From Carrie White, Early Years Lead SEND Teacher

The Early Years SEN team are out and about visiting settings and children following our social distancing guidelines.  We are really excited to be able to start seeing families in the Children and Family Wellbeing Centres.  Currently, we are unable to run Big and Little Builders as groups as we used to previously, but we will be able to see the families on a 1:1 basis very soon!  Preparation for this is in full swing.

Julia Hanks

It is with great sorrow that I announce Julia will be leaving the Early Years SEND Team this month.  Julia is off to join the Attendance and Advisory Team within Medway Council.  She will be greatly missed by the team, the families, and settings she has supported.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank Julia for 13 years of work within the Early Years Team.  Julia has been a fantastic support to me since I joined the team, and I will miss her greatly. We wish her well in her new role! If your setting is one which has been supported by Julia, please contact Tina Newman at 01634 334016 and she will arrange someone to contact you. Alternatively, you can also contact me directly at 07773187596. 

Role of SENCo Training

The Role of SENCo Webinar is now scheduled on Thursday, 22 October 2020 at 10 am. If you would like to join us, please kindly email Tina Newman at tina.newman@medway.gov.uk with your name and an email address which will be added to a Microsoft Teams delegate list. Please note your email address may be viewed by other colleagues at PVI settings and EY SEND Team staff.

ELSA training

There are still a few places left on the free Early Years ELSA training.  ELSA stands for Emotional Literacy Support Assistant.  It is a great way of supporting children with emotional needs.  The course has been moved due to COVID restrictions the new venue will be announced shortly but the dates for the course are 15th January, 12th February, 19th March, 30th April, 14th May and 18th June 2021.  The same person needs to attend the training each time.  To book your place, please contact education.psychology@medway.gov.uk directly.

Indigo Pathway

The referral route for the Indigo pathway has now changed.  To refer a child to the pathway, please ask the parents to contact their health visitor or settings can refer via the MCH website using the Public Health Nursing Form.  The Early Years Team are keeping account of the children have been referred via this route, so please kindly email Tina Newman at tina.newman@medway.gov.uk with the name, date of birth and date of referral of any child you refer.  If you are sending the form via email, you can just copy Tina into the email.  We will also cross check this with any child we have suggested are to be referred via Health Visitor at SENCO surgery.

SENIF

As was mentioned earlier, Julia is leaving so please can you send any requests for Funding and Invoices to eyhighneeds@medway.gov.uk where they will be processed accordingly.  When sending in funding requests, please note they cannot be processed until the term after the child is 3 years old and will be returned if they arrive too early.  Invoices can only be paid retrospectively.