Spotlighting SEND Practitioners

It was great to be featured and recognised by the Story Massage Programme, in a piece spotlighting SEND practitioners! You can find the profile below, as well as the full article here -https://www.storymassage.co.uk/best-practice-send/  

Naya Alexiou

Naya is Lead of Complex Needs (Teaching and Learning Area) at Side by Side School in Hackney, London. Naya supports and leads LSAs (Learning Support Assistants) sharing the Story Massage Programme in four different classes for pupils with complex needs and SLD (Severe Learning Difficulties) needs.  She says that among the many educational benefits, LSAs have noticed that it helps them to form better relationships with the children especially as everyone has such fun in the sessions.

Naya has been particularly imaginative in creating a wide range of resources and assessment sheets to help develop the Story Massage Programme within the school. Children use visual supports to give permission and choose the area of their body to be massaged. Then the massage story is presented as a PowerPoint with visuals and images of the Story Massage strokes for staff to follow. Naya also incorporates Pupil’s Voice visuals at the end of the sessions so children can indicate whether they enjoyed the massage story.  Naya shares these resources on her Instagram and Facebook pages @Special Education Classroom.

“We choose the most comfortable and appropriate position for each child. This might be beanbags for those that are able to walk, or beds/mattresses or physio equipment for wheelchair users. It is a great opportunity for children to have a change of position during the day.” Naya Alexiou, Lead of Complex Needs at a Special School.