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If you go down to the woods today.... the benefits of Forest School for children with SEMH needs

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catjolleys.com   Forest School   is a concept first established in Denmark in the 19th century, it came to the UK in the 1990s and is now an established part of many schools’ curriculum, particularly in the Early Years.    Its roots reach back to the open-air culture,  friluftsliv    (a Norwegian concept meaning; a  love of being in nature without disturbing it ). Fundamentally, a child-led, investigative learning approach which supports play, exploration and supported risk taking to develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on experiences in a natural setting. These are benefits for all learners, but  when I was Deputy Headteacher at an SEMH primary school, I   saw first-hand the particular benefits for children with SEMH , when we first introduced Forest School. Myself and my colleagues knew most of the children would demonstrate quite a limited focus and engagement in the classroom and we were well used to delivering short bursts of learning, 10-15 minutes in length, before m
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Meet and Greet (how a warm welcome makes all the difference)

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  Cat Jolleys    catjolleys.com Can you recall a time when you've arrived at work or walked into a meeting or social event and no one acknowledged you or tried to make a connection with you? How did it feel? Did you feel welcomed, valued, like you belonged? Did you feel motivated to contribute and give your best? Probably not. So, it should follow that actively welcoming our children into school, at the start of each day, will not only increase their sense of belonging and reduce any anxieties about coming to school and minimise any behaviours which might prove challenging, it should also encourage them to maximise their efforts that day. Whilst this sounds obvious and a given that all schools would welcome children at the start of each day, recently watching my own son walk into school and pass 3 or 4 members of staff without any of them even acknowledging his presence, felt disappointing to me. They didn't mean to ignore him (they're brilliant staff) but they were busy ha
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Ever Increasing Circles (developing children's Emotional Regulation using Circle Times)

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  Cat Jolleys    catjolleys.com Back in 2013, when I had hardly any grey hair and couldn't even spell perimenopause , I went on some Restorative Circle Time training, aimed at developing emotional regulation in the children in my class. I immediately loved the idea but thought 'when do I fit this in?' and 'do I do this after every conflict in my Y6 class?' and 'the caretaker is going to kill me if I move the furniture around again.' However, my school were really investing in this approach, so I got on board and...have never looked back. Circles (or Circle Times) to teach curricular content or respond (react) to conflict, have long been the norm in many Early Years classrooms across the world, but for me, their real magic lies in using them proactively, to develop emotional literacy in children of all ages, even (whisper it) in secondary schools.  Using a Circle to focus on a specific behaviour , value, emotion, experience or need, or to model emotional art
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Listen ... how to include Parents of SENd learners

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Cat Jolleys    catjolleys.com Post pandemic, we were noticing an increase in the numbers of children presenting with social communication difficulties , at my school (a large, diverse inner city Manchester primary, with high numbers of asylum seekers and international new arrivals).    This trend wasn’t unique to us, I discovered following discussions with other Manchester SENCos and CAMHs professionals on the Autism diagnostic team. However, our cohort posed me (as SENCo) an additional challenge in the sense that so many of these children had parents and families who were hesitant, unsure or even resistant to pursue a diagnosis for their children or were reluctant to discussions around the barriers to learning or socialising , their child faced in school.   As an experienced SENCo, I wasn’t unfamiliar with this dynamic. As a parent of an autistic son, I was once that parent too! Plus, some of these parents had the additional challenge of being newly arrived in the UK and all t
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