What is the most effective way of helping children with literacy special needs?

And building group trust and self confidence, teaching self awareness, body awareness and self-expression.

Children with literacy special needs tend also to have problems in the areas of self-confidence, self-awareness, and self-expression.

Our view is that if one works to overcome the literacy problems without tackling these other issues, then the task is much harder than if one works with both the literacy issues and these other factors as the same time.

Which is all very well, but how does one use the limited time available to build group trust, self confidence, self awareness, body awareness and self-expression?

The volume “Drama for students with special needs” provides the answer.

This is a book of lesson plans across 180 A4 pages, each of which can be used as a one-off session or built into a comprehensive scheme of work to address all of these issues.

Included within the volume are lessons intended for students with moderate learning difficulties as well as those with disabilities who might participate in sessions with a support worker.

The book has been written with basic KS3 skills in mind, in particular through the development of literacy skills as well as basic drama skills.

However it can be equally be used towards other aims, for example, to build group trust or self confidence, to teach self awareness, body awareness and self-expression.

Drama for Students with Special Needs by Louise Tondeur is available as a photocopiable ringbinder or on CD Rom which can itself be copied or loaded onto the school’s learning platform or intranet.

Cat No: 978 1 86083 790 6 Order code: T1689emn – please quote with order.

Sample pages can be viewed at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/spneeds/T1689.pdf

Photocopiable report in a ring binder, £29.95 plus £3.95 delivery
CD with school-wide rights: £29.95 plus £3.95 delivery
Both the Ring Binder and the CD £36.94 plus £3.95 delivery
Prices include VAT.
You can purchase the report…

By post to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Way, Corby, NN17 4HH
On the phone with a credit card or school order number at 01536 399 011
By email with a school order number to sales@firstandbest.co.uk

By fax to 01536 399 012
On line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=501

Deciding what to do after 16

Deciding what to do after 16 is the first big decision most 16 year olds will make, and both they and their parents need information

If the decision as to what a 16 year old does after year 11 is to be successful it must not only involve the student and his/her wishes, but also the student’s parents and the organisation/s that the student will use in the coming year.

Unfortunately there have already been many suggestions to the effect that a considerable number of parents are not particularly well informed on the options available.

Worse, many students seem to be ready to make only short-term decisions which do little to take into account what the student wishes to do in the longer term.

As for the notion of having a back-up plan if the first choice options don’t come to fruition – the number of students and parents who don’t even consider this seems to be frighteningly high.

Of course, in many ways this is all very understandable. For the past 11 years all the student’s educational needs, and most of the decisions that have been made, have been in the hands of the school. Both parents and students have become used to this, but suddenly there are questions to be answered and plans to be made.

Which is why “Making the Next Transition” exists. It is a copiable volume (available both on CD and in printed format) that can be used by both students and parents to help them to make the right decisions for now and to understand the long term implications of those decisions.

It is a publication that is ideal for placing on the school’s learning platform so that parents can access it and take an ever greater role in helping their sons and daughters make a successful transition to the next phase of their lives.

“Making the Next Transition” shows both parent and student what the options are and gives advice and support to the student who is preparing for the next stage in life.

Most importantly it is an activity based volume so that the student actually has to engage with the materials, answer questions, and consider where the issues raised by the book lead, rather than just reading through more text on the topic of “what next?”

In short it helps with decision-making, application forms and interview techniques, all directly in relation to the requirements that the law lays down for what students may do after the end of year 11.

ISBN: 978 1 86083 876 7; Order code: T1825emn – please quote with order.

Sample pages can be viewed at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/careers/T1825.pdf

Photocopiable book, £19.95 plus £3.95 delivery
CD with school-wide rights: £19.95 plus £3.95 delivery
Both the bookr and the CD £26.94 plus £3.95 delivery
Prices include VAT.
You can purchase the report…

By post to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Way, Corby, NN17 4HH
On the phone with a school order number at 01536 399 011
By fax to 01536 399 012
On line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=794

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