AP & SEND Briefing 9th October 2024

Dear colleague,

Welcome to our mid-week round-up of Alternative Provision and SEND news across the South West and beyond.

Below you'll find summaries and links of what's been in the news recently, the latest thinking and some of the great training links we think you'll find useful. Grab a coffee and take 10 minutes to get updated and through the midweek hump.

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School Readiness

The ninth monthly report from Anne Longfield's Centre for Young Lives centres on school readiness, discovering 45% of children on Free School Meals are not ready for school: arriving in buggies, nappies and lacking the language and social skills needed to thrive in school.

Children who are not ready for school are around three times more likely to be NEET by the ages of 16-17

The report states that school readiness varies across the country with only 59% of children prepared compared to 84% in London. Anecdotally, we know non-readiness is common across the South West. It would be interesting to see more data analysed across our? South West cohort.

You can read the Centre For Young Lives Report here.

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What are you doing to Tackle Loneliness and Suicide in young People?

Suicide is the leading cause of death in children and young people with male rates in Devon 3.5 times higher than female rates. Evidence shows that loneliness, along with life and relationship events are key risk factors for suicide. The Samaritans Report calls for both government and local interventions we can all take as communities to tackle youth loneliness and lower the risks of suicide to our young people. Packed with good ideas, it is well worth a read.

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This week is Dyslexia Awareness Week

This week is Dyslexia Awareness Week, organised by the British Dyslexia Association. Next Steps Education is proud to be partnering with the BDA, not just for this week but for the future too! We are involved in creating a dyslexia hub for North Devon with the BDA, envisioning support for parents, students and the community. We are currently training in Assistive Tech for Dyslexia and organising presentations for parents and schools which we will roll out over the coming year. In the meantime, access the fantastic range of resources and webinars on the BDA website put together for Dyslexia Awareness Week.

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PARTNERING WITH PENCIL SPACES, THE LEADING ONLINE LEARNING PLATFORM

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Our mission at Next Steps to remove all and any barrier to learning continues apace with our most recent partnership with Pencil Spaces, the leading online learning platform. After careful research, we chose Pencil Spaces for a number of reasons not limited to:

- a great bank of SEND resources

- great safety & compliance, including COPPA, FERPA, GDPR, HIPAA and SOC2

- fantastic interactivity and engagement

- asynchronous lesson access where students can go back to look at board contents

As well as our current 1:1 (school and home based) online sessions, we are soon launching small group lessons specifically designed for students with anxiety and school non-attendance.

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FIND OUT SOME MORE...

1. Take a look at?our website’s?about us?page where you can learn more about how we can work together with you and your community.

2. Find and follow us on?LinkedIn

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3.?Book a meeting?with us?

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Until next time, take care,

Sarah

Director, Next Steps Education

PS. Know someone else who would find this briefing useful? Please feel free to tag colleagues or share this newsletter.