SEN bulletin May 2025

Message from Madhu

Welcome back to the Summer term – I hope you all had a well-deserved break. I am pleased to share that we have managed to secure funding so that Esther can continue her work with us for the Summer and Autumn term. If you haven’t booked in your visit, please do so.

"I just wanted to give you some lovely feedback. Esther Mellor came to visit our school today and she offered us some amazing advice and feedback. It was so helpful!"

Esther will be working on a series of videos and training webinars over the summer to support you with your CPD for staff. We will share more at our September SENDCO network.

Speech and language therapy

Looking for some fresh ideas and practical tips to boost your support for pupils this summer? Our Ealing Speech and Language Therapy team has got you covered!

Summer’s looking brighter with our free Ealing Speech and Language Therapy workshops! Whether you’re a SENCo, teacher or TA, our online sessions are packed with fresh ideas, hands-on strategies, and loads of inspiration to help your pupils shine.

And that’s not all ... we’ve got a fantastic line-up of parent/carer workshops too! Please share them with your families so they can join the sLT learning journey. Please spread the word "

SLT school staff training Summer 2025

SLT summer 2025 workshop brochure

Autism Education Trust: this month’s resource

Message from Dawn:

This month I want to share the flexible approach we have in supporting professional development at a variety of different levels. The Autism Education Trust has a Professional Development Programme for each phase: Early Years, Schools and Post 16.

We deliver a rolling programme of twilight training sessions at Springhallow school, so that members of staff can attend with minimal disruption to the school day.

We also offer training delivered at your school, so that all staff groups can develop a shared understanding of how to meet the needs of their autistic learners.

In addition, the AET has developed an online, flexible CPD programme that we can support.

Here is an overview of the training modules within each phase

Please do contact us to discuss how we can support your staff with autism training: Springhallow Outreach

Therapeutic Thinking

A new group of schools are completing the Therapeutic Thinking course this week. Great to see professionals from primary secondary, and special schools and from Ealing services signed up.

SEN governors

29 April - SEN Governors Network meeting – this meeting is now for SEN Governors only. Please do flag up to your SEN Governor, where they can ask questions, bring up current sen issues and discuss best practice to support you.

Upcoming training and networks

Browse Ealing CPD Online for a full view of professional development in Ealing.

• 20 May - Summer term SENCO Induction Meeting
  New, new to Ealing, deputy and prospective SENDCos all welcome to this face to face session – this term it is issues from transition to trips, and planning for next academic year.

From Springhallow:

• 15 May - Understanding and Supporting Pupils on the Autistic Spectrum
• 22 May - Writing Social Stories

21 May - EYFS Transition Conference – for leaders of SEND in EYFS
The Ealing Early Years Quality Partnership would like to invite you to attend the Annual EYFS Transition Conference 2025 with the theme of Learning Differences and Disabilities (SEND) in the Early Years. This is an all day event at Grasshoppers RFC in Isleworth; sessions include relationship bulidng between schools and PVIs.

Free new online course from NCB/Rise:
Sensory Processing: What it is and why it matters - The RISE Partnership: Research and Improvement for SEND Excellence

SEN in the news

Rise SEND Workforce Survey 24-25

The10-15 min survey is anonymous; the deadline to fill in the survey is midnight on 11 May 2025.

The RISE Partnership (Council for Disabled Children and National Development Team for Inclusion) is designing and delivering training and resources which further develop skills and knowledge across the SEND workforce under the Research & Improvement for SEND Excellence partnership (RISE), funded by the Department for Education (DfE).

For any questions or queries, please contact the RISE team: RISE@ncb.org.uk

Solving the SEND Crisis

You can find submissions to the government SEND enquiry here:

Solving the SEND Crisis - Written evidence - Committees - UK Parliament

Signposts for parents

Inclusive Cricket Super 1s comes highly recommended and is now available for 8-18 year olds at Middlesex Cricket club.

Top Tip

Don’t pay for tools that are already in packages you are paying for. Google and Microsoft have a wide range of tools included such as text to speech, speech to text, magnification, simplified browers etc. Have a look at what is there already.

Google Accessibility Tools

Microsoft Accessibility Features

Did you know?

SEN data - state funded primary schools:

State funded secondary schools: