ARIS SEN Workshop

Last week the whole school came together to attend the 2 Day Special Educational Needs Workshop, and it was enriching! The workshop was held by Mr. Henry Godson-Afful, an Educational Consultant who has over 2 decades of Teaching Experience with a specialization in Special Educational Needs (SEN) after working with various schools in the UK in tackling the issues of Inclusion in schools.

As an all-inclusive school, our classrooms are based on personalized learning models. Moreover, we recognize the different learning abilities in each child in a given classroom, and have working SEN Departments.

Mr. Afful, during the workshop, introduced the different levels of learning abilities in children in any given classroom and used different strategies that can be used in the classrooms. In the course of the workshop, he wanted to get all the staff to the same level of understanding of personalized learning, differentiated instruction and learning.

All Facilitators from Nursery to Year 13 worked to devise lesson plans that take into account newer strategies for class room management, especially in a class with different learning abilities students. Furthermore, strategies in their unit plan for the integration of the differentiated levels of learning. This included strategies like classroom grouping strategies to engage learning for different group abilities, as some children can even work better in groups.

Aside from Differentiated Learning Abilities, Mr. Afful also spoke about how to differentiate signs of Dyslexia from EAL and even Dyscalculia and Dyspraxia, and more that aid the facilitators in differentiating based on the child and thus, the child’s overall learning and experience.

The importance of evaluation and action is never to be overlooked either. The workshop shared their classroom experiences and how they evaluated and took further action in planning and differentiating to achieve better levels of personalized learning.

Learning and Development never stops. These workshops, and our everyday experiences are primary in propelling life-long learning in every one of us. Here’s to reaching newer heights in Differentiated and Personalized Learning.