Daily Archives: 04/07/2017

Special Needs

What is the best way to support students on the autism spectrum with teen issues and relationships?

For many teenagers on the autism spectrum the world of feelings, emotions, relationships, and indeed the whole range of issues related to being a teenager, can be extremely difficult.

While many young people develop their ability to handle these topics and cope with such issues as sexuality, personal hygiene, body image, social drinking, fashion, self-confidence, and so on, for the student on the autism spectrum this can be difficult.

The same is true with everyday situations such as going to the pub, responding to suggestions that a friend is gay, speaking in public, having a tattoo, etc, etc.

As a result your SEN students can require a bit more support if they are to become able to form and maintain healthy relationships throughout adolescence and adulthood and deal with all the issues that can make the teenage years problematic.

Which is why we have devised the “Relationships” series and its companion “Teenage Issues” series of resources.

These are comprehensive resources offering guidance to teenagers with a reading age of around seven. The approach is one of being sympathetic to the way that autistic teenagers and others with related special needs typically view the world.

Each series consists of:

  • Two copies of each of six story books which support the ASDAN Transition Challenge and Towards Independence Life Skills courses.
  • A CD-ROM providing electronic versions of the six books, making it ideal for interactive whiteboard presentations and for students who would also benefit from listening to the text. It is also possible to edit and save the text to make your own story, create differentiated texts, and personalise the text.
  • Supporting resources for teachers including page-by-page notes for all the stories and assessment resources (feedback sheets and student record sheets).
  • An extensive range of activity worksheets and interactive activities that encourage reading comprehension.

Each of the two series come in Value Packs costing £139 plus VAT (save 10%). Individual elements from the two packs are also available separately. There is information on the contents of each pack through these links:

 Relationships Value Pack           Teen Issues Value Pack

Alternatively, please email info@senpress.co.uk or call me on 01582 833205.

Janie Nicholas

Assemblies, Primary

What is the single biggest problem that comes from the need to deliver a new assembly every day?

During the course of their primary school lives, most children will take part in over 1000 assemblies.

Which provides a significant challenge. How can one ensure that each day’s assembly has an immediate impact on each child and then additionally ensure that some of these assemblies have such an impact that they will be remembered for months (and sometimes even years) to come?

This is the issue that schools face every day through the school year, and it is the issue we looked to solve when we created Assembly Box.

The aim has been to create a series of 350 outstanding assemblies that really engage the pupils and which they will remember over time.

Each assembly is fully scripted, and the collection comes with a complete index so that you can choose your assembly by topics as diverse as community and citizenship, saints’ days, black history, social and emotional stories, and so on.

What’s more, each assembly comes with its own supporting presentation material and a set of ready-to-use key word cards. The assemblies can be downloaded and printed out, thus making them immediately usable without further preparation.

You can see a complete list of the 12 main categories our assemblies are divided into on our website, and from there you can go into each category and see the details of all the assemblies on offer. Just visit http://www.assemblybox.co.uk/

You can also read a full example of one of our assemblies by following this link

The complete set of all of our assemblies costs £149 (+ VAT). Order on line at www.assemblybox.co.uk

If you have any questions please email enquiries@assemblybox.co.uk