ACTIONS

Inclusive Health Check Data

Thank you for the brilliant work with advocating the Inclusive Health Check to your networks. We have witnessed an excellent start to the 2023/24 year with 772 schools and School Games Organisers (SGOs) already inputting their Inclusive Health Check data in the autumn term. A shout out to the areas of London (108), Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes (40), Lancashire (38), and Cheshire and Warrington (36) who are leading the way on this to date!

What is the importance of this? Early responses of the Inclusive Health Check can not only support the assessment of a school’s inclusion in PE and after-school activities, but also provide an action plan opportunity to increase the inclusivity of the school within the academic year.

Alongside spreading awareness of the Inclusive Health Check through newsletters, emails, and one-to-one meetings, below are some broader methods to consider when raising awareness that have been used by fellow Lead Inclusion Schools:

• Creating the Inclusive Health Check as a pre-requisite task to the county meeting to provide a discussion topic for the meeting and identify strategies to progress locally as a county
• Record a webinar of a Lead Inclusion colleague completing the Inclusive Health Check live to provide opportunities for schools to ask questions throughout
• Implement a local ‘Inclusive Health Check Week’ which dedicates time to raise awareness, spotlight case studies, hold drop-in clinics to support applications and even provide a prize for those schools involved
• Challenge SGOs to achieve the most schools completing their Inclusive Health Check through a league table, monitoring through percentages, sparking healthy competition.

Spring County Meeting Feedback Survey

Thank you for taking the time to support your local counties during the Spring County Meeting season. We would love to hear about how you are feeling in your role and your progress so far. If you could take the time to complete this short, anonymous survey, that would be great.

Conference Fringe Event

During the Youth Sport Trust 2024 Conference, we will host a session for Inclusion Development Coaches and Lead Inclusion Schools with a focus on your work within Inclusion 2024 and explore what is next. Our external evaluator, Ask Research, will help facilitate this discussion. This is optional for Lead Inclusion Schools, but will be a great opportunity for the network to connect ahead of what will undoubtedly be a busy summer term. The session will take place before lunch at 12.15-1.05pm in Wenlock 1. Find out more and book your place here.

UPDATES

Inclusive Live

Inclusion Live Week 2024 was a huge success, with 2,073 colleagues having joined us either live or via the recordings across the five different sessions, we reached more professionals than ever before. Of those who attended, 99% of educators said they found Inclusion Live Week useful in their practice, with 94% feeling there were solutions to enhance their practice. This is fantastic as we continue on our collective mission to enable all SEND young people and those with additional needs to access the best opportunities possible to stay active for life.

The week started off with Iain Mills from Parkside School guiding us through the mythology and practical solutions to sensory circuits. On the Tuesday we listened to the amazing International Mixed Ability Sports team who showed us just how important and social community sport should be, with Alastair Crawford from Whole School SEND threading links into school development making the session increasingly relevant for school colleagues.

During the Wednesday, we welcomed five inspirational young people with lived experiences who talked about their school time and what sport means to them now. On the Thursday, the informative Faith Newton, author of Inclusive PE for SEND children, guided us through strategies and tips to watch, listen, understand and support all young people in their physical health. On our last session, we welcomed Amy Skipp from Ask Research who showed us all the incredible impact Inclusion 2024 is having on so many young people.

We thank all our presenters and you the audience for being part of such an incredible week of practical and tangible inclusive practice. Please do continue to share and enable others to access through social media and the hashtag #Inclusion2024. We would love to hear your thoughts.

All the sessions are available to watch again, with slides and other resources, click here. 

Latest Research Considering the Impact of Attendance

Last month, ImpactEd released their latest evaluation. The research incorporates attendance data from 200,000 pupils and surveys from 30,000 pupils and is the largest of its kind in the UK to date.

Some key things for us collectively in our work:

• Sense of belonging is a key driver
• A second transition appears between Years 7-8 – the largest drop in attendance especially with pupil premium and SEND pupils (we know from what you share with us you experience this in your settings)
• Sanctions and consequences have limited impact – peer leadership and a positive whole school culture do.

Inclusive Sport Programme

Our Inclusive Sport Programme support videos are now live on the Youth Sport Trust website. Take a look at our Summer Paralympic series inclusive of archery, boccia, goalball and judo. A big thank you to the schools and NGBs that supported the creation of these videos.

Now Recruiting: LIS Representatives for the School Games Consultation Group

The School Games Consultation Group are a group of individuals who reflect the network of SGOs, Active Partnerships and NGBs across the country and meet three times a year (once per term). The ask of members is to be able and willing to support conversations around the strategic direction of the School Games and to influence the development of solutions to support the network to drive this work forwards. You are asked to consider how you will glean the views of colleagues in a similar role across your region and share this with the group as well as disseminate information back.

The group's next meeting will be on Tuesday 14 May (virtual) from 10.30am-4pm.

They have terms of reference which detail the asks in greater detail but outside of the meeting they conduct our business through a Teams channel.

They are looking for Lead Inclusion School representatives to sit on this panel. For more information, please contact Kelly Gates.

GOOD PRACTICE AND CPD OPPORTUNITIES

Help with Sports Equipment for Disabled Children and Young People

Family Fund is the UK's largest grant-making charity for families raising a disabled or seriously ill child on a low income. They believe that disabled and seriously ill children and young people, and their families, should have the same choices, quality of life, opportunities and aspirations as everyone else.

Through the Supporting Families with Disabled Children programme in England, funded by the Department for Education, they can award grants for a wide variety of items, including sport and play equipment, family breaks, household items, clothing and IT equipment for families with children and young people aged up to 16. Their Your Opportunity programme awards grants to families with a young person still at home aged up to 24. Families can apply directly online where they can find full information about all grants, eligibility criteria and a phone number to call for help with applying. Family Fund also offer a range of information and digital support services for families.

For more information about their grant schemes, to arrange a presentation for colleagues or families, or to discuss ways of working together to help more disabled children and young people get active, please contact Clare Bonetree (Partner Engagement Manager in England).

Free Resources and Upskilling Opportunities Available

Hilary Stephenson from Sandside Lodge Lead Inclusion School is delivering a free online CPD opportunity to support the upskilling of the network in SEND. Use the link below to book on and share with any colleagues or organisations that would benefit from attending:

• Inclusion for the Autistic Young Person in PE

Support, Advice and Free Resources from Sense Active

Sense Active are the active team within Sense, a national charity supporting people living with deafblindness and complex disabilities. The Sense Active team can support your school in a variety of ways, including:

• Organise for coaches to come in to deliver sessions within the school
• Support with finding activities occurring locally for you to attend
• Provide your staff with training
• Opportunities that can be shared with families to take part in away from the school day
• Online activities, such as drumming to music
• Resource packs so that staff can get ideas of what to include in their lessons.

For more information, check out this resource.

Thinking Outside the Box - Getting Creative with Cardboard

One of the UK's fastest growing manufacturers of high-performance packaging has joined forces with Dr George Torrens at Loughborough University to develop a sustainable specialist 'Boccia' ramp. Showcasing the versatility of cardboard, Lesters has identified a cost-effective method to encouraging participation!

To find out more information, click here and email the team if you wish to get involved.