HASLEMERE
CASE STUDIES
Abigail, aged 15
Abigail was at risk of exclusion from her Secondary school due to defiant behaviour and not following school rules. She was considered bright, but becoming increasingly ‘difficult’ and had been labelled with various negative terms by some school staff and professionals. Abigail engaged in self-harm and attempted suicide but would not engage with any professionals. She had a difficult family situation and this was often blamed for her behaviour, although Abigail used to protest that this was not the case.
Abigail’s mother was very concerned about her future and did not know how best to help her. I was able to gain a full and detailed history from Abigail’s mother and the family background was complex and was likely to have affected Abigail’s emotional development and resulting behaviours.
However, there were also signs that there may have been an underlying condition consistent with ASD that helped to explain some of her challenging behaviour, including possible difficulties in the areas of social understanding and interaction, communication, imagination and interests and sensory processing. It was also clear that Abigail’s mother had been given some very poor advice by several professionals. I met with Abigail a few times and managed to gain her views and perspectives and to do some informal tasks, which confirmed my hypotheses.
I wrote a lengthy report outlining her needs, highlighting her views and aspirations and her desire to stay at and do well at school. I made some suggestions as to how school might meet those needs without the need for many resources. Abigail’s mother sent the report to school and she explained to me that their management of Abigail’s behaviour totally changed and the situation vastly improved. She also felt that she understood Abigail much better and has made changes at home too, and that Abigail also felt that she understood herself more. We discussed whether Abigail wanted to investigate ASD further, but she and her mother did not see the need to. The communication between Abigail and her mother and teachers has greatly improved and has made a significant difference to her behaviour. Abigail still has difficult moments but she is no longer at risk of exclusion and is on track to completing her GCSEs. She is happier and is considering becoming a psychologist.
Hannah provided amazing support to our family as a whole during a time of crisis and stress.
She was able to identify and unpick key relationship issues with my daughters, and in doing so, assisted in enabling me to establish strategies which helped me to guide, listen, and effectively support my daughters through a traumatic event.
Thanks to Hannah we came out of it as a stronger, and more caring and communicative family. We now talk about everything.
Personally, Hannah has allowed me to be able to be a more effective parent.
Thank you Hannah!
Father of daughters, age 10 & 12,
June 2018
David, aged 10
David was struggling to cope with his anxiety levels, which was interfering with his eating, his daily activities and he was generally very unhappy. David’s mother felt dismissed by the GP and by the school and did not know what to do next.
I met with David and his mother to understand what David was feeling and to reassure him and his mother that her concerns were valid and that help was available. We discussed the need for David to be referred to CAMHS and agreed for her to go back to see a different GP and we prepared what she needed to say.
We also talked about how best to approach the school and I made some simple suggestions to help David that they were likely to agree to.
The GP agreed to make a referral to CAMHS, but due to the long waiting list I agreed to do some CBT based work with David and discuss how he and his mother could contain his anxiety.
David’s weight is now stable and his mother reports that he is having more good days and had a good time on a residential school trip that they previously thought he would not be able to cope with. He has started CBT through CAMHS and is feeling more hopeful about the future.
Ethan, aged 3
Ethan was attending nursery school and was on Early Years Action Plus with targeted support for his language development and general delay in some areas of his play. He was at a disadvantage due to being born 6 weeks prematurely and he was born in August.
The parents had therefore asked for extra support from the Local Authority and for his entry into Reception to be delayed by a year because it was felt by all the key adults that he would catch up with his peers given extra time and targeted support to develop. However, the request had been turned down.
A plan was put into place to best support Ethan’s needs during the following term and I put the parents in touch with two organisations that supported their communication with the Local Authority.
Ethan started Reception the following term, but the Local Authority agreed to provide extra resources for the first year. I was able to visit the primary school to plan how best to support Ethan and hand over to the school EP.
Anxiety Talk
I held a workshop around supporting children with anxiety for parents at a SEND coffee morning at a primary school.
Following this, there were requests from other parents for more input and so I held an evening talk for parents and staff.
The aim was to develop their understanding of anxiety and to introduce ideas, strategies and resources that could help reduce anxiety and build resilience, including promoting positive attitudes to learning, from a psychological and physiological perspective.
I had very positive feedback from the Head teacher and several parents as to the quality and helpfulness of the talk.
"Hannah's advice and support has been invaluable. Her assessment of, and follow-up work with, a child on the autistic spectrum has provided an incredible insight into further support needed within and beyond school."
Assistant Head/SENDCO - Primary School
Jake, aged 12
I was asked to work with Jake by a Secondary school because he had Dyslexia and was struggling so much in class that they had put him down a set and his mother was unhappy with this decision. I observed Jake in class and met with him to talk about things that helped him or did not help him in class with his learning.
I arranged a meeting with his English teacher and his mother and we shared ideas around strategies that could better support him and this plan was then put into action.
I then introduced Jake to another boy in the school who I had been seeing separately for similar difficulties. As a pair, they tried out different spelling strategies to see what they found helpful. They explained that they found it helpful to meet each other and take more responsibility for trying out different things to help their learning (they later became friends).
Jake also wrote a letter to a primary school pupil I was working with to reassure him that it was alright to have Dyslexia. Jake remained in his new class but was much happier at school and I no longer needed to be involved.
Year 7 Class, Bottom Set
This class had high levels of pupils with SEND and many with EAL. There was a class TA as well as a high number of other TAs, some quite new. There were two learning mentors but their work was not structured or targeted. There were a lot of complaints from the pupils about headaches and stomach aches and they displayed various work avoidance strategies and challenging behaviour, suggesting potential unmet emotional needs of the pupils.
The SENDCO reported that they seemed to lack self-belief and she wanted to provide more targeted support to address their needs, including their independent thinking skills. We agreed that I would help them in different ways.
Firstly, I completed three whole class observations, providing feedback to teachers on classroom organisation and management and strategies that seemed most helpful in supporting the pupil’s learning in general.
Secondly, I worked with the learning mentors who worked with specific pupils to identify areas that were working well and the areas that most needed developing in order to meet the pupils' emotional needs and engage them with learning. This was supported by my work with focus groups with the pupils to discuss how they felt and how they thought they were perceived by the school and the impact this had. They shared their ideas on their strengths and weaknesses, what they wanted (better learning and better bonding as a class), what factors they found helpful and unhelpful to their learning, what could help further and any other issues or concerns. I also met with the lead TAs for English and Maths to discuss their strategies and plans to go alongside this work. We made a structured plan outlining our aims and methods, including how the strategies could be made available for other staff members to use with pupils and how feedback about pupils or the class could be shared between TAs and teachers. I also held a solution-focussed training session with all the TAs.
My role was also to liaise with the SENDCO, who was part of the school management team, to ensure that the plan could be put into place, such as having an allocated room to work in and facilitating whole class/school strategies that could support the work. At the end of the year, the SENDCO highlighted this piece of work as being particularly helpful for improvement in behaviour and learning and in helping the TAs feel supported.
Critical Incident, Primary School
A pupil was killed in a car crash during a school holiday and the family had not been in touch with the school. I met with the Head teacher, SENDCO and KS 2 Leader to discuss how the school was going to respond to pupils, including ensuring the children had adequate factual information about what had happened, why it happened and what would happen next in the assembly they were planning to have.
I explained children’s developmental understanding of death at different ages and common reactions/questions to expect from them. We talked about how the school could help them to develop an understanding of what had happened, what language to use and how to respect the cultural background of the child’s family and the importance of emphasising that the children were not to blame and reassuring them that they were safe. We discussed the importance of maintaining routines/expectations whilst being available/responsive to questions. We also shared ideas around how the pupils could remember and share stories about the pupil who had died. I provided resources and ideas for activities to use in the short term and for broader PSHE work in the longer term.
I also high-lighted children and adults most likely to be affected and the need to ensure support was available for pupils and staff, including the management team. We flagged up some particularly vulnerable pupils and staff to monitor over the next year or two. A staff session was to be held to discuss the response plan, children and adults most ‘at risk’, possible long term effects and what to look out for. We also discussed how to handle information/enquiries from parents and I put the Head teacher in touch with another Head teacher who had had a similar experience in her school for advice and support.
The school later held a memorial service with the family of the boy who died and were presented with a book of memories from the pupils. The school reported that my input had really helped them to deal with the incident as a whole school and they felt prepared for how the pupils and parents reacted.