UPDATES

YST staff updates

May marked the end of Brad Liddle and Rob Belbin’s time in the YST inclusion team. Rob continues to be an Inclusion Development Coach and the Lead Inclusion School contact for Dorset. Brad has moved onto a new adventure within YST. We would like to thank both of them for their support during the time they were with us.

We are pleased to announce that Rebecca Tyers has been promoted to Programme Officer in the Inclusion team and will be transitioning into the role towards the end of June. Many of you will already know Rebecca as she has been part of the team for the last eighteen months, so is very familiar with the network and what we are aiming to achieve.

The job advert is live for Rebecca’s replacement (please feel free to share among your networks), so we are hoping to have a full team ready for the 24/25 academic year. Thank you for bearing with us through our recent staffing changes!

Reminder: Termly Reporting – deadline 12 July 2024

You will soon be receiving your links to complete termly reporting for the 2023/24 summer term. Please remember to fill in all sections and that the numbers are cumulative i.e. if you did 3 events in spring term and 2 events in summer term, you would put ‘5’ in the answers for the summer term reporting.

The deadline for completing inclusion termly reporting is Friday 12 July, and you will be receiving reminders in the run up to the deadline. If you have any questions around reporting, please contact [email protected].

Save the Dates!

LIS Virtual Connect – July
On Monday 1 July at 15:30-16:30, we will be hosting a virtual session to go over the content of the 2024/25 Lead Inclusion School offer ahead of the academic year starting. It will also be a chance to reflect and feedback on the last year. Please sign up to the event here.

LIS In-person Networking Day
On Monday 23 September, we will be having our face-to-face Lead Inclusion School networking day. The purpose of the day is to allow you to connect with one another, sharing good practice and advice as well as receiving training and support. A full agenda will be shared nearer the time.

It is a requirement of the LIS 2024/25 offer to attend this event. To register your attendance, please sign up here.

Inclusive Health Check Promotion

Thank you for the excellent work you are all doing in advocating the Inclusive Health Check to your networks. We’ve received 2648 responses so far and the recent completions reference the valued support of Lead Inclusion Schools and the Inclusion Hub which is great to hear! How can the Inclusive Health Check help? Below are just a few of the examples of how the inclusive health check has improved a school’s practice…

“The inclusive health check has encouraged me to collaborative with our SENDCo to review our intra and inter school sports activities to ensure all children have opportunities. This has led to the development of ‘the nest’ – an inside ‘senses’ educational area for targeted pupils needing a break.”

“Since last year’s IHC we have identified sports crew leaders where pupils have an active role in supporting younger pupils during lunchtimes. This has led to a SEND hub at lunchtimes where crew members buddy up to support their peers with SEND in activities.”

“From completing the IHC last year I learnt about the Inclusion Hub and have since signed up. This year I’ve utilised the website to develop our PE provision at school for our SEND pupils. Some of the actions from this have been improving staff training to improve their confidence surrounding teaching PE for SEND children through CPD and identifying opportunities outside of school to signpost the SENDCo, parents and carers too.”

Please continue to advocate the Inclusive Health Check tool to your networks, below are some ideas to support you in advocating this tool:

• Challenging School Games Organisers to achieve the most schools completing their Inclusive Health Check through a league table!
• Sharing a recording of a Lead Inclusion colleague completing the Health Check to local schools.
• Adding the Inclusive Health Check as a pre-requisite or agenda item in School Games Organiser meetings.
• Hold drop-in clinics to support applications or promote completion through your email signature.

If you have any questions on the Inclusive Health Check – please get in touch or speak to your Development Coach.

SPOTLIGHT

Last year Pinewood School in Hertfordshire participated in the LTA Open Court programme.

Why?
Working alongside Herts LTA, the SGO network and the local Active Partnership, their goal was to engage primary schools from low socio-economic areas in two tennis training sessions.

How?
Each school they were inviting selected five young people with additional needs to come along. These five then each selected a ‘buddy’ to attend as well. The events consisted of a two-hour carousel of activities centred on ABCs linked to tennis. Young leaders from secondary schools were also involved and staff/TAs received training from tutors that they could take back to their settings.

What was the impact?
All of the young people in attendance were engaged and the opportunity for them to work with a buddy made the day fun, removing the perception that tennis is solely a competitive sport. Most of the young people in attendance had never entered a Tennis Centre or picked up a racket before, so the opportunity to have lunch with some of the tennis members as well as trying out a new sport made it an exciting social learning journey. Following the success of the events, future planning meetings have been set up with Herts LTA to discuss further engagement for the schools involved.

Top tips

• Work collaboratively with your SGO network to agree the cohort group of young people to be invited, linking with the key performance deliverables.
• Establish clear communication channels with both your local LTA Centre and LTA Open Court contact/s and confirm the financial outlays.
• A 'Buddy' system was seen as a highly successful method of working.

Pinewood School will be applying their learnings on funding distribution to the work they do on the LTA Open Court programme this year.

SECTOR NEWS

Drowning Prevention Week is here! Saturday 15-22 June 2024

The Royal Lifesaving Society UK have published free water safety resources to promote the importance of water safety targeting families, carers, teachers, and instructors of children aged 5-15 to be safe in and around water. All resources can be accessed on the RLSS website here and are free to download. 

Don’t forget Swim England’s Oscar the Otter video has also been created to promote the importance of water safety through the Inclusion 2024 project – please share and signpost your schools to this resource. We’d love to hear your feedback on this resource during our conference day on Monday 23 September. 

Motor Activities Training Programme CPD Opportunity

Special Olympics GB are providing a virtual MATP training session on Thursday 20 June at 15:30. Motor Activities Training Programme (MATP) provides genuine opportunities for training and competition for individuals with PMLD and complex needs. Opportunities are realistic and tailored to the individual. It focuses on the abilities and enables athletes to work and showcase motor skills and sporting achievements that are relevant to them. Please share this training amongst your networks and book your spot here.

Young Disabled People’s Social Justice Campaign

The Alliance for Inclusive Education is looking for Young Disabled people aged 16-30 years-old to become changemakers and future leaders. The Our Voice project empowers Young Disabled people to campaign for mainstream inclusive education rights and get their voices heard. More information can be found here and to join in please email [email protected].