The Engagement Model: planning, implementation and evaluation
with Nick Sheffield
17 June 2022: 9 am – 12 noon
This session will round up the key issues you should consider in planning, implementing and evaluating the Engagement Model in your school.
We clarify what the Engagement Model is and what it isn’t.
Engagement Model Myth-busting: we cover statutory requirements, what you should do, what you could do and what you don’t need to do.
Nick covers the do’s and don’ts of implementing the model, creating an easy to understand guide for teachers, leaders, support staff and parents, with timescales and CPD plans to ease the transition.
He argues why making the Engagement Model, the only statutory assessment for pupils with PMLD, central to your assessment strategy is crucial to impacting your everyday practice and introduces ways of evidencing this.
About Nick Sheffield
Nick Sheffield is the Head of the Pre-formal Curriculum at Linden Lodge School and is an Associate Training Consultant at Hirstwood Training. Nick wrote our ‘A Practitioner’s Guide to the Rochford Review and the Engagement Model – Introduction’ and our ‘Advanced Course’ on the same subject, which has been completed well over 3000 times. He has also worked on several other projects for the team and is a regular at conferences in various areas.
Nick was part of the Expert Rochford Review team who produced the Engagement Model 2020 guidance and held the role of ‘Expert School Practitioner’. He has spoken at numerous conferences and lectures on the Engagement Model in theory and practice. Nick has a wide range of experience implementing the model across multiple SEN settings. Nick is a ‘teacher’s teacher’ who still currently has PMLD class, so he has updated practical knowledge of the do’s and don’ts of the model and how it has impacted his department and parental engagement.
With a dedicated multi-disciplinary team at his disposal, the school have delivered an Outstanding model;
‘There is a consistent high level of engagement by pupils. For the teaching professionals in class the engagement model was clear because the teacher modelled exceptional practice for the team. The new member of staff and a SALT worked together to develop their understanding of one pupils’ communication needs’ (Challenge Partners, 2022)
Nick can’t wait to deliver the course and lots of practical and logistical advice to ensure you are ‘Rochford Ready’ for September!
About Linden Lodge School
Linden Lodge School is a day and regional residential school for pupils with Vision Impairment. We are based in Wimbledon, southwest London and take pupils from a wide area and will consider prospective pupils from anywhere in the UK. We take children from Nursery to Year 14 (2 to 19) with vision, hearing, and multi-sensory impairments. The education of pupils with sensory impairment is highly specialized; therefore, we have specialist teachers, a specialist sensory curriculum, and extensive specialist resources and facilities on our campus.
We have a purpose-built centre for our PMLD Secondary and Sixth Form pupils, called the Harris Centre, staffed by the therapy team alongside the teaching team. This is our Engagement Model Hub, where we disseminate our practice and use it as a training hub to grow and develop our approach. You will be meeting our Engagement Model Focused Therapy Team during the course!
9 am Admissions, welcome and introductions!
9.10 am Warm-up! Who are you?
In groups and introduce yourselves, your school and your role. How confident are you in using the Engagement Model?
9.15 am Session 1: What is the Engagement Model?
This session breaks the model into its three parts: the engagement profile and the engagement tool that forms the Engagement model.
We will cover:
Statutory guidance: what do we need to do?
Who is it for? How to define your group of ‘engagers.’
Simplifying the five areas of engagement: how to use one-sentence descriptions
Profiling: what is its role? What is the process?
The Engagement Tool: what is its function?
10.00 am Session 2: Hearts and Minds
This session focuses on why a clear and cohesive approach to the engagement model supports an engagement culture and creates engagement-led lessons.
Nick shares why motivating your team is crucial to delivering an effective engagement model that is impactful.
This session will cover:
What is the point? How does the Engagement Model enhance learning?
What is the Engagement Model changing? The culture of observation and assessment.
The role of the Engagement Model in recognising achievement
Data: at individual and cohort level
Involving all key stakeholders
10.35 am Coffee
10.50 am mini online learning task and group discussion
11.00 am Session 3: Implementation of the Engagement Model
This session focuses on developing a practical approach to implementing the engagement model in your setting, identifying effective timelines and realistic outcomes for each implementation stage.
Nick also covers how to increase staff confidence when describing the Engagement Model to others; and empowering staff to train each other to implement the Engagement Model.
This session will cover:
Engagement Model: set up and time frame
Engagement Tool: logistics? Who should be completing it?
Teachers’ role: commentator, evaluator, analyst
Real-time feedback: explaining what you see
Moderation: the MOTD principle!
Creating department identity: using clear, concise messaging
11.20 am Session 4: A Wrap Around Model
In this final session, Nick and members of the MD team at Linden Lodge look at how the Engagement Model is a holistic force in the classroom, linking to therapy input, parents and the broader impact on the school.
This session will cover:
How to make the Engagement Model holistic
Creating a narrative and putting the Engagement Model at the centre
Identifying engagement triggers: utilising the multidisciplinary team
Pupil voice and the Engagement Model with the Creative Therapeutic Arts team
11.50 am Q & A
12 noon Thank you and goodbye!
This course will be appropriate for classroom practitioners; middle and senior leaders from special schools and colleges, mainstream settings with specialist SEN provision and early years settings, and working with pupils with severe/complex learning needs and autism, or both.
The following resources will be available in your account for one week after the course date: a digital recording of this event, any resources shared/signposted during the session and a transcript of Zoom chat.
Early Bird Ticket before 31 May: £60 plus VAT (£72 in total.)
Standard Ticket after 31 May: £70 plus VAT (£84 in total.)
You can choose to pay by credit card for this booking. You can also request an invoice by confirming your booking by entering a Purchase Order Number on the booking form.
To make a group booking, please select the number of places you wish to book using the drop down menu in the ‘Book event’ section. Select ‘next.’ Complete the requested fields and the name and email addresses of those wishing to attend. If you don’t know the email address for any delegate, you can email this to lois@hirstwood.com later.
NEW FOR 2022!
