parent contact.

This Twinkl blog by Lauren Brown lays out the findings and recommendations of a new joint report by nasen and Bath Spa University, which calls among other things for statutory guidance related to non-contact time for SENCOs.

This landed with me as a plea for equity, where not only those with leaders who are understanding enjoy sufficient time as a privilege, but all SENCOs can have a fair chance at setting boundaries around their time to fulfil the demands of the role.

Mention of the myriad roles that can come under the umbrella of SENCO (DSL, EAL coordinator, etc.)  reminded me that we must learn not to conflate all learning needs. English as an additional language and social care involvement are not SEND.

It also made me dwell on the sector-wide need to better understand intersectionality.

Back to the future

It’s far from a new question for the sector, but the key question of this post on the Teaching and Learning Resource Online blog has extra poignancy in the age of AI: ‘How do we prepare the next generation for a future we can barely imagine?’

I found this an excellent read, and it has inspired me to make use of the longer winter evenings more productively. So my personal challenge for 2025 is to learn to use AI in a way that’s helpful and allows for the most productive use of my time without diluting the individuality of my work.

Give EHCPs a chance?

Finally for this week, among the three valuable questions executive headteacher Simon Botten reflects upon in this post, I found the second particularly insightful. Why are EHCPs rising so rapidly?

My personal conviction (and I know it’s not only mine) is that mainstream schools need more support to meet need flexibly and in a way which doesn’t impact negatively on the school as a whole.

That’s not to suggest that meeting the needs of some brings detriment to others. However, meeting needs can have a detrimental impact on our purely numerical model of school accountability, and this can only lead to unintended consequences.

For my part, a shift to valuing inclusion and progress for all, and not purely attainment, could make the system more equitable. Botten has five suggestions of his own. Do have a read!

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