SEND Tutoring talks to Dane Howard-Stone a SEND Lecturer and Specialist Learning Coach

On this week’s episode we chatted to Dane Howard-Stone who is a SEND Lecturer and Specialist Learning Coach. He has a passion for helping people with SEND and has been working with people with learning differences for over 11 years. He has been teaching SEND learners at a further education college for 6 years and supports staff around the college spreading awareness of SEND learner’s needs as well as mentoring and coaching SEND teachers.

Ahead of time, we sent him these three questions:

1. What do you do as a SEND Lecturer and Specialist Learning Coach at New City College?

2. How did you get into SEND teaching and what do you particularly love about it?

3. What are the main skills you teach on a regular basis and how do your students use them, please can you give some examples?

Some of the main points that were raised at the beginning of the podcast by Dane were; that the college writes schemes of work from scratch for each learner. Strong communication is built into relationships between parents and carers from the word go and each child has a lot of input from lots of different professionals so it’s crucial that there are strong reciprocal relationships from the word go.

Dane told SEND Tutoring how transitioning to adulthood can be challenging not just for the learners but for the parents and carers too.

In his role at the college, Dane told us that he spends a lot of time coaching a mentoring teachers and how that is a big part of his job.

Internships are integrated into the college’s curriculum which hopefully lead to paid employment. The NHS and NANCO (a gaming company) all offer internships.

Dane went off to tell us that there are two main areas that he teaches: Life and Living skills and Emplyability Skills.

Life and Living gives learners the opportunity to learn how to live independently and manage their own flat. The college organises work experience based on budgeting, shopping, and cooking, and cleaning.

The second enables learners to learn about getting a job and how to behave in an interview.

Dane told us that one of the things he likes teaching is – Water Cooler Talk which enables the learners to engage in small talk about the news, sports, and their interests that all build on their communication skills.

Lastly, Dane’s top tip was the importance of the learners having self-advocacy skills and being able to say no when the situation arises. Being assertive and asking ‘Why’ all help towards their own independence.

If you have any questions on the topics discussed in this podcast, or are looking for help finding a specialist one-to-one tutor for your child, book a free consultation with us today, we’ll be happy to help.