Hi Weavers,

Welcome to the first ever Tapestry SEND newsletter!

With the introduction of our own SEND framework and recently the Cherry Garden Branch Map framework, we thought it would be useful to have a newsletter wholly dedicated to SEND teaching and learning.

We would also like to introduce you to Stephen Kilgour, who was instrumental in adding the Cherry Garden framework to Tapestry and will be working for us as a SEND advisor and outreach teacher in the north-east. 

Stephen Kilgour 

Stephen Kilgour has been working at Cherry Garden School since 2008. Cherry Garden is an Outstanding school for children with severe and complex learning needs in the London Borough of Southwark. He was a class teacher for four years before becoming Deputy Head teacher in 2012.  As part of this role he is also the Early Years Lead.  

Over the last four years, Stephen has led the development of a new assessment tool to give a better indication of progress for children with significant difficulties.  Read more about Cherry Garden’s Branch Maps and the assessment journey the school took here.

We teamed up with Cherry Garden School in January 2018 to bring to life their concept of progress being communicated to parents and carers as a graphical visualisation.  Each child’s Cherry Orchard allows parents to interact with unique learning trees and blossoms to see photographic and video evidence.  This framework, along with the graphical interface, will be available at no extra cost to Tapestry subscribers from the coming autumn term.

In September, Stephen is moving his expanding family back to his native North East of England, and we are thrilled to announce that he will be employed by Tapestry as a SEND advisor and Outreach Teacher.  He will be available to support Early Years settings and schools in the region, providing advice and support for staff working with children with additional needs.  The best bit is that we are covering the costs, so that settings and schools can access this support free of charge with no strings attached.  The Branch Maps themselves, and any linked resources, will also be provided at no cost to providers.  

Tapestry and the FSF has first and foremost had education at its heart and we are excited about providing something truly beneficial and unique to a region that is full of wonderful settings.  If you are based in the North East and would like to access some of this support, please contact stephen@eyfs.info and he will endeavour to help.  If you are based elsewhere but also interested in the Cherry Garden Branch Maps and would like support in implementing them, please also contact Stephen who will be able to advise and support.

Cherry Garden Resources

To help you get to grips with the Cherry Garden framework and branch map system, Cherry Garden school have created a fantastic presentation to guide you through how to use and assess children with their framework. You can find this on their website here. 

You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter where you will be able to find free downloads of the branch maps as well as advice and tips of how the framework can be used in a setting.

Cherry Garden Training

Cherry Garden school are also offering training for those who want to learn more about the framework and how it is used in their setting. The next available session is being held on the 27th June. Please see the flyer below for more details. 

SEND Webinar

As well as the Cherry Garden framework, we do also have available on Tapestry our own SEND framework, designed alongside 3 special schools and a SEND advisory teacher. This can be enabled on your account by following this tutorial but if you would like to know more about it, we are running a demonstration webinar on the 9th July. All of our webinars are free to attend and are recorded so they are available to watch afterwards. For more information about it or to sign up, you can check out our Webinars page or you can email us at customer.service@eyfs.info.