10/06/2025 - Reading and dyslexia

Reading for learning and enjoyment is a core part of the curriculum within the school, but for individuals with dyslexia there can be barriers to fully accessing written resources.

One of our strategies to support the children is to focus on making the whole classroom environment dyslexia friendly and a part of that can be choosing appropriate fonts for printed text. We also have a range of books designated as dyslexia friendly in the library.

Some fancy fonts can cause greater visual stress, with letters being less clear. This can lead to letter confusion, making it harder to differentiate between letters like 'b' and 'd' or 'p' and 'q'.

Even simpler more traditional fonts like Times New Roman can be harder for people with dyslexia to read due to the 'serif' embellishments on each letter.

Although changing a font will not remove all the challenges faced, choosing fonts that are simple, non-italic and (if possible) monospaced can make large blocks of text feel much more legible for a child.

Another great resource available to any child with a library card is the Libby App (libbyapp.com), where books can be taken out of the virtual library and viewed on a tablet or other digital device for free. The child can then adjust the font type and size to one they are more comfortable reading. If your child is finding it difficult to sit and read a physical book, it might be worth trying it out.

25/04/2025 - Start of the Summer Term

It feels like the summer term has started positively, with more days of sunny weather and the children out on the field for lunch break. The summer term is a big one for well-being, supporting the children through their SATS and working with the Year 6 children to help prepare them for their transition to secondary school. 

We have our main nurture groups starting shortly, Mr Lee is continuing his music nurture sessions, the Drawing and Talking intervention with Mr Ball and we have a number of small social group interventions running too.

If you have any concerns about your child's well-being at school you are always most welcome to reach out to us for a talk.

Finally, back to the sunny weather, we even managed to take chess club outside today!

14/03/2025 - Club update

Our lunchtime clubs are running well and the children are definitely learning which day the clubs they are interested in are on - today I had about forty children come along for Chess Club and thanks to the kind donations of chess sets I believe everyone was able to play a game.

As the weather warms up I suspect the numbers will reduce, but it was lovely to see so many children interested in playing.

In order to help some of the younger children with the start time I have added clocks to the posters and the children can now see club information outside the dining hall and in the window of the ICT room on the playground.

SEND Review Week - Week beginning 30th June 2025

We will be in touch nearer the time to agree a meeting date and time. 

Welcome Coffee Mornings!

Our Welcome Coffee mornings take place on the first Tuesday of each month and everyone is welcome to come along regardless of if you have a child on the SEND register or not, it is inclusive.  There are hot drinks and biscuits to share in the cosy library.  It is a great way to build relationships with the school community including other parents and members of staff at Long Crendon School.  We believe that when we work as a team around our children we reach the best outcomes for them.

Tuesday 3rd June 2025 8.45am - 9.45am 

Dr Stephanie Noble who is an Educational Psychologist from Bucks Council will lead a question and answer session on SEND.  

Tuesday 1st July 2025 8.45am - 9.45am (Our last of this academic year)

Relaxed and informal meet up to build relationships and connections.  Transition support also discussed.

07/01/2025 - The Parent Portal - Autism Early Support

We hope you are all having a positive start to the new year! We know that for some of the children, the transition back into school routines can be a challenging one and we will do our best to support them in this.

We wanted to let you know about a support tool called The Parent Portal that Buckinghamshire Council have partnered with a local charity, Autism Early Support, to allow Bucks parents unlimited access to.

This is a self-guided learning tool, designed for parents of children aged 2-17 years who:

• Have noticed differences in their child and they're exploring neurodivergence
• Have Googled, 'Is my child autistic?, or what is ADHD?'
• Have an autistic child(ren)
• Are awaiting a Neurodevelopmental assessment

Click here to visit: The Parent Portal

12/12/2024 - Our Sensory Family: Preparing for the Festive Break

"Much of what makes Christmas an exciting time of year is its sensory appeal – brightly-coloured wrapping paper, twinkling lights, carols being sung at full-blast, special food and drink, social gatherings and family get-togethers. But for children with sensory processing differences, all of this combined with changes to routines can be overwhelming and difficult to manage." - Sensory Help Now

Visit the following link for useful information, articles, books, and product ideas that will help you to keep your sensory child or teen on track throughout the festive period:

Our Sensory Family: Preparing for the Festive Break

02/12/2024 - Lunchtime Clubs

We have been working over the past few weeks to make sure there are a wide range of lunchtime clubs on offer to the children. You may have heard some confusion from children as to what day Chess Club is on, this is due to ironing out scheduling conflicts with the clubs.

The website should now have the correct days and details for all the free lunchtime clubs and those that need to be booked - School Clubs

We have also put up some posters so the children can visually see what is on each day:

22/11/2024 - Nurture groups and the Anger Iceberg

This week, our Nurture Groups from Years 1, 2 and 3 talked about 'anger'.

We created an anger iceberg, to understand what other feelings and emotions can be hiding beneath the word anger.

Then we talked about calming strategies that we can use to return to a more regulated state.

The children did amazingly well at identifying these underlying feelings and adding them to the iceberg.

Here is an example Anger Iceberg to give you an idea of the concept:

22/11/2024 - Lunchtime Clubs

We are currently experimenting with expanding our lunchtime activities. Today we trialled a Table Tennis club which went very well. Once we have worked out the timings we will let the children know what clubs will be on when and where and we will update the school website to list them.

08/11/2024 - SEND Coffee Morning

Thank you to those that attended our SEND coffee morning earlier this week, it's always so wonderful to see so many parents attending. As well as being a very helpful additional forum for the school to understand the wider needs of the children, it was very reassuring to see parents able to offer support to each other and the reassurance that many parents are facing similar challenges.

Special thanks to Jane Lewis (ASD Specialist Teacher) for giving her time to come and talk with us at the coffee morning - Jane has also been training staff in the use of social stories and comic-strip conversations, great strategies for improving communication, particularly when neurodiversity is present or if children are struggling with anxiety.

Jane also mentioned that Buckinghamshire Council has a wealth of information on SEND support and you can visit their website here: SEND Local Offer

06/11/2024 - Making the most of our Nurture Room

Nurturing a growth mindset with The Magical Yet!

Children taking part in our Nurture and Well-Being groups across the 
school have been embracing the power of Yet!

Our Yet Tree represents our growth mindset and the leaves show what 
the children feel they can’t do… Yet.

I can’t ride a bike…YET
I can’t bake a cake…YET
I can’t do this…YET
I don’t understand that…YET

Turning our thoughts about things we can’t do into thoughts about how to 
achieve our goals. It might not be easy, but it’s possible.

Welcome to Gareth!

We have a new arrival in our Nurture Room, Gareth the Gorilla is making himself at home.

Friendship Bench Refresh

Our class Well-Being ambassadors have been working together to refresh the positive messages on our friendship bench.

The bench will then return to the playground to help children find someone to play with.

Checkmate!

Our Nurture Room is also playing host to our Friday lunchtime Chess Club, currently open to Years five and six.