Autumn Days
When your working life follows the rhythm of the academic year, you are gifted an additional ‘New Year’ to enjoy every autumn. As August draws to a close, with darker evenings and chilly mornings, so also the dawning of a new academic year starts, bringing new challenges and a fresh resolve to continue making a difference in the lives of vulnerable young people.
As an interim provider, we don’t always spend the whole school year with the same student. Sometimes we step in for a short period, to bridge the gap between two settings and to provide a ‘voice’ for students whose identity can too easily become blurred in the machinery of meetings, emails and reports.
THE ART OF PROGRESS - "...understand that behaviour is a form of communication." Share on XOther placements may continue for a whole academic year or more, where the process of securing a place at a suitable setting might require more time and patience.
The start of a new academic year is therefore a good time to take stock, to reflect on the previous year’s journeys. Those that have been completed, and those which are still slowly and steadily advancing, with all their various challenges and successes – Happy New Year!
September to December
When I cast my mind back to the start of last autumn term, I recall how tricky these first sessions with a new student can be. The early objectives are to form a positive working relationship with the young person, establish a routine for the sessions and together agree on some outcomes that the student would like to achieve.
Many students have memories of difficult experiences at school, and some have learned not to trust adults wearing lanyards, who they feel have not been supportive, sympathetic or consistent in their past exchanges and encounters. Now they are in their ‘safe space’ at home, it can be a long and difficult process to persuade them to let down their defences and accept a new person and a new routine.
Sessions are likely to be short at this stage. Students may struggle to be awake, dressed and ready to start on time. They might be too tired initially to focus on anything too demanding. They might feel that being incommunicative, uncooperative and resistant to conversation at least puts them in control of the situation for once, making them feel less vulnerable to the decisions and actions of others.
Our role as Education Specialists, especially at this time, is to understand that behaviour is a form of communication. For young people with additional needs and sometimes complex life histories, behaviour can be a very effective way to communicate anger or frustration, to disguise low self-esteem and to replace words when speech and language don’t come easily. It will be necessary to demonstrate patience, acceptance, kindness and relentless optimism in the face of this initial resistance.
My superpowers during the early days are:
1) Teflon coating; to deflect comments intended to puncture, activated by consistently cheerful, smiling replies.
2) Shape-shifting; also known as the willingness to change tack, do something else, have a plan B, C and D.
3) Bionic vision; to enable me to focus not on the fact that we only managed an hour, or that the activities I had today were not of interest, but on the fact that my student achieved a whole hour today, and was able to tell me about some of the difficulties he has experienced previously.
4) The ‘Great Job’ Default Mode; praise and positive recognition for any achievements, big or small, to gradually help establish the session space as a ‘safe zone’ within a ‘safe zone’.
When even these tools at my disposal falter, a ‘Fresh Start Assemble!’ call to my colleagues in the office and my fellow remote workers – always there at the end of a phone, a Teams call or a WhatsApp chat – triggers a wealth of encouragement and moral support.
When the term ends, the school holidays often provide us with time to do some reading and research into the specific difficulties relevant to our students – this might include learning difficulties such as dyscalculia or dyslexia, medical issues such as epilepsy, or communication challenges associated with anxiety or autism. Another look at their Individual Engagement and Education Plan (IEEP) signposts me to resources online, and I can speak to my Education Coordinator about in-house resources available to me or even online courses to sign up for.
January to April
Happy New Year (again)! January brings a fresh term, fresh targets to work towards with refreshed vigour and resolve. Sometimes a new term brings new students too, and a return to relationship-building and those handy Superpowers.
Even if my returning students take a little time to settle back into routine after the Christmas break, often the spring term feels like a more comfortable step back into familiar territory.
Now that I know my student better, I can plan sessions tightly tailored to their individual interests, skills, strengths and difficulties. We might decide to embark on an ASDAN course to develop some essential life skills. Perhaps there is a local library or community centre that we can use for sessions, to broaden their horizons and get them out in the local area. Maybe we utilise pre-agreed rewards for engaging with learning targets so that my student experiences positive recognition for a job well done.
It’s not always plain sailing – quite often for every one or two steps we might take forward one day, we might take another two or three steps backwards the next. My job is to provide consistent support, positive encouragement and unwavering belief that we will get there eventually.
Here Comes Summer!
The clocks have gone forward, and lighter, brighter days are on their way. If my placement has continued for most of the school year, we might now be in a very settled routine with an established, friendly rapport. Or I might be starting with a new student, just to bridge a small gap until a new placement starts for them in September.
With a returning student, we are perhaps working towards very clear targets for English and Maths, and our week contains a good balance of varied activities: Focused revision in preparation for tests in July or practical tasks relating to the ASDAN certificate that we are working towards. And with warmer weather, we are likely to be going out and about for walks, to the local café for a drink and a snack, or we might get the bus into town to buy resources for future sessions, all the while practising the ‘soft skills’ needed for day-to-day independence.
Final sessions with our students often feel very bittersweet. There is positivity and celebration if something is now in place for them to progress towards without our support. But it can feel a bit like losing an absorbing book when you have only got halfway through, as we rarely know how things go for our students once they begin their next chapters.
This is a familiar part of the annual landscape for an Education Specialist. It’s important to be able to focus on the positives, learn from the challenges and be ready to prepare for another fresh start with our next students.
About the author
Kate is a Staff Education Specialist at Fresh Start. She worked as a teacher for 20 years, across the junior age range in mainstream primary schools. As a SENCo, Kate has experience of supporting young people with a range of difficulties, working alongside their parents and her colleagues to ensure the best outcomes for each individual.
