Email usSEN/D Conference 2010
Beeline's Jo and Helen braved it through the elements to be at the Special Education Needs / Disabilities Conference 2010, on 1 December 2010, at the East Midlands Conference Centre.
The focus of the conference was to reflect and explore how special schools with wider partners are working towards ensuring that all young people with impairments and disabilities are accessing excellence in education and sport, and is aimed at special school headteachers, directors of specialism, SSCo/PLT's, PE teachers in Sports Colleges and SEN specialist schools.
In response to this, Beeline has been working closely with Regency High School in Worcester to develop a bespoke rewards package - for many of Regency's pupils, learning to remember to do something is a valuable lesson that they need help with. Pupils were finding it difficult to feel motivated enough to attend the extra-curricular fitness club, with only a handful going to each session. This was an ideal starting point.
We worked to identify, through a pupil survey, a range of rewards which would be given after periods of time, if they attended the fitness club. Pupils seemed to appreciate being asked for some input and selected some fun and practical products such as a torch and a bear on a keyring. The first reward would be given after three weeks, the next after a further five weeks etc, building up over the academic year. Personalised Thumbs Up Passports, which clearly indicated when rewards would be earned, were produced by Beeline and a thumbs up stamper provided. The school discussed with the pupils why they were doing this and they understood the reasoning behind it and were very interested in working towards the rewards. The outcome has been excellent - at the beginning of December, all 16 pupils were attending the fitness class, remaining motivated, and working towards their third reward. Beeline discussed this and presented the case study at the Conference.
From the very positive feedback gained at Conference, we will be further developing the Thumbs Up Reward Package and offering it for sale very soon. Watch this space....
