Useful information for parents
If you are worried about your child, your first port of call is to talk to the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) at your child’s school. Your School’s SENCo will have a wide range of strategies to support your child in class. We work closely with schools across Sheffield to assess children who require additional support to access the curriculum at the appropriate level. Please see the SEN Provision page that gives you some clear and practical information about SEN Provision within Sheffield.
On our Useful SEND Resources page, you can also view short videos and resources introducing various Special Educational Needs difficulties and strategies that may help you and your child.
We have put together some information and resources on a range of difficulties children may experience during their learning.
All Things Literacy
All Things Numeracy
Supporting Physical Needs
Supporting Language and Communication
Click here to view a Report Glossary containing some of the most commonly used words and phrases found in Fusion and other SEND Professional’s reports and literature.
The School Reading List is an excellent website that suggests reading books for primary and secondary age children. Reading for pleasure is key to maintaining a child’s appetite for books, learning and improving reading ability. Children who are immersed in a ‘reading for pleasure’ culture from an early age are far more likely to transition to secondary school with a bedrock of literacy ability and enquiring minds. The School Reading List regularly updates their reading book lists. Please follow the link below:
https://schoolreadinglist.co.uk/category/reading-lists-for-primary-school-pupils/
The Oxford Owl website provides information for parents about helping your child to learn to read (decode text), phonics and comprehension at different stages. There is also an E-book library with freely available books which are fun to share with your child. It explains some common reading issues for children and provides links to further information. Struggling readers | Oxford Owl
Literacyideas.com is a website determined to improve the literacy skills of all who visit.
It includes a complete guide to teaching phonics that would be useful for parents as it gives an insight to how phonics is taught in school.
Nessy – This link to the Nessy.com website might be useful if your child has a diagnosis of Dyslexia or has a Dyslexic profile. Nessy is a great website for information on how to explain the diagnosis to your child and how to help them see their strengths as well as areas of need. The link uses video clips and downloadable books to make the information visual and child friendly.
Parent Champions is an initiative set up by the
Dyslexia-SpLD Trust to support parents and carers
of children with dyslexia and other specific learning
difficulties. Here is just one of many useful resources you can find by visiting their website. Understanding Dyslexia (Parents).pdf
Positive Parenting – Sheffield, parents and carers can access a range of groups that offer practical advice and support with parenting. The Sheffield Parenting Hub/Positive Parenting deliver programmes that are evidence based, and tried and tested. This means that the content is written by professional psychologists who have years of research into what works to manage behaviours and difficulties that we can all face as parents. These programmes are delivered across the world and have over 30 years of research behind them.
Positive Parenting – What’s On Guide
Sheffield Parent Hub have a programme of courses and events that are delivered face to face out in community venues across Sheffield, in alignment with the latest government guidelines and safety measures. If you would like specific information regarding community venues please don’t hesitate to get in touch with them directly.
A guide to their programme and other information is regularly updated and available on their website: https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/home/social-care/positive-parenting
National Literacy Trust website has a good set of resources aimed at parents and carers. It includes milestones, tips, fun resources and advice to support literacy development from the very start (Baby). There are also themed activities to support enjoyment of reading. Topics include winter, comics and non-fiction.
Reading Eggs makes learning to read interesting and engaging for kids, with great online reading games and activities. One of the key components of learning how to read is understanding phonics, that is, how written spellings represent the sounds of spoken words. But how do you teach phonics activities?