Tes SEND Show 2024 Highlights

The Tes SEND Show is an annual event that brings education professionals together to network, share their knowledge and learn about the latest in SEND. It is a great opportunity for our CENMAC team to meet other SEND professionals, listen to interesting and practical seminars and discover new tools and technologies that we might use to help support our CENMAC students. Our stand was very busy, and it was great that so many people came to visit us to find out about our service and pick up a CENMAC tote bag!

Here are some highlights from our team:

Some members of the CENMAC Team at the Tes SEND Show

Some of the CENMAC Team at the Tes SEND Show

Ana Salas

It was lovely to share experiences with different SEND professionals and listen to opinions and questions from various perspectives.

I was very impressed by the Sensepilot demo. They are a small company of entrepreneurs who provide an intuitive and inclusive solution for controlling your computer with head tracking and facial expressions. It was really interesting to talk with Mike Hazlewood the CEO and Co-Founder of Sensepilot and see our AAC Consultant Abdi Omar trialing this innovative technology.

The Engaging Eyes program from Literacy Gold caught my eye as well. Engaging Eyes is a vision program supporting struggling readers with convergence insufficiency. The program enables pupils to focus both eyes on the same letter and track smoothly across the page.

Anjana Babel

It was lovely to meet people from a variety of backgrounds, passionately showcasing their products and services. One could see the inroads Generative AI is making into various offerings.

Annabel Dent

The Tes SEND Show is a great opportunity to let visitors and technology companies know about CENMAC’s own annual event Communication Works. Student ambassador Khamani and I spent time talking to companies that we know well including Crick Software, Sensory Guru, Smartbox, Nessy and Stix.

It was also interesting to chat with some companies we weren’t familiar with such as temporeading an eye-tracking and AI Reading App and Tutor and Rileybot an AI ChatBot supporting learning in schools.

It was also great to catch up with Jonathan Bryan and his mother Chantal from the charity Teach Us Too. They did an interesting seminar on raising aspirations and creating an inclusive literacy curriculum for learners with SEND and complex needs.

AAC Consultant Abdi Omar trialing Sensepilot

AAC Consultant Abdi Omar with Mike Hazelwood the CEO & Co Founder of Sensepilot

AAC Consultant Abdi Omar with Mike Hazelwood, CEO and Co Founder of Sensepilot

Carly Adkinson

I attended an interesting seminar about the use of generative AI to support neurodivergent learners. As a result of which we will now be trialing the scheduling app Tiimo which will support students who have difficulties with executive function skills.

I also discovered a new AI supported mind mapping app called Ayoa, I have been extremely impressed with the functionality and by how helpful I expect it to be for our students who find task initiation difficult especially when learning to revise.

Carys McCloskey

I really enjoyed my first Tes SEND Show. It was a great opportunity to meet other professionals and families from the SEND community and share the work that CENMAC does.

It was fantastic to share our experiences with the charities Electric Umbrella and Learn and Thrive, who also aim to support families and professionals by sharing resources and creating workshop opportunities for young people with SEND, in the same way our service does.

Joe Fletcher-Herbert

The TES Show is an excellent opportunity to learn about the existing players in provision, but also to interact with various start-ups and new ventures that we may not have encountered. For example, Sensepilot, an access intervention for assigning computer inputs to up to 35 distinct facial expressions configured to generic laptop cameras, without additional hardware requirements.

TES is also an excellent opportunity to catch up with provision on a national level, and to see what sort of similar/adjacent services work in different areas of the country. 

Tiimo app

The Tiimo app

Khamani – Student Ambassador

As CENMAC’s student ambassador this is the 3rd time I had the opportunity to attend Tes SEND Show. I enjoyed talking to people who visited the CENMAC stand and telling them about how CENMAC has supported me throughout my time at school and now also at college where I’m studying film and TV production.

It was also an opportunity to catch up with some of the assistive technology companies that CENMAC works closely with and invite them to our annual event Communication Works!

I am also a young entrepreneur and have created a company called KJ’s Craft Time. I came up with the idea during the second Covid lockdown in 2021. I wanted to make crafts that would be creative and fun, and educational. I want other children and young people with special educational needs to know that just because they may have a disability doesn’t mean that they can’t achieve great things! 

It was great to meet Jonathan Bryan author of the book Eye Can Write and campaigner for the charity Teach Us Too which promotes the right for all children to be taught to read and write.   

CENMAC Student ambassador Khamani with Jonathan Bryan author of ‘Eye Can Write’ and campaigner for the charity Teach Us Too

CENMAC Student ambassador Khamani with Jonathan Bryan author of ‘Eye Can Write’ and campaigner for the charity Teach Us Too

Mary

I was fortunate in being invited to a very special demo the day before the show by a French company who have developed a product which helps those with dyslexia to read more easily. Lexilens is a pair of glasses which when activated produces an indiscernible flickering, making text appear sharper and clearer. It is especially helpful for anyone with dyslexia who finds that the words or letters are reversed or move around on the page when reading. At the show I requested a pair for the CENMAC team to try, and have so far tested in schools with a few people, but would like to try it out with more. If you, or someone you know, have dyslexia and experience letter reversals, jumbled text or moving of letters or words when reading, and would like to try the glasses, please email me at mlong@cenmac.com with the subject ‘Lexilens’.

Maureen

I was so busy on the CENMAC stand that I didn’t manage to see any of the talks this year, but for me, the highlight was the opportunity to meet so many SEN professionals who I normally only meet in an email or a phone call. The importance of putting faces to names is really important for building trusting and productive relationships. It was also really useful to engage with other similar services on a national level, and to see how lucky schools in the London area really are to have access to the range of support and technology that we can provide.

We look forward to seeing everyone again next year (or hopefully before)! If you have any questions about the services that CENMAC provides please do not hesitate to get in contact and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Lexilens glasses

Lexilens glasses