For children with special educational needs (SEN), one of the toughest barriers to accessing the curriculum can simply be how intimidating the classroom can feel. With 70 per cent of those permanently excluded from school also being registered for with SEN, we need to do more to engage students to maintain their attendance and ensure that functional skills are developed among all students, no matter what their situation or environment.

After blowing away the Bett Show crowds last month, Minted Box are on a mission to help schools make 2018 their most disruptive year yet. The innovators behind technology used by Tesco, Vodafone, Royal Mail and hundreds of other companies are perhaps most widely known for their seating planner MINTClass, but it’s their new facial-recognition platform that’s likely to steal the spotlight this year.

In 2013, marketing communications specialist Emilie-Kate Kidd got together with a bunch of teachers who felt that, in the 21st century, technology must provide a better way to manage teaching evidence, learning journeys, formative assessment and reporting.

Educational technology is in constant flux, so finding out what the leading educators are getting up to is vital. In the latest IMS Guide - available here - five innovative technophiles share tips for making the most of edtech…

Christmas is a double-edged sword; both a time for celebration and a powder keg ready to explode at any point. Many a teacher will spend Christmas party day waiting for the inevitable fight/argument over the last jaffa cake/sickness through troughing too many crisps.

Does good leadership and an inclusive ethos benefit a school’s whole community? It is my view that headteachers and governors who lead the way when it comes to those pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), who share their practice and continue to champion SEND, see the benefits across their school.

Christmas for our very special children has to be the most magical time that we can possibly make it. Some of our children are so poorly that they may not be able to celebrate when Christmas day finally dawns. In other families, parents and carers may be so tired from the constant regime of looking after their profoundly poorly children that they may not have enough energy left to celebrate at home. At Highfurlong we make it our mission to create a party atmosphere for all our children, and ensure that everyone has a taste of a perfect Christmas day.

As Khurshid Khan, managing director of Britannica Digital Learning UK, put it: “Engendering a love of learning through expanded content, personal research and creative approaches will lead learners into an appreciation of education beyond the strive for certification.” If you’re keen to accelerate creativity in your school, the new Innovate My School Guide is a must. Here are five educators working to make ingenuity a part of everyday teaching and learning…

Children today seem to be a lot more aware than their predecessors, and we mean this in the broadest sense possible. From a young age, they realise that they can easily talk to people from around the world, they question gender roles, they want to change the world and, most importantly, they believe they can do so. Indeed, children have realised that they already hold power to change the status quo.

Emilie-Kate Kidd (pictured above), cofounder of Earwig Academic, trustee of SEN charity Parents in Need and parent to an SEN child, talks about the surprises within the Rochford Review and what its recommendations mean for SEN teaching…